January 15, 2017 UPDATE

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu attends the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels./ A committee is to be set up in Bucharest to investigate the budget adjustments made by the Ciolos Government.

Newsroom, 15.01.2017, 12:15

FOREIGN AFFAIRS COUNCIL The new Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu will attend in Brussels on Monday, alongside EU counterparts, the monthly meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, a review of the main topics on the European agenda in the first semester of the 2017 will be made at the meeting. Also, the participants will analyze the recent developments in Syria, the relations between the EU and Marocco, as well as the negotiations over the peace process in Cyprus. On the sidelines of the event, the Romanian Foreign Minister will be received by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. This is the first such meeting for Melescanu since he took over the foreign affairs office, an office he also held back in 1992-1996 and again for just two weeks in November 2014. He resigned then because the poor preparation of the presidential elections had prevented thousands of Romanian citizens living abroad from casting their votes.

ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT Romanias Parliament will on Monday convene in plenary session to vote on the setting up of the Committee that will investigate the budget adjustments made by the former technocratic government in August and November last year. The setting up of the committee was requested by the president of the Social Democratic Party and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea, whose party formed the government, alongside the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, in the aftermath of December 11th parliamentary elections. The agenda of the parliament session also includes the setting up of new committees in charge of controlling the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service and of the Foreign Intelligence Service. On Thursday, the Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Eduard Hellvig suspended his first deputy, General Florian Coldea, accused of illegal activities by the former MP Sebastian Ghita, who is also under investigation for multiple acts of corruption and who is missing.

ROMANIAS CULTURE DAY On Sunday, Romanians celebrated 167 years since the birth of their national poet Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), dubbed the last great representative of European Romanticism. January 15th is also Romanias National Culture Day since 2010, when it was declared so by the Romanian Parliament, at the proposal of the Romanian Academy. Just like every year, the Romanian diplomatic and consular missions and Romanian cultural institutes abroad hosted special events devoted to this day. Romanias President Klaus Iohannis posted a message on a social network reading that in the world, the respect towards Romania is very much based on the international appreciation of its culture and artists. In turn, the Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu wrote that in the hardest of moments, culture has brought this people joy and freedom. The British and French Embassies in Bucharest too posted video messages in the Romanian language, on Romanias Culture day. Eminescus anniversary was officially celebrated in the Republic of Moldova, Romanias neighbour with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population.

PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Sunday that the proposal of the future Washington Administration to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a provocation with serious consequences. He made the comment in the beginning of the meeting in Paris devoted to the Middle East peace process. He said that the purpose of the conference was to reaffirm the international support for a two-country solution, to encourage Israel and the Palestinians to carry out direct negotiations and to draft an action plan for the coming period. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are represented at the meeting.