December 9, 2016 UPDATE

December 9th marked the anniversary of 25 years since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.

Newsroom, 09.12.2016, 12:15

MAASTRICHT — December 9th marked the anniversary of 25 years since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which set the basis for the European Union. The moment was marked on Friday in the Dutch city of Maastricht by a special conference, attended by the presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament Jean Claude Juncker and Martin Schultz respectively, as well as by the former president of the European Council Herman van Rompuy. In a speech delivered on this occasion, the European Commission President, Jean Claude Junker, said: “We cannot explain the European Union, the European project, simply by going back to history. That is important, but if we want to convince younger people that the European Union is a must today and in the years to come, we have to explain European history in a perspective. Those who do think that time has come to deconstruct, to put Europe in pieces, to subdivide us in national divisions, are totally wrong. We will not exist as single nations without the European Union,” Junker said. On December 9, 1991, the heads of state and government of the 12 countries that made up the then community bloc, among whom the French Francois Mitterrand and the German Helmuth Kohl, agreed with turning the European Economic Community into the European Union. The agreement was signed in 1992 and came into force one year later.

ROMANIAN ELECTIONS — Romanians will go to the polls on Sunday, to elect their parliament members. Over 6,500 people are running for the 466 seats in the Romanian Parliament, 136 senators and 330 deputies. Authorities say that all measures have been taken for the smooth running of the elections. Thus, a computerised monitoring system will automatically signal any multiple voting attempt. The vote counting will be recorded on camera. Romanians in the Diaspora can cast their vote at one of the polling stations abroad. Also, the postal voting has been introduced as of this year. The Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, on Friday urged Romanians to go to the polls on Sunday to vote in the parliamentary elections. He said that absenteeism was never a solution.

TERRORISM – The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Friday ruled that Luigi Boicea from Craiova, southern Romania, be taken into custody for 30 days. The young man is accused of Islamist propaganda and for having learned how to commit terrorist attacks. Boicea, aged 18, has visited Islamic State websites, has taken online courses held by jihadists in order to learn how to make bombs and posted videos with people being executed. Prosecutors say that the young man has been trying to contact ISIS leaders to get their support in committing terrorist attacks.

OSCE — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazăr Comănescu, who on Thursday and Friday attended in Hamburg, Germany, the 23rd OSCE ministerial meeting, expressed Bucharest’s firm support for the role assumed by the the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the context of the Ukrainian crisis and of the efforts to solve prolonged conflicts. On Friday, the OSCE member countries agreed on the need for all parties involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine to fulfil their pledge in order to put an end to violence.

IMPEACHMENT – The South Korean President, Park Geun-Hye, was dismissed by her Government. The dismissal motion was initiated on Thursday by the South Korean MP’s and received the approval of 234 lawmakers from a total of 300 members of the National Assembly. The motion suspends Park Geun-Hye’s authority as the president of South Korea. In the motion, Park is accused of violating the Constitution and a number of other offenses ranging from failure to protect people, to corruption and abuse of power. The document was submitted to vote in the National Assembly on Friday morning.

FOOTBALL — Romania’s football champions, Astra Giurgiu, ended in a goalless draw the match held on Thursday evening on home ground against the Italian eleven AS Rome, in their last match of the Europa League groups and have thus qualified for the first time to the round of 32 of the Europa League finals. With 8 points accumulated Astra ended on 2nd place in the group after the Italians. In the same competition, Romania’s vice-champions Steaua Bucharest was defeated 1-2 in an away match against the Spanish team Villareal. With only 6 points the Steaua Bucharest footballers ended on last place of the group and had to leave the competition.

(Translated by Elena Enache)