December 10, 2014
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 10.12.2014, 12:00
The Romanian government plans to finalise the budget bill for 2015 and submit it to Parliament by Friday. After a week of talks with Romania’s foreign lenders, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the World Bank, the government agreed on a budget deficit level of 1.83% of the GDP. A final vote on the budget bill is expected on the 21st of December.
The National Anticorruption Directorate has requested the 30-day temporary arrest of the mayor of the southern town of Pitesti, Tudor Pendiuc, a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party. Already under house arrest, Pendiuc violated a court ruling according to which he was not to contact the other persons involved in the crimes of which he is accused, namely bribe taking and abuse of office. Other officials under temporary house arrest in a different case are the head of the Hunedoara County Council Mihnea Molot and his former deputy Tiberiu Balint, both of whom are members of the National Liberal Party in opposition. Today, the head of the Timis County Council, the Social Democrat Titu Bojin has been brought before the Anticorruption Directorate as part of an investigation into how European funds were granted to county mayors.
Dozens of people have been evacuated as a precaution measure from a region in southern Romania, where a red code alert for flooding is in place. A yellow code alert has been issued for most regions in the south of the country until Thursday afternoon. Due to heavy rain and river floods, hundreds of homes and thousands of hectares of land have been flooded and landslides and travel disruptions have been reported in this area.
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova has validated the outcome of the parliamentary elections held on the 30th of November and the list of elected MPs. Earlier, the Court rejected the case of the pro-Moscow leftist opposition who challenged the results of the elections. With a majority of 55 seats out of Parliament’s 101, the three parties in the ruling pro-European coalition are having talks on the formation of a government by the time the new Parliament meets for the first time, later this month. The current Moldovan government led by the Liberal Democrat Iurie Leanca hopes Moldova will achieve the status of EU candidate country in 2017 and join the Union in 2020.
The ministers for energy from Romania, Bulgaria and Greece on Tuesday signed a statement in Brussels requesting the support of the European Union for the creation of new gas infrastructure in the region. The move comes one week after Russia stopped the building of the Southstream gas pipeline meant to deliver Russian gas to southern Europe as of 2015, while avoiding Ukraine as a transit country. Romania, Bulgaria and Greece say they wish to create a new “Vertical Corridor” connecting the three countries and ensuring uninterrupted gas supplies based on Black Sea offshore reserves.
The Romanian women’s handball side drew on Tuesday against Denmark 29-all, in their second Group B match at the European Handball Championship hosted by Hungary and Croatia. Following their defeat at the hands of Norway in their first match, Romania only have one point ahead of their last group match against Ukraine on Thursday.
Romania’s football champions Steaua Bucharest are training for their last Europa League Group J game as they are scheduled to face Dinamo Kiev on Thursday on home turf. Also in Group J, the Danish side Aalborg will meet Rio Ave, in Portugal. Topping the group with 12 points, Dinamo Kiev have already secured their qualification to the round of 32. With 7 points, Steaua still have a chance to qualify if they win against Dinamo Kiev and if the Danish side, who have 9 points, either lose or draw against Rio Ave. Also on Thursday, another Romanian team, Astra Giurgiu, with no chances left to qualify, face Red Bull Salzburg in their last Europa League game. Salzburg lead Group D with 13 points, followed by Celtic Glasgow with 8, Astra with 4 and Dinamo Zagreb with 3. The two highest ranked teams go into the round of 32.
