January 29, 2014 UPDATE

A look at some of the top stories in Romania today

România Internațional, 29.01.2015, 12:15

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, speaking at the annual meeting with foreign diplomats in Bucharest, said that joining the Schengen area and adopting the Euro were two of the central aims of his term in office. He said Romania fulfils the requirements for Schengen integration and that any doubts in this regard are politically motivated. He also emphasised that the threats to security in the wider Black Sea area enhance Romania’s strategic role in promoting peace and security on the eastern flank of both the European Union and NATO.

A team of experts from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission headed by Andrea Schechter is in Bucharest to assess Romania’s stand-by loan agreement with its lenders. The discussions will focus on the economic progress, privatisation and the tax code. One priority is the bill on personal bankruptcy, after the crisis caused by the evaluation of the Swiss franc. According to the head of the Fiscal Council, the most difficult discussions will be in the area of structural reform, as not much has been achieved with regard to the privatisation of state companies.

MP Elena Udrea, the head of the People’s Movement Party in opposition, has been indicted for money laundering and lying on her revenue statement. Judicial sources claim that between 2009 and 2013 Udrea declared on her revenue statement the purchase of several pieces of property that could not be justified by her salary as a minister, MP and university teacher. According to the Anti-Corruption Directorate, Dorin Cocos, who was married to Udrea at the time and is now in detention as part of the Microsoft case, is guilty of influence peddling, and that the loans he issued were a front for a 9 million euro bribe. Elena Udrea is suspected of knowing about the bribe. The Microsoft license scandal involves nine former ministers from different governments, as well as business people, with damages to the state amounting to tens of millions of euros. Also on Thursday, the former economy minister Adriean Videanu was detained by anti-corruption prosecutors for complicity to abuse of office.

Consolidating economic governance within the European Union, the Economic and Monetary Union and the latest developments in the euro zone were the main topics discussed by the Romanian state secretary for European affairs George Ciamba with the European commissioner Pierre Moscovici. According to a foreign ministry release, Ciamba reiterated Romania’s support for the consolidation of the economic and financial framework across the Union, given the country’s goal to join the euro zone. The Romanian official also had talks with the European commissioner Corina Cretu on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

EU interior ministers gather in Latvia’s capital Riga to work on the details of an anti-terrorism plan, which may start being implemented next month. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent, the talks in Riga focus on the creation of a passenger name record and introducing controls of EU residents on internal Schengen borders. It is believed that over 3,000 radicalised European Union nationals have so far joined Jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and that 30% of them have returned to their countries of origin.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu takes part in a special meeting of EU foreign ministers. Talks focus on the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine and aim at introducing further sanctions against Russia. Since April 2014, the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian rebels has left 5,000 dead, according to the OSCE.

Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti appointed standing prime minister Iurie Leanca of the Liberal Democratic Party as the head of the future government. The Democratic and Liberal Democratic parties last Friday signed an agreement to form a new minority government coalition called the Alliance for a European Moldova. Since the Liberal Party did not join the alliance, the latter holds only 42 seats of Parliament’s 101. Some sources claim that the Party of Communists may actually vote in favour of a pro-European minority government.