June 28, 2017

The Coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party-the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania is today establishing the membership of the future left wing government of Romania

Florentin Căpitănescu, 28.06.2017, 13:56

NEW CABINET — Romania’s Social Democrats are today gathering in a session of their National Executive Committee to finalise the membership of the new cabinet. The other party in the ruling coalition, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania has announced its wish to further keep, in the future cabinet, the foreign affairs, environment, energy and the relation with Parliament portfolios, as well as their holders. Talks on the membership of the new cabinet are held after on Monday the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, nominated the Social Democrat Mihai Tudose for the position of prime minister, following consultations with the parliamentary parties. The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, has said Parliament might vote on Thursday whether it validates the new cabinet or not. The Tudose cabinet is to replace that led by the Social-Democrat Sorin Grindeanu, which was toppled last week, following a no-confidence motion tabled by the ruling coalition.

ROMANIAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONS — Romania is ready to share with Bulgaria its experience and expertise in the fight against corruption, President Klaus Iohannis said in Bucharest during a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev. The Romanian president also said he also talked with president Radev about his recent visit to Washington, about the two countries’ common interest in having a strong transatlantic relation as well as about security challenges in the Black Sea region. The two leaders have also approached the issue of Schengen accession. Rumen Radev has explained that if European citizens want to have highly secured external borders, they should be aware that this can’t be achieved without Romania and Bulgaria being Schenghen members and having access to the Schengen information system. The agenda of the talks also covered economic relations, cooperation within NATO and at regional level. The two presidents have also analysed concrete ways to coordinate themselves in an effort to promote common interests and objectives within the EU, in the context in which Bulgaria and Romania will hold the rotating Presidency of the Council in the first half of 2018 and in the first half of 2019, respectively. On Thursday, the two presidents will attend the opening of the Romania-Bulgaria Business Forum. The visiting Bulgarian president, Rumen Radev, will also meet in Bucharest with ethnic Bulgarians living in Romania.

JUDICIARY — The Romanian Justice Ministry is today organising the first public debate on amending criminal legislation on the crime of “abuse of office”, in agreement with the rulings issued by the Constitutional Court. Attending today’s talks will be representatives of civil society and of the business circle. A second debate, scheduled for July 3, will be attended by representatives of institutions in the judicial system, the magistrates’ professional associations, academics, and representatives of legal liberal professions. The talks will be held at the headquarters of the Justice Ministry. Last week, the Constitutional Court noticed that the legal provisions in force on the crime of “abuse of office” are formulated in broad, vague terms. The Court also ruled that the provisions of an article on preventing, discovering and punishing acts of corruption, relative to attempted abuse of office, are not constitutional.

ROAD ACCIDENTS — The number of deadly road accidents in Romania exceeded 1,900 last year, more than the double of the EU average, an analysis posted on the blog of the World Bank shows. According to it, the costs of road accidents with fatalities in Romania are incredibly high, being estimated at over 1.2 billion Euros per year. The number of road accidents is high because of an increasing number of cars running in Romania, high speed and poor road infrastructure. Furthermore, the legislation in the field is complicated, obsolete and inflexible or it is improperly enforced and Romania is lacking training programs for professional drivers, the analysis made by the World Bank shows.