August 19, 2015
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Newsroom, 19.08.2015, 12:00
The Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta, was heard this morning at the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, in a case involving fraud in the Rovinari–Turceni power complex. He is charged with forgery of private documents, accessory to tax evasion and money laundering. On June 15, Ponta was subpoenaed for hearings, after ten days before the Directorate had announced that Ponta, a lawyer at the time of the events, was prosecuted for his involvement in the case. Ponta was unable to appear at the time, because he was undergoing knee surgery in Turkey. Also charged in the same case is the Social Democratic Senator and former transport minister Dan Sova.
PM Victor Ponta announced that for the time being the budget only allows for an increase of salaries in the public healthcare system. He mentioned that last year an agreement was also signed with the teaching staff, regarding an increase of their salaries. These explanations came after the Government announced that salaries in the healthcare sector will be raised by 25%, starting on October 1, an announcement criticised by the Opposition and followed by similar demands from other categories of public sector employees. We’ll have more on this after the news.
In Romania, farming works will have to be suspended because of the rainfalls forecast for the coming days. According to the National Meteorology Agency forecast for August 19th to 25th, heavy rainfalls, thunderstorms and strong wind are expected across the country. These follow the longest drought of the past 50 years, which has destroyed crops on hundreds of thousands of hectares in Romania. According to farmers, losses exceed 2 billion euros.
Romania exported in the first 6 months of the year goods and services in the amount of 27 billion euro, according to the statistics office of the European Union — EUROSTAT. During the same period, Romania’s imports exceeded 30 billion euro, taking the country’s trade balance for the first half of the year to a negative 3 billion euro. Romania’s foreign trade is relatively balanced as regards the partners from outside the EU, with a 100 million euro surplus, whereas its intra-EU trade balance is negative, reaching a deficit of nearly 3.5 billion euro.
Romania and three other NATO member countries—Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria—are hosting for 4 weeks the largest allied airborne training session since the end of the Cold War, the American armed forces announced. “Swift Response 15” is designed to help allied “high-readiness forces” act as one and “demonstrate the alliances capacity to rapidly deploy and operate in support of maintaining a strong and secure Europe,” the aforementioned source said. Taking part in the drills are nearly 5,000 troops from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, UK and the USA. According to the US Army, it is for the first time that the US 82nd Airborne Division operates in Europe since the NATO support operations in Kosovo in 1999.
The rotation of the Romanian troops has begun in Afghanistan, where the Romanians are in charge with the security of the Kandahar airport in the south, the largest base of the international coalition in that country. The Transylvanian Dragons of the Dej Battalion are taking over the responsibilities of the Posada Battalion, who conducted patrol missions for nearly six months. They will work together with the American partners and the Afghan national army, which is to gradually take over full responsibility for the security of their country. The International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan officially concluded its mission last year, after 13 years of fighting in a country that remains affected by a violent Islamist insurgence. Since 2001, ISAF has lost nearly 3,500 troops here. As of January this year, only 12,500 international military are left in the country to assist the Afghan troops in their fight against the Taliban.
