15 June, 2018

A round-up of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 15.06.2018, 13:35

Visit. The Romanian
prime minister Viorica Dancila is today having talks in Tallinn with Estonia’s
president Kersti
Kaljulaid, her counterpart Jüri Ratas and the Speaker of Parliament Enn Eesmaa.
This is the first visit at this level in the history of political and
diplomatic relations between the two countries since 1991, when Romania
formally recognised the new Baltic sovereign state, until then under Soviet
occupation. On Saturday, prime ministers Dancila and Ratas will be on board the
first flight of the Estonian airways Nordica from Tallinn to Constanta, the
biggest Romanian Black Sea port, where they will attend the inauguration of
Estonia’s Honorary Consulate. On Thursday, Viorica Dancila travelled to Lithuania,
where she had talks with her counterpart Saulius Skvernelis about bilateral trade exchanges and
finding new areas of cooperation, such as IT, energy and agriculture. The two
sides also tackled European issues of common interest.

Conference. As acting president, Romania
is playing host to the Salzburg Forum Ministerial Conference, an informal
assembly of states from Central and Eastern Europe that promotes cooperation on
issues related to internal security. Attending are representatives of the nine
member states, such as six interior ministers, including Romania’s Carmen Dan,
and the Europol director Catherine De Bolle. The Salzburg Forum was founded in
2000 and includes Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Since 2007, the states in the Group of
Friends of the Salzburg Forum, namely Albania, Bosnia and Hertegovina, the
Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, have also been invited to the
meetings, as well as the Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet country with a
majority Romanian-speaking population.

Poll.
Romanians are optimistic about the economic situation in the European Union and
pessimistic about the state of their country’s economy, according to the
results of the Eurobarometer published on Thursday by the European Commission.
31% of Romanians believe the state of the EU economy will improve, while only
27% say the situation of their country’s economy is good at the moment,
compared with the EU average of 49%. Romanians also have more trust in the EU,
namely 52%, than in national institutions.

Drills.
The air base in Campia Tuzlii, in the centre, is today
hosting the 2018 Dacian Eagle exercise, which involves 200 Romanian and 300
American military. The American aircraft participating in the manoevres belong
to the Massachusetts Air National Guard. The exercise, which lasts two months,
is meant to develop bilateral cooperation in the field.

Law. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has today sent the law on
judicial organisation back to Parliament for reexamination. The president says
some of its provisions are unclear and lack coherence and predictability, which
can affect the constitutional requirements and European and international
standards with regard to the independence and good functioning of the judicial
system. Earlier, the president unsuccessfully challenged the law before the
Constitutional Court. The law in question forms part, together with those on
the status of magistrates and the functioning of the Superior Council of
Magistrates, of a wider legislative package through which the ruling coalition is
seeking major changes in the field of justice. Many of these changes have come
under criticism from the president, the opposition, magistrates’ associations
and civil society.