November 10, 2015 UPDATE
Former EU commissioner Dacian Ciolos appointed Romanian prime minister. Death toll from Bucharest club fire: 49
Newsroom, 10.11.2015, 12:15
Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, on Tuesday appointed Dacian Ciolos, former EU Commissioner for Agriculture in the executive led by José Manuel Barroso, as the country’s new prime minister. Ciolos, aged 46, has vowed in a brief comment at the presidential palace in Bucharest, to focus his attention and energy on putting together a team of technocrats that will seek Parliament’s approval. In his turn, President Klaus Iohannis, who held two rounds of talks with parliamentary parties prior to nominating the new PM, has said Romania needs an independent premier of high moral and professional value and has called on political parties to eliminate corrupt members and promote to public positions only competent, non-corrupted people. Dacian Ciolos comes to replace leftist Victor Ponta who quit last week amid public anger over a deadly nightclub fire.
The death toll from the horrific fire at the Colectiv club in Bucharest on October 30th reached 49 on Tuesday. Over 70 people who suffered severe burns are still in Bucharests hospitals, some of them in critical and serious condition. 35 patients have been transferred to hospitals in 7 other countries. Doctors from Germany and France are now assessing the possibility of further transferring patients to various hospitals in Europe.
The United States Ambassador in Bucharest, Hans Klemm said on Tuesday that the American anti-missile system at the Deveselu military base in southern Romania would be operational in the spring of 2016 and that everything was going according to the approved schedule and budget. On the occasion of a visit to the military base, Hans Klemm said that the anti-missile system was an essential element of the bilateral strategic partnership.
A NATO delegation is in Chisinau as of Tuesday to assess the reconstruction program of the Republic of Moldovas defense capability. The program, which involves major allies such as the US and Germany, contributing both money and expertise, is run in keeping with the decisions made at last years summit, when NATO included in its own security strategy the defense capabilities of the partner countries, including the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia. The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said back than that the Republic of Moldova would thus be helped to consolidate security against potential threats coming from Russia. The NATO delegations visit is taking place against the background of political uncertainty in Chisinau, where consultations on the formation of a new parliamentary majority continue.
A new program with the IMF and the European Commission is quite unlikely for Romania, as elections are drawing near, the World Bank Country Economist Catalin Pauna said on Tuesday at a conference on taxation. He has stated that the World Bank estimates a 3.6% economic growth rate this year and a 3.9% growth rate in 2016. As for 2017, the estimated rate is 4.1%. According to Pauna, the inflation dynamics, affected by fiscal measures and the VAT cut of June, will be influenced next year by the reduction of the VAT from 25% to 20% in January.
