June 9, 2016 UPDATE

Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos is currently on an official visit to Paris/ Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu attended the Poland-Romania- Turkey trilateral ministerial meeting on security issues, held in Warsaw

Newsroom, 09.06.2016, 12:20

LOCAL ELECTIONS – In last Sundays local elections in Romania, the leftist Social Democratic Party got 34.83% of the overall number of votes cast for mayoral seats. It is followed by the centre-rightist National Liberal Party, with 31.49%. In Bucharest, the Social Democrats won both the general mayors seat and the mayors seats of all the 6 sectors of the capital. The announcement was made by the Central Electoral Bureau, after processing the results from all polling stations in Romania. The final results might be made public on Friday, after the Central Electoral Bureau analyses all notifications it has received.

VISIT – Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, who is currently on an official visit to Paris, on Thursday attended a special meeting of the Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, devoted to Romania. Also, Dacian Ciolos held talks with Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of the OECD, an important intergovernmental body focusing on economic growth and social stability. As early as 2004, Romania expressed its wish to join the 34 OECD member states, this being a strategic objective of the Romanian foreign policy and included in the 2013-2016 governing program. On Friday, Ciolos is due to meet his French counterpart, Manuel Valls, and sign the updated Roadmap of the Romanian-French Strategic Partnership. Also on Friday, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos will meet with the French President Francois Hollande and together they will attend the opening match of the European Football Championship pitting Romania against France.

SECURITY – Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu attended in Warsaw on Thursday the Poland-Romania-Turkey trilateral ministerial meeting on security issues. The meeting was held in preparation for the NATO Summit due in Warsaw, over July 8 and 9. The Romanian official together with his Polish and Turkish counterparts underlined the importance of strengthening collective defence, as well as the eastern flank of the alliance, also by ensuring a robust and credible allied presence in the region. The Romanian foreign minister also emphasised the strategic importance of the Black Sea for Euro-Atlantic security and stood for boosting cooperation and coordination between NATO and the EU on the one hand, and between NATO and its eastern partners, on the other. The three ministers also decided that the next trilateral meeting be held in the second half of the year, in Romania.

CORRUPTION– The former president of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, Sorin Blejnar, on Thursday received a five-year prison sentence in a corruption case, in which he is accused of serving as an accessory to tax evasion and of organising an organised criminal group. The court also ruled that Blejnar has no longer the right to exert several civil rights, five years after he is released from prison .The ruling is not final and can be appealed. Sorin Blejnar was sent to court in July 2014. According to anti-corruption prosecutors, in the 2011-2012 period, he supported in various ways a criminal group, which evaded its tax obligations related to transactions of some 90,000 tons of diesel fuel. The prejudice stands at 56 million Euros.

CITIZENSHIP– Former Romanian president, Traian Basescu, and
his wife, Maria, have received the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova (a
former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population), sources
in Chishinau have announced. A decree in that respect was signed on Thursday by
Moldovan president Nicolae Timofti. The Basescu couple requested Moldovan
citizenship in March. Actually, the former Romanian president announced as
early as 2013 that he would like to apply for Moldovan citizenship after he
completed his second term in office as Romania’s president, in token of respect
and love for the neighbouring state and its people. Traian Basescu last visited
Chishinau in April 2015, when he received the Stephen the Great Order, the
highest military distinction in the Republic of Moldova.

CONDEMNATION OF TERROR ATTACK– The Romanian Foreign Ministry has firmly condemned the terrorist attack perpetrated on Wednesday in Tel Aviv. According to a Foreign Ministry communiqué, such deplorable acts of violence have no justification and need to be fought against by all means. Four Israelis were killed and five were seriously wounded by two Palestinian militants who opened fire, on Wednesday evening, in a café in central Tel Aviv. The two attackers were arrested. Israel, Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories have been faced with a surging wave of violence which since October 1, 2015 have left behind 207 Palestinian and 28 Israelis dead as well as several foreign citizens, a France Press survey shows. In turn, the US and the UN have firmly criticized the attack in Tel Aviv.

BLASTS – Over 18 people were killed and several scores wounded on Thursday as two car bomb blasts rocked Baghdad and the surroundings, France Presses reports. The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. In the first attack, a car bomb was detonated on a commercial street in the east of the capital, Baghdad. The second car bomb attack targeted the main military checkpoint in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad. The two explosions occurred in the context in which the Iraqi forces are trying to eliminate the militants of the Islamic State from Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

FOOTBALL – Romanias national football team are preparing for the opening match of the EURO 2016. On Friday in Paris they will take on the French eleven. The group also includes Switzerland and Albania. Romania will play against the Swiss eleven on June 15 in Paris and against the Albanian side on June 19 in Lyon. The Romanian footballers avowed target is to pass the groups stage. The last time the Romanian national football team participated in a continental football tournament was in 2008.

(Translated by Diana Vijeu and Lacramioara Simion)