May 18, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 18.05.2023, 13:55

Forum. The world has changed and everything in
the area of security has been rewritten and must be revised in our Black Sea
region, where a large part of the components of Russia’s large scale war of
aggression in Ukraine are taking place, said Romanian prime minister Nicolae
Ciucă in Bucharest at the 7th edition of the Black Sea and Balkans
Security Forum. Ciucă went on to say that the region must cope with a long and
high-intensity war that is exhausting the resources of both the country in
conflict and those of the countries of Europe. The two-day forum hosts over 40
sessions. Attending are top civilian and military officials, diplomats and
experts from the European Union and NATO, as well as partner states. The themes
discussed include support for the European integration of the Republic of
Moldova and Ukraine, the reconstruction of Ukraine and the European security
architecture after the war, as well as the food crisis caused by Russia’s
invasion, security energy in Europe, the security of the Western Balkans and
cyber resilience.

Rotation. President Klaus Iohannis urged the
leaders of the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in the
ruling coalition to quickly end negotiations on the distribution of ministerial
posts after the rotation of prime ministers. He expects the constitutional
procedures for the formation of the new government led by the Social Democrat
Marcel Ciolacu to get under way next week, with the current Liberal prime
minister Nicolae Ciucă to resign on 26th May. Coalition talks are
focused on the reduction of the number of ministries and the social and
economic measures the new prime minister and government will implement in the next
1 year and a half until parliamentary elections. On Tuesday, the leaderships of
the Liberals and Social Democrats met in separate sessions to establish the
mandates of their representatives in the negotiations on the formation of the
new government. The Social Democratic Party wants the future government to have
fewer posts of minister and state secretary and to reduce the number of
government agencies; while the Liberals want to reduce the number of state
secretaries and under-secretaries, but to maintain the protocol on which the
ruling coalition is based.

Flooding. Prime minister Nicolae
Ciucă said the Romanian authorities are ready to offer their assistance with
rescue operations following the floods in Italy. The region of Emilia Romagna
in the north of Italy is on high alert as a result of heavy rain that caused
massive floods and left victims. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent,
thousands of people have already been evacuated, but several tens of thousands
are still stranded in areas that have been left without electricity. Some
trains are still stationary, traffic is disrupted and sections of the motorway
are closed.

TikTok. Romania’s Operative Council
for Cyber Security, an advisory body to the Country’s Supreme Defence Council,
has recommended public authorities to ask their employees to delete the TikTok
application from government-owned devices. The Council says the application can
collect sensitive information about users, including phone numbers and the SIM
card code, GPS tracking data and details about other accounts and passwords
stored on the phone. On Wednesday, Austria announced it would join the list of
countries banning the Chinese app TikTok on government devices, following a
similar move from the UK, the US and several EU member states.(CM)