February 24, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 24.02.2016, 12:15
A first group of 15 refugees from Greece and Italy are to arrive in Romania in early March, under the EU relocation quota system. They will be accommodated in Galati, eastern Romania. Romania will have to receive at least 4,180 refugees in 2016 and 2017. Six centers have been set in Romania for refugees and asylum-seekers, but more suchlike centers are needed so that the country may cope with the total 6,200 refugees it will have to accommodate in the following years. According to data released by migration officials, the capacity of these centers is of only 15 hundred people.
The miners in the Jiu Valley (in central-western Romania) continued protests, on Wednesday, against the plan to restructure the Hunedoara Energy Compound. The miners claim the compound’s management has not presented them with concrete solutions to avoid the accelerated closing down of the mines, and that their jobs are not guaranteed. The Hunedoara Energy Compound has more than 6 thousand employees in the Lonea, Lupeni, Livezeni and Vulcan mines and at the thermal power plants of Mintia and Paroşeni. After accumulating debts worth almost 1.7 billion lei that is about 380 million euros, the energy compound was declared insolvent.
The former Romanian euro MEP, Social-Democrat Adrian Severin was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for bribe taking and influence peddling. The sentence is not yet definitive. Severin said he would appeal the decision and fight to prove his innocence. According to prosecutors, Adrian Severin accepted a promise from two Sunday Times journalists who offered him 100,000 euros per year in order to lobby for amendments in the specialised committees of the European Parliament. Another two MEPs from Slovenia and Austria who also accepted bribes, stepped down from their positions, but Severin refused to do so.
The Romanian Senate approved the request for the prosecution of the former deputy prime minister and interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, at present a senator of the National Union for the Progress of Romania. He is being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for abuse of office in a second case in which former officials of the Interior Ministry are also being investigated. In a different case, the Chamber of Deputies approved the National Anti-Corruption Directorate’s request for temporarily remanding in custody Nicolae Păun, a representative of the Rroma community in Romania’s Parliament. Păun together with MP Mădălin Voicu allegedly masterminded a plan through which they embezzled more than 6 million euros destined to the Rroma community.
The Romanian tennis player, Monica Niculescu, 37th in the WTA classification, on Wednesday lost the match against the Polish Agnieszka Radwanska, world’s number 3 and the tournament’s 3rd seed, in the eighth finals of the Doha tournament. In the same stage of the competition, world’s no. 4 and the tournament’s 2nd seed, Romanian Simona Halep was defeated by the Russian Elena Vesnina (WTA 118th ranked) in the second round. Halep lost the first match at the 3rd consecutive tournament, after she exited the first round of the Australian Open, then the eighth finals of the Dubai tournament and now the second round of the Doha tournament. Since the beginning of the year, the Romanian player has scored three victories and has been defeated 5 times, and will most likely lose the 4th place in the world ranking.
The Romanian state collected, in January, more than 16.5 million euros following the trading, on the EU common auction platform, of certificates for the emission of greenhouse gases, the Public Finance Ministry informs. Romania started participating in the EU scheme of trading certificates upon its EU accession on January 1, 2007. According to data provided by the Finance Ministry, the certificates’ trading scheme within the EU was applied in a first stage for the period 2005-2007, the second stage covering the period 2008-2012. The third stage of lasts for 8 years and will cover the period January 1, 2013 — December 31, 2020.
The leftist pro-Russian parties enjoy the greatest percentage of confidence among the population of the Republic of Moldova, while the governing parties will not exceed the electoral threshold to enter Parliament if elections were held next Sunday, an opinion survey shows. Our Party, of the controversial businessman Renato Usatîi, is credited with 19.8% of the votes being followed by the Party of Socialists of Igor Dodon. Besides the two parties militating for a rapprochement with Russia, exceeding the 6% threshold will be two parties — the Dignity and Truth Platform Party, the organizer of the anti-government protests in Chisinau, with 8.3% of the votes and the Initiative Group led by the former education minister Maia Sandu, with 6.2% of the votes. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)
