March 27, 2015
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 27.03.2015, 12:00
Romania’s Constitutional Court on April 8 will give its ruling in the appeal filed in the case of Social Democrat senator Dan Sova, in the wake of the Senate’ s decision to reject the preventive arrest and detention application, submitted by the National Anti-Corruption Department in Dan Sova’s case. President Klaus Johannis has called on the Constitutional Court to certify the emergence of a constitutional conflict between the judicial and legislative branches. Johannis shares the opinion whereby the Parliament’s’ stance in cases such as the one of Senator Sova lead to an institutional deadlock, because the judicial set of procedures was impossible to be put into effect, and the judicial ruling was impossible to be implemented. The National Liberal Party in opposition has in turn filed an appeal against the Senate’s decision. On Wednesday, the senators turned down the application submitted by the National Anticorruption Department, demanding that immunity be lifted in the case of Social Democrat Senator Dan Sova. We recall that former transport minister Sova is facing charges of complicity to abuse of office in an investigation of two state-owned energy companies.
Romanian Government’s Minister Delegate for the relationship with the Romanians from Around the World Angel Tilvar has made a donation of books in Romanian to the University of Balti ( in the northern part of the Republic of Moldova). Tilvar underscored the assertion of Romanian cultural identity in the Republic of Moldova was high on the Romanian authorities’ agenda. The Romanian high-ranking official’s visit to the neighboring state has been scheduled at the same time with the official visit to Bucharest of Moldovan Parliament’s president Andian Candu. Top-level diplomatic contacts between Bucharest and Chisinau have occurred at a time when 97 years are celebrated since the eastern region of Bessarabia has been united with Romania. We recall Bessarabia is the region on whose territory today’s Republic of Moldova was created.
The North-Atlantic Alliance will boost its military presence in Europe, especially in the eastern countries, against the backdrop of Russia and China making significant investment in military equipment, Euronews has quoted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as saying. Stoltenberg also stated the Alliance would implement the most comprehensive collective defense device after the Cold War. According to Stoltenberg, NATO’s future warfare strategy would target the “hybrid war” pattern, which is a mix of conventional and cyber warfare strategies, and urban guerilla. In the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and against the backdrop of the mounting tension in eastern Ukraine, NATO has intensified its activity in the Alliance’ s eastern countries. A large-scale military exercise has recently begun in Romania. In April this year, the exercise will bring together two thousand Romanian, American and British military as well as military from the Republic of Moldova. The eventual aim of the exercise is to give assurances to NATO’s eastern European member states their American and British allies were ready to offer their support.
Romanian tennis player Irina Begu, 35th seeded in the WTA rankings, has made it into the third round of the WTA tournament in Miami, with 5.3 million dollars prize money at stake, having won the game against her Czech contender Tereza Smitkova. Today, Romania’s best-placed tennis player, the world’s number 3 Simona Halep straight into the second round, will be facing another Czech tennis player, WTA 328th-placed Nicole Vaidisova. Last week Halep won the Indian Wells tournament, a career-best for the Romanian. On Friday, as part of the Miami tournament, the world’s number 70, the Romanian Monica Niculescu will be facing world leader Serena Williams, who is also the main favorite to winning the tournament.
The draft of a joint military force project the Arab states have drawn out on Thursday is to be presented at the Arab League Summit opening in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Saturday. The top objective of the future joint military force would be fighting “terrorist groups” through rapid military intervention. The draft was rushed into finalizing, because of the Arab military action in Yemen against Shia Houthi rebels, who have been trying to topple Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi. Authorities in Yemen have launched an appeal for an “emergency military intervention, while Saudi Arabia has sent fighter jets that shelled rebel-held positions. Involved in the operation were more than ten states, among which Egypt, Morocco and states in the Persian Gulf. Iran has condemned the action taken against the Houthi movement, having links with Tehran.
