March 8, 2015 UPDATE
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Florentin Căpitănescu, 08.03.2015, 12:15
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to arrive in Bucharest on Monday for a visit, which has high on the agenda talks with president Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu. According to sources with the German embassy in Bucharest, Steinmeier is expected to be granted the honorary citizenship award from the city of Sibiu, in central Romania, where he is to participate in a festivity staged by the Democratic Forum of the Germans in Romania, which is celebrating 25 years of existence. The head of the diplomacy in Berlin will deliver a speech on the German minority in Romania and the policy on minorities.
European Central Bank is expected to unleash its 1.1 trillion euro stimulus programme mainly aimed at boosting economic recovery in the eurozone and avoiding deflation in EU countries. According to Central Bank president Mario Draghi, on Monday the bank will start buying 60 billion euros a month in government and corporate bonds. The ECB purchases are aimed at driving down market interest rates stimulating lending and growth and raising the rate of inflation, which is dangerously low at minus 0.3%.
Romania’s Davis Cup team obtained wins in all the five matches they played against Israel in Sibiu, central Romania, in the first round of Europe-Africa division’s group one. On Sunday, in the last two singles, Adrian Ungur defeated Dudi Sela, while Marius Copil outperformed Bar Tzuf Botzer. In the second round on home turf Romania will be taking on Slovakia over July 17th and 19th. The winner will be playing in the World Group play-offs.
Romanian tennis player Alexandra Dulgheru conceded defeat in the finals of the Kuala Lumpur tennis tournament with 250 thousand dollars in prize money. Dulgheru lost the game to Danish Carolina Wozniacki, the world’s fifth player. In the first round the Romanian had eliminated the tournament’s second favourite, German Sabine Lisicki to make it to her third WTA finals after those in Warsaw in 2009 and 2010.
Romania’s Justice Ministry is to launch next week a public debate over a draft law on regulating the process of recovering damage in various corruption files. Field Minister Robert Cazanciuc has recently said that the new provisions have already been drawn up and will be discussed with justices and prosecutors shortly. In his opinion, the recovery of prejudices and damage is being hindered at present by the way in which the National Fiscal Administration Agency is handling goods and values seized in various corruption files. Anti-corruption chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi has pointed out to the small rate of recovery in corruption cases of only 10%. The Agency for Damage Recovery in Corruption Files will be subordinated to the Justice Ministry.
