January 30, 2015 UPDATE

For a roundup of domestic and international events, click here.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 30.01.2015, 12:15

UKRAINE — Romania supports taking fresh sanctions on Russia and separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, unless real progress is reported on the ground and at the negotiations table, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Friday. The Romanian official attended the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels. EU officials decided to extend the current sanctions on Moscow until September, also adding new names on the list of Ukrainian and Russian nationals who are banned from entering community space. In another development, tens of people, mostly civilians, were killed on Thursday and Friday in clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels. Over 5,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in April 2014.

TALKS — Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa and his German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen on Friday had a telephone conversation. The agenda for talks focused on the security developments on NATO’s eastern flank, against the backdrop of the armed conflict in Ukraine and ahead of NATO’s ministerial meeting scheduled for next week in Brussels. Also the two officials highlighted the importance of top-level political and military dialogue between Bucharest and Berlin, the Defence Ministry reports.

ARRESTS — MP Elena Udrea, a former Regional Development and Tourism Minister and a presidential candidate on behalf of the People’s Movement Party in opposition in the November 2014 elections announced on Friday she filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Directorate against Prosecutor General Laura Kovesi and Romanian Intelligence Service interim chief Florin Coldea. Udrea told HotNews.ro news agency that she lobbied with Social-Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta to appoint Kovesi at the helm of the Directorate. In addition, Udrea is accusing Coldea for asking her former husband, Dorin Cocos, some 500 thousand euros to support a private television station controlled by businessman Sebastian Ghita, a former Social Democrat MP. The statements follow after on Thursday anti-corruption prosecutors launched criminal investigations against Udrea in the so-called Microsoft case, also investigating other former Ministers and businessmen, including her ex husband. Udrea is accused of having obtained undue benefits from illegal activities.

SWISS FRANC – After talks with commercial banks, Romania’s Central Bank governor, Mugur Isarescu on Friday announced the Central Bank had accepted the conversion of credits from Swiss francs into the local currency at the present exchange rate. The Bank also stands for individual solutions to this crisis not for general ones. Isarescu’s statement comes against debates triggered by the latest historic appreciation of the franc against the euro after the Swiss Central Bank decided to eliminate the exchange cap. The move has affected 75 thousand Romanians with credits in the Swiss currency.

NATO — Romania is one of the six East-European countries where NATO will be deploying minor forces, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Friday. NATO will also be deploying troops in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria. These countries will be key to linking national and NATO forces. Next week NATO is due to announce the countries that will contribute several thousands of military who will be trained and deployed on NATO’s Eastern Borders, Stoltenberg has announced. We recall that NATO decided to set up a rapid response force in Eastern Europe to cope with Russia’ ingressions in Ukraine.

CELEBRATION — Great Britain on Friday marked 50 years since the funeral ceremony of Winston Churchill, ‘The Old Lion’ who dared defy Adolf Hitler. Churchill passed way on January 24, 1965 in London, at the age of 90 years. His funeral took place on January 30, was attended by Queen Elizabeth and leaders from 100 nations. Broadcast live, the ceremony was televised to 350 million viewers worldwide. Winston Churchill left behind a free, safe and proud country, for which we should be forever grateful, British Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

GOVERNMENT IN ATHENS — The new Greek Government will not cooperate with the country’s international lenders and will not observe its austerity program, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has told Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who’s paying an official visit to Athens. In turn, the EU official said Greece must observe the terms of the current agreement with the Eurozone, adding that a unilateral decision in this respect would impact progress reported so far. We recall that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the radical left-wing Syriza party, won last week’s elections, promising he would renounce austerity measures and re-negotiate Greece’s huge outstanding foreign debt.