January 27, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Roxana Vasile, 27.01.2014, 19:48
Southern Romania will be hit again by heavy snowfalls and blizzard, as of Wednesday morning until Thursday afternoon, head of the National Meteorology Agency, Ion Sandu, has said. The code-orange snowstorm alert was extended on Monday afternoon for 8 counties in southern, south-eastern and eastern Romania. In the eastern and southeastern counties of Buzau, Vrancea and Braila, that were under a code-red alert on Sunday, authorities declared a state of alert. Schools have been closed down for two days in the capital city Bucharest and in half of the counties in Romania affected by the bad weather.
The European Commission has called on Member States to criminalise denial of crimes against humanity. Against the backdrop of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a new report published on Monday by the European Commission, finds most EU Member States have not yet correctly implemented EU rules designed to tackle racist and xenophobic hate crimes. Member States unanimously adopted the 2008 Framework Decision on combating racism and xenofobia through criminal law, yet national laws in a number of countries remain inadequate. In particular, national provisions against denial, condoning or grossly trivialising certain crimes — such as crimes against humanity — remain inadequate in 20 Member States, the release says.
The Romanian Government has proposed the International Monetary Fund the introduction of an early payment discount for taxes other than the local ones, for which such system is already in place. The IMF experts, however, were not convinced of its effectiveness. PM Victor Ponta had a meeting on Monday with a joint delegation of the IMF, European Commission and the World Bank, currently in Bucharest for an assessment of the stand-by loan agreement signed with Romania last autumn. The talks focus on the priorities of economic reforms,and the legislation with an impact on the economy. Last week the international experts also had talks with President Traian Basescu, who reiterated his opposition to a supplementary excise on fuels. Talks were also held at the Ministry for Finances, with officials for the National Tax Agency, the National Bank of Romania, and with trade unions.
Romania has met all criteria for its Schengen accession and hopes to have a final decision on that by year-end, Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean said on Monday in Bucharest, during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans. Corlatean pointed out that Bucharest did not see a connection between Romania’s Schengen accession and the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. The Netherlands is one of the countries that have opposed Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession on grounds of insufficient judicial reform.
Monica Iacob Ridzi, the former Romanian minister of youth and sports between 2008 and 2009, was sentenced on Monday to five years in prison, for abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds. The ruling is not final and can be appealed.
