January 16, 2017 UPDATE

The two chambers of the Romanian Parliament on Monday voted in a plenary session for setting up a commission to investigate the budget rectifications made by the former technocratic government last year

Florentin Căpitănescu, 16.01.2017, 12:30

PARLIAMENT — In a plenary session on Monday, the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament voted for setting up a commission to investigate the budget rectifications made by the former technocratic government in August and November 2016. The setting up of this commission has been requested by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, whose party returned to power, alongside the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, after winning the parliamentary elections of December 11. The opposition parties stood against the initiative. Also on Monday, the legislature decided in the plenary session to postpone talks on the setting up of a special commission to control the activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service, SIE. In exchange, a relevant commission has been set up for the Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI. Last week, the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Eduard Hellvig, suspended from office the first deputy director, lieutenant general, Florian Coldea, accused of having committed illegalities by former MP Sebastian Ghita, who, in his turn, is investigated in several corruption files and is reported missing.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS– The new Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Melescanu, on Monday attended in Brussels, alongside the other EU foreign ministers the monthly meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the Romanian official has hailed the new ceasefire agreement in Syria and underlined that it is important for all sides to abide by it. Melescanu has also expressed Romania’s readiness to support humanitarian efforts as well as Syria’s post-conflict reconstruction. The Romanian foreign minister has discussed, together with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, issues related to the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, and the eastern neighbourhood. Also on the sidelines of the meeting, the Romanian official participated, alongside his Bulgarian, Greek and Croatian counterparts in an informal meeting devoted to the situation in the region.

REP. MOLDOVA– The President of the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state, with a predominantly Romanian speaking population), the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon on Monday started a three day visit to Moscow, for talks with the Kremlin leader, Vladimir Putin. According to sources close to his entourage, Dodon’s priorities are to resume Moldovan exports on the Russian market, as they are currently embargoed and to legalise the situation of Moldovan workers in Russia, whose legal stay there has expired. According to the same source, Dodon and Putin will allegedly approach the issue of the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, which got out from under Chishinau’s control, back in 1992. Elected in November, Dodon is the first high-ranking official in the Republic of Moldova in the past 15 years to start his mandate with an official visit to Moscow. In another move, also on Monday, Dodon called on the Moldovan government to start legal procedures to suspend the Moldovan ambassador to Romania, Mihai Gribincea. The latter has recently said that Dodon’s decree on withdrawing the Moldovan citizenship to the former Romanian President, Traian Basescu, might be unconstitutional. Dodon’s request has been rejected by Moldovan Prime Minister, Pavel Filip.

NATO– On January 17 and 18, the Military Committee, NATO’s Highest Military Authority, meets in Chiefs of Defence Session in Brussels. Romania is represented in this 176th session by the chief of staff of the Romanian Army, general Nicolae Ciuca. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry, the agenda of the meeting covers such issues as the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan and the current threats to NATO. Sessions devoted to NATO’s partnerships with Ukraine and Georgia will also be organised, among others things, the communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry also shows.

TENNIS — Two Romanian tennis players, Monica Niculescu (no.32 WTA) and Ana Bogdan (no.125 WTA), on Tuesday will play against the Russians Ana Blinkova (no.189 WTA) and Elena Vesnina (no.18 WTA), respectively, in the singles, in the first round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. On Monday, also in the first round, Sorana Carstea (no.78 WTA) defeated Russian Irina Hromaceva (no.92 WTA), 6-2, 6-1, and Irina Begu (no.29 WTA) outperformed Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova (no.39 WTA), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Two other Romanians got eliminated. Simona Halep (no.4 WTA) surprisingly got eliminated by American Shelby Rogers (no.57 WTA) 6-3, 6-1 and Patricia Tig got eliminated by Puerto Rican Monica Puig, 6-0, 6-1.(Translated by Diana Vijeu)