December 8, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 08.12.2014, 12:15
The Romanian PM, the Social Democrat Victor Ponta, announced that on December 15th he will present in Parliament the new government structure. The future government will include members of the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Reformist Party — a dissident liberal group led by the former PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania reiterated on Monday its decision to leave the government coalition in which they held the culture and environment ministries but promised to vote in Parliament for the future Ponta government.
European Commission experts are in Bucharest for a 3-day mission to assess the progress reported by Romania in the fields of justice reform and the anti-corruption fight. The mission is part of the Mechanism of Cooperation and Verification. After meeting the EC experts, the Romanian justice minister, Robert Cazanciuc, said that he hoped the report to be published in early 2015 would point to the progress reported by Romania in these fields and to the continuation of the positive trend in the field of the judiciary.
The US ad-interim charge d’affairs Dean Thompson, the Dutch ambassador Matthijs van Bonzel and the British ambassador Paul Brummell to Bucharest on Monday signed a message of encouragement for Romania on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day. The signatories say that Romania has well-developed systems, legislation and institutions that help prevent and punish corruption acts but that the system continues to be faced with big challenges. The 3 accuse in their message the attacks in the press targeting judges and prosecutors as well as the non-transparent and frequently – changing legislation. They also added that Romania was not alone in its fight against these problems and reiterated their countries’ decision to support Romania in the anti-corruption fight.
Romanian meteorologists on Monday issued a Yellow Code alert for heavy snowfalls, blizzard and glaze valid until Wednesday evening, in 31 counties and the capital city Bucharest. In the south east the windspeed will exceed 55-60 km/hour. Maximum temperatures on Monday ranged from minus 1 degree Celsius to plus 8 degrees.
Romania’s national women’s handball team will take on, Tuesday, the Danish team in their 2nd match of Group B of the European Championship held in Hungary and Croatia. In their first match the Romanians lost, Sunday, to Norway 19- 27. The match held in the Hungarian city of Debrecen, near the border with Romania, was attended by more than one thousand Romanian supporters. In the same group Denmark defeated Ukraine 32-23.
Belgium was paralyzed Monday by a new strike meant to show disapproval of the austerity measures announced by the right-wing government. The economic activity and transports, including international ones, have been seriously disturbed in Brussels and the neighboring areas. Almost half of the flights have been cancelled and the trains linking Belgium to France, the Netherlands and Germany have been suspended. Strikers also blocked access to industrial areas. The strike movement was launched 2 weeks ago and will culminate next Monday with a protest staged across the country. Trade unions denounce, among others, the reform program meant to save 11 billion euros in 5 years.
The 3 parties in the current pro-European government coalition in the Republic of Moldova on Monday continued talks on the principles and regulations for the functioning of the future government. Negotiators told the Radio Romania correspondent to Chisinau that they hoped the government would be formed before the first meeting of Parliament, that is to be held in the 2nd half of this month. In the November 30th parliamentary elections the 3 parties got together 55 of the 101 MP seats. The government led by the liberal Democrat Iurie Leanca hopes that the Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet country with a majority Romanian-speaking population, will obtain the status of EU candidate in 2017 and will become a EU member in 2020.
