24 January, 2017 UPDATE

President Klaus Iohannis calls referendum on fight against corruption./ Bucharest to host international conference on role played by majority and opposition in democratic society./ Romanian film producer Ada Solomon enters Oscar race.

Newsroom, 24.01.2017, 17:56

Union of Romanian Principalities. Romania and Romanian communities abroad on
Tuesday celebrated the 158th anniversary of the Union of the
Romanian Principalities. On the 24th of January 1859, Alexandru Ioan
Cuza, who, one week earlier, had been elected ruler of Moldavia, was also
unanimously elected by the Elective Assembly of Bucharest ruler of Wallachia
and thus proclaimed ruler of the United Principalities. This represented the de
facto union of the two countries inhabited by Romanians. Three years later, on
the 24th of January 1862, this union was recognised internationally
and the new state was named Romania. The reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza
(1859-1866) laid the institutional foundations of modern Romania through a
series of radical reforms. In 1918, the process for the creation of a Romanian
nation state ended with the union with the Kingdom of Romania of the historical
provinces with a majority Romanian population that had until then been
controlled by neighbouring multinational empires. After World War Two, however,
Romania lost the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina.

Referendum. President Klaus Iohannis has called a referendum in which citizens will
be able to express their views with regard to the continuation of the fight
against corruption and ensuring the integrity of public office. On Monday night, the president said the
government’s intention to pass two emergency ordinances granting collective
pardon and amending the criminal code was never discussed during the election
campaign for the parliamentary elections on the 11th of December,
but that the Romanian people have a right to express their views on the
subject. The Social Democratic Party, the senior partner in the ruling
coalition, says the president’s move is politically motivated and an attempt to
win back popular support after the opposition lost the elections. The National
Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, in opposition, said they supported
the president’s move. Last Sunday, Klaus Iohannis took part in a massive
protest held in Bucharest against the government’s proposals. Rallies were also
held in other cities across Romania. Justice minister Florin Iordache says the
changes proposed are needed in order to ease overcrowding in prisons and
harmonise the legislation with some Constitutional Court rulings.

Strasbourg visit. Romania’s president said an international
conference would be held in Bucharest on the 6th of April to discuss
the role played by the majority and the opposition in a genuinely democratic
society. The conference will be attended by the Council of Europe secretary
general Thorbjorn Jagland, who had talks with the Romanian president on Tuesday
in Strasbourg. The two officials voiced their concern about the difficult
political environment in Europe, which has seen a rise in extremism, populism,
xenophobia, intolerance and nationalism and attempts to act against fundamental
democratic values. We agreed that it is essential to act firmly, including by
using the Council of Europe’s instruments, to combat these phenomena, said
Klaus Iohannis. The Romanian president also presented the achievements of
Romania’s current presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance. Earlier, at a ceremony to commemorate International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, he said it is everyone’s permanent duty to recognise the
mistakes of the past and honour the memory of innocent victims. He expressed
his conviction that the Alliance together with the Council of Europe can create
a pilot programme to train public workers with respect to combating Holocaust
denial and anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, the Romanian president will address
the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.

EU. The
minister delegate for European Affairs in the Romanian Foreign Ministry Ana
Birchall, who attended an informal meeting of her EU counterparts in Malta,
said she supported going ahead with major dossiers such as migration, the
consolidation of the Union’s internal security and its neighbourhood and
enlargement policy. Romania will continue to contribute actively to the
discussions about the future of the European Union and stand by the member
states supporting European integration, writes a foreign ministry press
release.

Oscars 2017.
Ada Solomon is the first Romanian film producer to be in the race for an Oscar
for best foreign language film with the production Toni Erdmann directed by
Maren Ade, Hi Film Productions said in a press release on Tuesday. The film,
which was almost entirely shot in Romania, is the only title from 2016 to be
included by BBC Culture among the 100 greatest films of the 21st
century. I find it extraordinary that more than 700,000 viewers in Germany and
more than 500,000 in France had a chance, through this film, to become familiar
with a whole series of Romanian actors and a key character of the story: the
city of Bucharest, an extremely powerful presence in the film and from an
entirely different perspective than we have been accustomed to see on the big
screen so far, said producer Ada Solomon. Toni Erdman was first presented at
the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it won the FIPRESCI international
film critics’ award. The film is about Winfried, an eccentric father and practical joker now
retired who makes a surprise visit to his daughter, Ines, a corporate career
woman posted in Bucharest. (Trans.: C. Mateescu)