June 28, 2015

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 28.06.2015, 12:00

The Bucharest Parliament is to establish on Monday the date when Mihai
Razvan Ungureanu, the man proposed to head the Romanian Foreign Intelligence
Service, is to be interviewed and approved by Parliament. Ungureanu enjoys the
support of the Liberal Party, the largest opposition party in Romania, the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the National Union for the Progress
of Romania, the junior partners in the ruling coalition, and the group of
national minorities, while the ruling Social Democrats and their coalition
partners, the newly created Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, are opposed to
his appointment. Mihai Razvan Ungureanu headed the Service before, between 2007
and 2012, and also acted as foreign minister between 2004 and 2007 and served a
short stint as prime minister in the first part of 2012.

The second round of local elections is held today in the
ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova, with a majority Romanian-speaking population, in
459 towns and villages. All eyes are on the mayor race in the capital Chisinau,
where the incumbent pro-western mayor Dorin Chirtoaca faces the former
communist prime minister Zinaida Greceanyi. The
mayors of 439 towns and villages in Moldova were established in the first
election round, on the 14th of June. First round results indicate
that the parties making up the pro-western minority government coalition, the
Liberal Democrat Party and the Democrat Party, are still in the lead, having
won around two thirds of local administration posts, while the pro-Russian communist
and socialist opposition is in decline.

Greece’s
Parliament approved late on Saturday night the government’s proposal to hold a
referendum on the country’s bailout deal with its international creditors on
the 5th of July. Earlier on Saturday, eurozone finance ministers
refused a bailout extension after June 30th. Greece’s prime minister
Alexis Tsipras believes the people will reject what he described as the
creditors’ ultimatum. The decision to call a referendum has been harshly
criticised by the former Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras who believes this
will only push the country out of the eurozone. Eurogroup president Jeroen
Dijsselbloem says the referendum has closed the door on further talks. He said
Greece’s creditors were flexible, but its government rejected all their
proposals and are now trying to pass on the responsibility to the Greek people.
Greece has to repay 1.6 billion euros by the 30th of June.

Canada works with France to
track the identity of the recipient of a macabre selfie sent by Yassin Salhi,
who is suspected of beheading his employer in a jihadist attack near Lyon on
Friday. More than 60 people were killed in a wave of terrorist attacks on
Friday. Almost 40, including British, German, Belgian and French tourists, were
killed at a spa in Tunisia, after a young man opened fire on a beach. The
attack was claimed by the Islamic State extremist group. 26 others were killed
and 227 wounded in a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait’s capital,
also claimed by the Islamic State. Romania offered its deepest sympathy and
condolences over the attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait and reiterated its
solidarity in the fight against terrorism.

The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is attending talks in
Vienna between Iran and six world powers, the US, Britain, Germany, France,
Russia and China to discuss Tehran’s nuclear programme. Talks on this dossier,
one of the most sensitive in international relations in the last ten years, are
due to end on the 30th of June, but the parties do not rule out a
few days’ extension. A final agreement is being negotiated that will guarantee
the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting
international sanctions on Iranian economy.

Romania won 12 medals at the European Games in Baku, of
which three gold, five silver and four bronze. The gold medals came from
Andreea Chiţu, in
judo, in the women’s 52 kg category; the women’s epee team; and Ana Maria
Brânză, who won the women’s individual epee final. Romania took the silver in
the kayak double, beam, the aerobic gymnastics group competition, the men’s
sabre team and men’s individual sabre. Finally, Romania won the bronze in the
epee competition, sambo and parallel and uneven parallel bars.