November 20, 2014

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Mihai Pelin, 20.11.2014, 14:00

Romania’s national football team this month will be climbing up to position 15 according to FIFA rankings, which is the national squad’s best position since September 2009. Skipping six notches in world rankings has occurred as Romania clinched a 2-nil home win in the friendly confrontation against Denmark, added to which were the bracing results counting towards Euro 2016 preliminaries. The 1-nil win against Greece and the 2-nil win in the game against Finland, both away from home, followed by the 1-all home draw against Hungary and the 2-nil win against Northern Ireland, also on home turf, earned Romania the top position in preliminary Group F. In the last two years, Romania has skipped 42 notches in FIFA rankings. We recall that in September 2012 Romania was 57th-placed in world rankings, a record low for the national squad, while the national team’s record high position, the 3rd according to FIFA rankings occurred in 1997.

A three-party meeting is being held in Chisinau today, bringing together the presidents of the Republic of of Moldova, Ukraine and Poland, Nicolai Timofti, Petro Porosheko and Bronislaw Komorowski, respectively. High on the talks’ agenda are hot issues at world level, as well as Ukraine and Republic of Moldova’s joint work regarding the two countries’ European integration efforts. The three-party talks agenda also includes stepping up negotiations on the 5+2 format focusing on the Transdniester regulation. According to analysts, the visit to Chisinau of Ukraine and Poland’s presidents ahead on the parliamentary election on November 30 is a message of support for Republic of Moldova’s European integration efforts.

The candidate of the Christian Liberal alliance, Romania’s main opposition force, center-right mayor of Sibiu Klaus Johannis got 54.43% of the votes in favor, in the second round of the presidential runoff held this past Sunday in Romania. His contender, the candidate of the ruling coalition made of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, incumbent Prime Minister Victor Ponta got 45,58% of the votes in favor, according to the final poll results the Central Electoral Bureau has made public today. Voter turnout stood at 64,10%. All told, the number of Romanians from abroad who went to the polling stations stood at 380 thousand people or thereabouts. The final report of the election results has already been dispatched to the Constitutional Court. The law stipulates that tomorrow at the latest the Constitutional Court of Romania is to validate presidential election results and will have to get them published in the Official Journal. Once the aforementioned set of procedures is completed, the newly-elected president Klaus Johannis will be entitled to take office after December 21st, when the incumbent president’s term in office ends.

A joint IMF and European Commission experts mission will be in Bucharest over December 2nd and 10th to initiate talks with Romanian authorities on the draft budget for 2015. Earlier this month, the IMF reminded that Romania had made a commitment to continue its fiscal consolidation situation, and called on the authorities to refrain from jeopardizing the progress that has been made in recent years with respect to expenditure control. In turn, the European Commission has warned that the Romanian government would have no choice other than to increase taxes and cut spending, to balance out the slashed incomes forecast for 2015 on account of the reduced Social Security Contributions, the special constructions tax and also on account of excises. If the government fails to do so, the budget deficit will increase to 2.8 % of the GDP. Subsequent to joint talks held with the international financial institutions representatives, the draft budget law for 2015 will be subject to public debate and will then be dispatched to the Government, in order to be approved. We recall that in the autumn of 2013 Romania signed a precautionary loan agreement with the IMF and the European Commission, standing at 4 billion euro The agreement expires next year.

The Gaudeamus Book and Education Fair Fair got underway in Bucharest, with Radio Romania being the organizer of the event. Until this coming Sunday, visitors can have the chance to participate in 750 events, a record number in the history of the fair. The present edition of the fair, which is the 21st, will see more than 300 Romanian and foreign publishers, printing houses, education and cultural institutions taking part in the event and presenting books for all needs. Russia is the guest of honor this year. On the inaugural day yesterday, more than 10 thousand visitors came to the fair.

Romania’s General Prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu has today announced the Prosecutor’s Office will open investigations into the way presidential election was held in the Diaspora and that criminal investigation has also been opened over improper interference in the voting process. Nitu also stated he received a large number of complaints targeting several ministers and representatives of the authorities, who, according to claimants, were directly responsible for the election process. Voting procedure problems in the Diaspora prompted Romania’ s Foreign Affairs minister Titus Corlatean to submit his resignation after the presidential election’s first round. Corlatean was soon replaced with Teodor Melescanu who also handed in his resignation after the second round. We recall that flawed voting preparations prevented thousands of Romanian citizens from abroad from casting their votes in both rounds of the presidential ballot, on November 2nd and 16th. In Paris and Turin, riot police used tear gas to scatter protesters, angry with their being unable to cast their vote.

Romania’s Supreme Court will today be holding a debate over anti-corruption prosecutors request that deputies Ion Dinita of the Conservative Party and Ioan Adam of the ruling Social Democratic Party be kept in custody, as Parliament has lifted immunity for the two MPs. Dinita and Adam have been facing charges of corruption, Yesterday, two other MPs, former Social Democrat Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu and former Secretary general of the government, former Social Democrat Party member and current member of the National Union for the Progress of Romania Serban Mhailescu have been stripped of their parliamentary immunity. Just like in the case of seven other former members of the Government, corruption crimes suspicion looms over Andronescu and Mihailescu, in the so-called Microsoft file, dealing with favoritism in the granting of IT licenses. Also yesterday, president Traian Absscu approved the National anti-Corruption Directorate’s request that criminal investigation procedure should be opened in the case of former Liberal minister Cristian David, following bribe-taking allegations.