July 24, 2015
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Corina Cristea, 24.07.2015, 12:00
The Minister delegate for relations with the Romanian diaspora, Angel Tîlvăr, is as of today on a four-day visit to Italy, where he has meetings with representatives of the local and central authorities and with members of the Romanian community. The visit is designed to help collect information on the Romanian community in Italy, which has around one million members, to help them integrate and to ensure that Romanians rights as European citizens are respected. This is the second visit made by Minister Angel Tîlvăr to Italy this year, after the one in Catania in February.
Gabriel Berca, a member of the National Union for the Progress of Romania, a former presidential adviser under Traian Basescu and interior minister in 2012, will be told today whether he is to be held in detention pending trial for 30 days. He was taken in custody yesterday by anti-corruption prosecutors, under charges of influence peddling in 2010-2012. According to judicial sources, during that time he allegedly claimed and received from a businessman over 180,000 euro in exchange for using his personal influence on cabinet members as regards the allocation of funds to a town hall in Bacau County, in the east.
Most Romanians (over 78%) think the Presidency and the Government must work together closely on important matters, reveals a recent opinion poll. The poll indicates that only 6.9% disagree with this idea. Also, more than 30% of the respondents agree that the country should hold early elections, compared to 53.3% who do not. The Governments decision to increase the staff of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate by another 50 prosecutors was appreciated by almost 39% of the interviewees. The poll was conducted by INSCOP Research for the daily Adevarul between July 9 and 14, 2015.
Representatives of Greeces international lenders (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) are to begin in Athens today new talks with the government on the third financial aid programme given to Greece. The new round of negotiations comes after the Greek Parliament approved the tough conditions imposed by the European lenders. The IMF team is headed, as of Tuesday, by the Romanian economist Delia Velculescu, co-author of an IMF survey of the Greek economy. Her appointment at the helm of the IMF mission in Greece came shortly after Athens decided to pay nearly 2 billion euros in debts to the Fund, which enables the country to access IMF loans once again.
Turkish police forces have arrested more than 250 people in a large-scale anti-terror campaign launched today across the country and targeting the radical IS group and rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Ankara announced. According to Turkish media, the police checked around 140 addresses in Istanbul alone, mobilising nearly 5,000 troops and several helicopters. The operation comes 4 days after the suicide attack in Suruc (near the Syrian border), where 32 people died and more than 100 were wounded. Also today, Turkey launched its first air raid against Jihadist targets in Syria, after clashes between the Turkish army and IS fighters near the border the previous day. Turkey also authorised the US to use more air bases in the region to fight against the Islamic State, according to AFP and Reuters. Washington had long asked Ankara for permission to use these bases in order to improve the efficiency of the military coalition that fights against the terrorist group.
