September 27, 2014 UPDATE
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Florentin Căpitănescu, 27.09.2014, 19:48
The government in Bucharest is to do the second budget adjustment in 2014 next week. Under the draft law issued by the Finance Ministry on Saturday six domains will benefit from additional funds. Most of the money, 250 million euros, will go to the Ministry of Labour, which is to grant pay rises and other social benefits, whereas the government’s secretariat general will lose almost the same amount. Prime Minister Ponta has explained this is a positive budget adjustment, after the first suchlike measure in summer.
The head of the Romanian diplomacy Titus Corlatean has reiterated the top priority Romania has attached to finding a solution to the conflict in the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian speaking majority. At the OSCE informal ministerial meeting in New York, Corlatean stood for carrying on the negotiation process over the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester that came out of Chisinau’s control in 1992 upon an armed conflict with hundreds of dead, which was settled with the intervention of the Russian troops on the secessionists’ side. At the same time, Corlatean has reiterated Romania’s staunch support in the efforts of finding a solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. The meeting was staged concurrently with the proceedings of the UN General Assembly, when Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that Bucharest clearly rejects any form of foreign pressure over the countries in Eastern Europe and firmly supports their integrity and sovereignty.
Most of the nine former Romanian ministers under investigation on alleged corruption charges are rejecting the accusations by the prosecutors. The National Anti-corruption Directorate on Friday called on Parliament to lift the immunity of some of them so that a penal prosecution may be launched for peddling in influence, bribe taking and abuse in office in a file on getting Microsoft licenses for several schools in Romania. Prosecutors are investigating a period ranging between 2001 and 2012, during the mandates of three Prime Ministers, Social Democrat Adrian Nastase, Calin Popescu Tariceanu from the National-Liberal Party and Emil Boc from the Democratic Liberal Party. One of the nine former ministers is currently an MEP while three others are part of the Legislature in Bucharest.
The US-led international coalition on Saturday night for the first time carried out air raids in central Syria against positions controlled by the Islamic State. Another three Western states, Britain, Belgium and Denmark have confirmed their readiness to join the international coalition including through air strikes against the Islamists in northern Iraq and Syria. In another development, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday that he was considering a possible involvement of Turkey in operations against the Islamic State.
The international radio orchestras festival RadiRo came to an end on Saturday night with a gala concert given by the National Orchestra of France. Staged by Radio Romania, RadiRo is Europe’s only musical event exclusively devoted to radio ensembles. This years’ edition of the festival brought together radio orchestras from Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Romania in an artistic programme devoted to the music of Richard Strauss, from whose birth we celebrate 150 years.
