January 30, 2015
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România Internațional, 30.01.2015, 12:00
The European Union is set to extend until September 1st the effects of the sanctions package imposed on Russia, on account of the Ukrainian crisis. The European Union will also enlarge the list of Russian and Ukrainian citizens who are banned from traveling to the Community area. EU foreign ministers voted in favor of the decision during the extraordinary session held in Brussels yesterday. Attending the session, Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu voiced his support for a tougher sanction package to be imposed on Russia, given that as of late violence has again flared up in eastern Ukraine. Since April 2014, eastern Ukraine has been the theater for clashes between government forces and pro-Russian rebels. We recall the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has so far left more than five thousand people dead.
A court in Bucharest is to rule today on the possible preventive detention of Romania’s former economy minister Adriean Videanu. The former minister was yesterday detained by DNA prosecutors for conspiracy in abuse of office in a file related to the one in which Alina Bica, former head of the Direction for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism was being prosecuted. Other persons involved with the case such as Alin Cocos, son of reputed businesman Dorin Cocos, as well as one of Alina Bica’s advisors have been detained for conspiracy to take part in bribery. DNA prosecutors yesterday started investigating Elena Udrea, Romania’s former transport minister and ex-wife of Dorin Cocos, in the so-called Microsoft file, in which several other ministers are under investigation for having granted illegal IT licences to some high-schools in Romania. Udrea has been accused of acquiring goods coming from the illegal activities carried out by her husband, Dorin Cocos.
After talks with commercial banks, Romania’s Central Bank governor, Mugur Isarescu has today announced the Central Bank accepted the conversion of credits from Swiss francs into the local currency at the present exchange rate. The Bank also stands for individual solutions to this crisis not for general ones. Isarescu’s statement comes against debates triggered by the latest historic appreciation of the franc against the euro after the Swiss Central Bank decided to eliminate the exchange cap. The move has affected 75 thousand Romanians with credits in the Swiss currency.
Economy minister Mihai Tudose is expected arrive in Suceava in northeastern Romania, for talks with the miners from a uranium mining facility. The almost 300 employees of this mine have protested for the past three days claiming occupational hazard compensations. In another development, miners from the coal exploitations in Gorj, southwestern Romania, announced they would continue their protests until an agreement with the administration was reached. Yesterday miners took to the streets for the second time consecutively calling for the resignation of the company’s management, which they accuse of having brought the company close to bankruptcy. In the past two years, the miners saw their incomes trimmed by 23% and according to managers, more pay cuts are to follow soon. Talks on the new collective labour agreement have been suspended until Monday.
The Eurogrop president, Dutch financial minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem is in Athens for talks with the new far-left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza Party, on the country’s relation with its foreign lenders. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to Athens, the Dutch minister who leads the group of the countries in the eurozone, said that Greece must meet its obligations with the international lenders. We recall that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won the last week’s election by pledging to renegotiate the country’s huge foreign debt and give up the austerity measures.
EU foreign ministers, who convened in Riga yesterday, adopted an anti-terror project likely to be implemented as early as March 2015. Among the project’s top priorities are fighting radicalization, strengthening information exchange and cooperation between member states, fighting arms trafficking, as well as setting up a database for European travelers. Mandatory checkup operations are to be introduced at border checkpoints in and out of community area, while special attention will be dedicated to social networks and online platforms used to recruit Jihadists. The Schengen area’s information system will thus be strengthened, as real-time alerts will be issued, enabling authorities at national level to intervene in the case of terrorist suspects. More than three thousand European citizens so far have joined Jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, while around 30 per cent of them returned to their countries of origin, according to data provided by European authorities.
