March 1, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of local news
Newsroom, 01.03.2015, 21:39
Romania’s Parliament will vote on Monday on the president’s nomination of MEP Eduard Hellvig as head of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Last week, his nomination was approved by the parliamentary committee overseeing the activity of the Service. Aged 40, Hellvig was a member of the Conservative Party in the ruling coalition before joining the National Liberal Party, today in opposition, in 2008. In 2012, he served as a minister for regional development and tourism in Victor Ponta’s Social Liberal cabinet. In the autumn of 2014, Hellvig was part of president Klaus Iohannis’ election campaign. The position of intelligence chief has been vacant since January 27th, when George Cristian Maior resigned after 8 years in office. Earlier, he had strongly criticised a Constitutional Court ruling which declared a proposed cyber security bill unconstitutional. The bill was part of a package of national security legislation.
The minister responsible for liasing with the Romanians abroad, Angel Tilvar has travelled to southern Italy on an official visit to inquire into the situation of the Romanian community in this region. He had talks in the province of Ragusa with the representatives of the ethnic Romanians and the local authorities about the problems of many of the 42,000 Romanians on the island in southern Italy. The minister and his delegation are on a three-day trip to Italy, which is home to 1 million Romanians, the largest ethnic Romanian community in the world.
The foreign ministry in Bucharest, through its embassy in Rome, has condemned an incident that took place on Sunday morning in Rome when five cars with Romanian number plates were set on fire. According to early reports, nobody was hurt. In a press release, the foreign ministry says it is watching this case very closely and waiting for an official response from the local authorities, which it hopes will conduct a serious investigation into the case, including its possible xenophobic implications. The Romanian foreign ministry notes that this is not the first time that cars with Romanian number plates have been set on fire in and around the Italian capital, which indicates they have been motivated by xenophobia.
650 military from the Romanian Special Operations Forces will be in Kabul for the next 6 months to provide assistance to the Afghan security forces as part of a NATO mission. The Romanian troops will also ensure the protection of the air base in Kandahar. Romania thus joins a number of states providing assistance to the Afghan security forces following last year’s withdrawal of the NATO and US troops from Afghanistan, where they fought the Taliban for 13 years.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Romania’s long-term government debt rating at BBB, with a stable outlook. According to the finance minister in Bucharest, this is mainly the result of positive expectations regarding economic growth in the next few years and a better fiscal policy compared with Romania’s BBB peers. Fitch Ratings expects the Romanian economy to grow by 2.7% this year, its budget deficit and public debt standing below the BBB median. Moreover, experts say the continuation of the fiscal consolidation process and economic growth may lead to a better rating for Romania in the near future.
