A roundup of domestic and international news
GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE - On Thursday, three Romanian ministers announced their resignation during the meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition in Romania. The three are the Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development Minister Sevil Shhaideh, the Minister Delegate for European Funds Rovana Plumb and the Transport Minister Razvan Cuc. The executive committee will convene again on Friday, to discuss potential replacements. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose, the one who promoted the idea of a government reshuffle, has held talks over the past days with both president Klaus Iohannis and the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea. Tudose has stated that the targeted ministers are those with legal problems and those who have not been efficient. Both Shhaideh and Plumb are being prosecuted for corruption offences. The minister in charge with liaising with Parliament, Viorel Ilie, member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, is in a similar situation. Party representatives announced on Thursday that the party was not interested in replacing him.
PACE - On Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution which reads that Ukraine was wrong in passing the new Education Law and will therefore have to implement the recommendations that are to be formulated by the Venice Commission. The statement was made by Korodi Attila, member of the Romanian Delegation to the European body. He has also stated that Ukraine must observe the European standards, in particular the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The reason for the debate held at the Parliamentary Assembly, proposed by the Romanian delegation with support from another five national delegations, was the new Education Law adopted in Ukraine, which drastically restricts access to mother tongue education for ethnic minorities. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroskeno had promised that the Kiev authorities would introduce all the recommendations made by the Venice Commission into the law and would observe the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Nearly half a million ethnic Romanians live in the neighbouring country, mainly in the Romanian territories annexed by the USSR in 1940, further to an ultimatum, and taken over by Ukraine as a successor state in 1991.
BREXIT - The European Council is the only place where Romania will present its stand on Brexit, said on Thursday the Minister Delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu. According to him, no Romanian official has presented a formal stand regarding the Brexit negotiations. Minister Negrescu also stated that the main goal of the Bucharest authorities with regard to these negotiations was to ensure the rights of the over 300,000 Romanians living in the United Kingdom. The clarification was made against the background of the British daily The Times saying that Romania, France and Germany have called for the blocking of new negotiations chapters, until an agreement is reached on the rights of foreign citizens in Great Britain.
AUTOMOTIVE- President Klaus Iohannis and PM Mihai Tudose took part on Thursday in the launch of the new Ford Ecosport model, at the Ford plant in Craiova, southern Romania. The head of state said that, by attending the event, he wanted to convey a strong message of support for the automotive industry in Romania, which is growing increasingly competitive and has a better and better image in the European market. Since it took over the plant in 2008, Ford has invested over one billion euros in the production unit in Romania. More than 2,800 people are employed by Ford Craiova. The biggest carmaker in Romania is Automobile Dacia, based in Pitesti, in the south, taken over by the French group Renault in 1999. Over 13,500 people are working for this company, which has a turnover of over 4.3 billion euros.
SPAIN- Spain celebrated its National Day on Thursday, amid tensions between the separatist authorities of Catalonia and the central government in Madrid. PM Mariano Rajoy gave the regional Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont until Monday to give up plans to declare the region's independence, otherwise Catalonia would see its local autonomy suspended. Rajoy accused the Catalan government of having generated one of the most difficult times in Spain's democracy and of having staged a very dangerous attack against the Constitution, the unity of Spain, the Catalan state and, most importantly, against Spain's people living together.
MOLDOVA- The European Union announced it would not grant the Republic of Moldova the remaining 28 million euros under the reform programme, intended for changes in the field of the judiciary. The Union believes the Government in Chisinau has failed to meet the conditions requested by Brussels. The EU delegation in Moldova mentions in a news release that the authorities in Moldova have shown poor commitment for reform, have not allotted enough funding and staff and, as a result, progress in terms of judicial reforms has been insufficient. Last week, PM Pavel Filip announced Moldova would no longer receive this year's installment of the 100 million euro aid programme provided by the EU. He admitted that the measure had been prompted by Chisinau's decision to change the election system for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, in such a manner as to favour the major parties.
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