June 27, 2017 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 27.06.2017, 19:38
Romanias Cabinet – The Social Democrat Mihai Tudose has been designated by President Klaus Iohannis to form the new government in Romania. The membership of the future Cabinet is to be validated on Wednesday by the Social Democratic Partys executive committee. After nominating Tudose as PM, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis asked the parliamentary parties to urgently draft an agenda that should allow the finalization of parliamentary procedures this week. He argued that the current political crisis seriously affected Romanias economy and image. The Tudose cabinet will replace the Grindeanu government, which was removed following a no confidence motion filed by the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats.
Cooperation – The Bulgarian President Rumen Radev will pay a formal visit to Romania on Wednesday and Thursday, when he will meet with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis. The aim of his visit is to deepen political dialogue between Romania and Bulgaria on the main issues of common interest on the bilateral agenda, as well as other European and international issues. The talks will focus on economic relations and cooperation in such domains as energy and transports, in the context in which Romania is Bulgarias 3rd largest trade partner in the EU. The two presidents will also look into concrete ways of coordinating the promotion of common interests and targets within the EU. Bulgaria and Romania will hold the presidency of the European Council in the first half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 respectively. High on the agenda of talks are also cooperation within NATO and security challenges in the Black Sea area, the Eastern Neighbourhood and regional cooperation.
Case closure – The file concerning the alleged rigging of the 2009 presidential election has been closed, following a decision by the Prosecutor Generals Office. The Office has decided that no element could be found leading to the assumption that fraud was attempted. The case had been opened in April, following statements made by the Romanian journalist and former political adviser Dan Andronic, who said that back then, heads of major state institutions, including the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Prosecutor Generals Office influenced the result of the voting to benefit Traian Basescu. We recall that in 2009, Traian Basescu won the second presidential term after a tight battle with Mircea Geoana. The 2009 presidential elections are also the object of a parliamentary investigation.
King Mihai– The health condition of the former King of Romania, Mihai I (who ruled between 1940 – 1947) is fragile but stable, the Royal House of Romania has announced. Crown Princess Margareta of Romania and Prince Radu are on a family visit to Switzerland as of Monday. They will spend a few days with the king at his private residence. After undergoing cancer surgery, King Mihai I announced his withdrawal from public life on March 1, 2016. He also announced that his first born of his 5 daughters, Princess Margareta, who is the Crown Princess, would represent him and carry out all his public duties.
Immigration – Some 90 Iraqi and Syrian citizens, including 30 children, were found by the Romanian border police at a crossing point on the border with Hungary. They were hiding in a truck registered in Turkey and were attempting to illegaly reach a state in the Shengen area. The Iraqi and Syrian citizens will be investigated for attempting to cross the border illegally.
Cyber attack – The well-known Romanian internet security software company Bitdefender has announced that companies and institutions in Romania and in other countries in the region, including Russia and Ukraine, were affected by a large-scale cyber attack on Tuesday. According to Bitdefender, the program used by attackers, GoldenEye, encrypts users data and then asks for a ransom. Ukraines government, National Bank and biggest power companies all warned of cyber attacks on Tuesday. Also, the Russian oil giant Rosneft and steel producer Evraz confirmed they were hit too.
Google – Google suffered a major blow on Tuesday after the European Commission fined the search giant a record 2.4 billion Euros for unfairly favouring some of its own services over those of rivals. As the EU official in charge of competition policy, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.
Handball – Romanias national womens handball team is part of Group A at the World Championship hosted this year by Germany, alongside France, Spain, Slovakia, Angola and Paraguay. The Romanian squad, trained by the Spanish Ambros Martin, has qualified for the final tour, which is to be held in December. At the previous edition of the World Championship, in 2015, Romania won the bronze medal. Romania is the only country that has participated in all 23 editions of the World Championship.
