November 24, 2014
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Valentin Țigău, 24.11.2014, 14:00
Awards and trophies were granted in Bucharest this past Sunday at the Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organized by Radio Romania. More than 300 Romanian and foreign publishers took part in the present edition, the 21st, as well as printing houses, education institutions and cultural institutes. A record number of visitors, standing at around 117 thousand, was reported for the five days of the fair. Visitors had the opportunity to take part in the almost 750 editorial events, which is also a record high in the history of Gaudeamus Book and Education Fair.
Romania’s Higher Council of Magistracy has ruled that the Organized Crime Directorate’s former chief prosecutor Alina Bica be suspended from magistracy. Bica has stepped down from her position since she has been remanded in custody for 30 days, on a number of counts in a corruption file. Among other things, Bica has been accused of having approved the payment of overvalued reparations in 2011, when she held the position of under-Secretary of State with the Justice Ministry and was also a member in a commission supervising land returns. The estimated damage stands at more than 60 million euro. In the aforementioned file, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate has called on the Chamber of Deputies to give its consent for MP Marko Attila Gabor to be detained and kept in custody. We recall Gabor is one of Alina Bica’ s former colleagues in the aforementioned land returns commission.
The popularity of president-elect Klaus Johannes has soared spectacularly, while Romanians’ optimism has doubled in the wake of the recently-held presidential election, according to a survey carried out by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy IRES. Romanians’ confidence in Klaus Johannis has soared from 21 per cent ahead of the presidential election, to 61 per cent. The highly optimistic percentage makes Johannis the politician with the most spectacular growth in popularity in recent years. In another move, 62 per cent of respondents believe the status quo should be maintained in the case of the current government, so that power may not be shared by a single party alone. Ahead of the presidential election, 24 per cent of respondents thought things were going in the right direction, while at the moment such a percentage soared to 55 per cent, which shows a significant growth in Romanians’ optimism. The survey was conducted on November 20, 2014, for a pool of 1,400 respondents aged over 14, with a plus minus two point seven percent error margin.
The European Parliament’s plenary session due to begin in Strasbourg today, among other things will hold a debate over the Union’s draft budget for 2015, as well as over the Europhobe deputies’ censure motion taking up on the LuxLeaks scandal, sparked by leaked information targeting a tax evasion system for multinational companies via agreements signed with Luxembourg. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to Brussels, the motion stands slim chances to be adopted, since Europhobes account for 100 seats, out of the European Parliament’s 751 seats all told. Also high on the plenary session’s agenda is a historic moment, as Pope Francis, who is also taking part in the event, will be giving a talk to Euro-deputies on Tuesday.
Republic of Moldova ‘s Supreme Security Council convenes today, against the backdrop of Chisinau’s Intelligence and Security Service launching a warning over possible destabilizing attempts. In the former Soviet republic, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, this coming Sunday’s parliamentary election is being crucial for the Republic of Moldova’s future course of action. Opinion polls have revealed that the main three pro-European political groups are highly likely to win the election, since put together they outnumber the pro-Russian Communists’ Party.
NATO’s 60th Parliamentary Assembly comes to an end in the Hague today, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg laying out the Alliance’s upcoming priorities. According to the head of the Romanian delegation Gabriel Vlase, a powerful signal of the meeting this year is the taking over by the USA of the Assembly’s leadership. For three days running, NATO leaders tackled various issues such as the situation in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, as well as fighting terrorism. A sensitive topic on the agenda was the Alliance’s relationship with Russia.
Foreign Ministers of six world powers plus Iran make a last-ditch attempt to reach a consensus on the Iranian nuclear program. The agreement should be reached today, when the deadline expires. According to the BBC, significant divergences still exist with respect to curtailing Iran’s uranium enrichment program, in exchange for the suspension of economic sanctions.
The eight military who this past Friday lost their lives in a helicopter crash in the central Romanian county of Sibiu have today been commemorated at the Defence Ministry headquarters, in a religious and military ceremony. In all military units across the country as well as in Romania’s military units with a foreign relocation, commemoration ceremonies have also been held. We recall that eight military lost their lives and two others were injured in a helicopter crash, due to severe weather conditions. The IAR-330 PUMA chopper was about to take part in an exercise, jointly with American military. Similar other MoD-owned helicopters have also been involved in such incidents, which claimed the lives of several people.
