February 3, 2015

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Mihai Pelin, 03.02.2015, 12:00

Republic of Moldova’s acting Prime Minister Iurie Leanca on Friday will submit to Parliament his government line-up. The media in Chisinau headlines that at present it is not certain whether Leanca will gather the lawfully required number of votes. A mere 42 deputies, liberals and liberal-democrats support Leanca’s candidacy, 9 votes less than the minimum required number. The Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party’s former governing coalition partners, the liberals headed by Republic of Moldova’s former president Mihai Ghimpu stated they might cast their vote in favour for the future Government, provided they know the names of cabinet members. According to political analysts, the Liberal Party will not agree ministers facing corruption charges, or with attitudes hostile to neighbouring Romania. The head of the European Union’s mission to Chisinau Pirkka Papiola has stated Brussels’ support for Republic of Moldova depends only on the new government’s future course of action, and not on that government’s political leanings. Republic of Moldova in 2014 signed association and free-trade agreements with the European Union, where it hopes to gain membership in 2020.

Romanian businessman Adrian Sirbu Monday night was detained by prosecutors for 24 hours, facing charges of tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement. The founder in the 1990s of a very popular TV station, for many years Adrian Sarbu has been rated as one of Romania’s most influential media moguls. Several other persons are under investigation in the same file, three of them being kept in custody.

The Parliament in Bucharest has today taken note of George Maior’s resignation as head of intelligence. According to procedures, the position has to be officially vacated for President Johannis to make a new appointment, in line with his constitutional prerogatives. Maior has been in that position since 2006, and resigned a week ago, when he levelled harsh criticism at the Constitutional Court’s decision to rule unconstitutional the law on cyber-security, part of a national security package. In another development, on Monday interim director Florian Coldea, Maior’s former deputy, will be heard by the intelligence committee in Parliament, after being implicated in several corruption cases by MP Elena Udrea, who is currently under criminal investigation.

The joint IMF, World Bank and European Commission delegation headed by Andrea Schechter is still in Bucharest, for their assessment of the precautionary loan agreement Romania signed with the international lenders. The progress of the economic data, the privatization stage and the Tax Code are high on the agenda of talks, to be held with Romanian officials by February 10. A hot topic on the agenda is the draft law on personal insolvency, against the backdrop of the recent appreciation of the Swiss Franc against the national currency. It is the 10th stand-by agreement Bucharest has signed with the IMF in the last 23 years, and the third one Romania has called for, since the outbreak of the financial crisis.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta in Bucharest has today stated the project for the undersea energy transportation cable linking Romania to Turkey was a strategic one, as it could generate a major foreign market for electricity produced in Romania. The project stipulates the installation of an undersea energy transportation cable from Romania to Turkey via the Black Sea, with a capacity of 800 MW and a Voltage of 500 KV. The cable is some 400 kilometers long and the total investment stands at around 519 million Euro.

Serbia did not commit genocide against the Croats in the early 1990s during the war that led to the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, the International Court of Justice in the Hague has ruled on Tuesday. In July 1999, Croatia submitted an appeal to the Court, accusing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia — whose lawful successor Serbia is, at the moment — of “ethnic cleansing” among the Croat population in Krajina. According to the authorities in Zagreb, the action perpetrated by the Serbian army against the Croats left around 20,000 people dead, 50,000 others wounded, while more than 3,000 people were reported missing. The aftermath also includes a tremendous amount of damages. In turn, Serbia also demanded reparations, accusing Croatia of genocide among the Serbs and other ethnic groups.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in Rome today will be holding talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the Finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan. The visit has occurred as part of the European tour the freshly-instated radical-left Greek government began this past Monday, in a bid to persuade Europe’s most powerful countries to consent to the Greek government’s renegotiation plans for the country’ s foreign debt, and to the relaxation of the austerity measures the international lenders’ troika imposed on Greece. However, pundits fear Greece will enter a financial deadlock if later this month they break up with the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank. A rift with international lenders is highly likely to deny Greece the third loan, worth seven billion Euro.