June 24, 2014 UPDATE
A look at some of the main stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 24.06.2014, 12:26
The Romanian Intelligence Service did not brief president Traian Basescu on the links between the president’s brother and a well-known mafia group, the head of the Service, George Maior told Parliament on Tuesday. He was heard in connection to a corruption scandal involving the president’s brother Mircea Basescu. Currently in temporary custody, the latter is accused of receiving 250,000 euros in exchange for using his influence with the magistrates on behalf of a man on trial for attempted murder. The Senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu proposed that the two Parliament chambers adopt a declaration asking the president to offer his resignation.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Tuesday added another 6 months to the 4-year prison sentence received by the former Social Democrat prime minister Adrian Nastase in two corruption cases. The court’s ruling is final and was taken at the request of the National Anticorruption Directorate, which has invoked what it described as Nastase’s “contemptuous and defamatory” attitude during the trial and after receiving the sentence. A former Romanian prime minister between 2000 and 2004, Adrian Nastase was convicted for bribe taking and extortion. Also on Tuesday, the Anticorruption Directorate detained the head of the traffic police in Brasov county Claudiu Tamarjan, who is accused, among others, for peddling in influence and abuse of office.
The Romanian Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta proposed Ioan Rus for the position of transport minister following the resignation of Dan Sova, after only 4 months in office. The latter said he wanted to dedicate himself exclusively to the campaign for the presidential elections in November and rejected speculation according to which his resignation is the result of his unsatisfactory performance during recent talks with a delegation of Romania’s foreign lenders.
Romania’s prime minister Victor Ponta said on Tuesday in Jerusalem that Romania and Israel have excellent bilateral ties and that the ministerial talks in Jerusalem would consolidate them even further. After talks with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, Ponta said Bucharest and Tel Aviv are also working on expanding their economic ties. The two prime ministers chaired a joint Romanian-Israeli cabinet meeting on the margins of which a number of bilateral security, economic and cultural agreements were also signed.
Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean is taking part in a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels ahead of the NATO summit to be hosted by Britain on the 4th and 5th of September. The meeting in Brussels is dominated by issues such as NATO’s support to Ukraine and the implications of Russia’s actions, the future of Afghanistan and the preparations for the upcoming NATO summit.
The ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova with a majority Romanian-speaking population will start importing natural gas from Romania as of August, which would reduce this country’s dependence on Russian gas. The announcement was made on Tuesday in Chisinau by the Moldovan economy minister Valeriu Lazar. In the beginning, the imports of Romanian gas will account for 5-10% Moldova’s demand. The gas will be supplied through the pipeline linking the eastern Romanian city of Iasi to Ungheni, in the west of the Republic of Moldova.
