The Week in Review 15-21 June

A summary of the main developments in Romania this past week.

România Internațional, 20.06.2015, 13:59

The Portuguese President Visits Bucharest

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva was on Wednesday and Thursday on a state visit to Romania, with an agenda focused on the economy. He met with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, with deputy PM Gabriel Oprea, who ensures the operative leadership of the government in the absence of PM Victor Ponta, who is in Turkey for an operation, as well as with the heads of the two chambers of Parliament. The Romanian president specified that bilateral relations had evolved significantly in the last few years, and the two countries would continue to cooperate politically and militarily, including within NATO, and to coordinate more closely within the EU. Iohannis also spoke about the Romanian community in Portugal, almost 40,000 strong, saying he appreciated the help granted by the Lisbon authorities in integrating them. President Anibal Cavaco Silva also attended a Romanian-Portuguese economic forum.

The Romanian Foreign Minister Visits Chisinau

During a two day visit to Chisinau, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu met with Moldovan officials and participated in a meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. Aurescu spoke strongly in favor of a speedy formation of a new government in the Republic of Moldova. He emphasized the importance of political stability, as an essential premise of reform and European integration. Aurescu’s visit to Chisinau came less than a week after PM Chiril Gaburici resigned, facing accusations of having falsified his high school graduation diploma. At the same time, he said that enhancing cooperation between the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization and the EU would be one of the priorities of the Romanian rotating presidency of the EU, which begins de facto on July 1st.

Romania’s National Defense Strategy Up for Parliament’s Approval

Romania’s new national defense strategy, covering the 2015-2019 period, passed without issues through the expert committees in Parliament, and goes to a full vote. The document will be introduced on Monday by President Iohannis to the two chambers, after the Presidency introduced the strategy on Thursday to NATO and EU diplomats. According to the head of state, the strategy offers the vision of a strong Romania in Europe and the world, and one of its main novelties is the concept of extended security. The strategic partnership with the US and its membership in NATO and the EU still constitute the pillars of the country’s foreign policy and security.

US-Romania Agreement on Public Procurement

The US Trade and Development Agency will train 50 Romanian employees in public procurement procedures under a Memorandum of Understanding, signed on Wednesday in Bucharest. The US charge d’affaires to Bucharest, Dean Thompson, has stated that a proper review of public procurement rules and applying an adequate prevention system for identifying conflicts of interest, which will help Romania fight corruption. Attending the signing ceremony, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said that one of the main aims of the government is the reform of the public acquisition system. He announced that the National Strategy for Public Procurement will be finalized by the end of this month, together with four more bills on the transposition of relevant European directives, so that the new regulations can be passed by Parliament in its autumn session. The European Commission called on Romania in 2014 to pass such a strategy in order to sort out problems that had been a major concern for Brussels so far.

Large Scale NATO Exercises in Romania

Romanian military personnel takes part the rest of this month in exercises run by Romania alongside foreign partners. At the military firing range in Cincu, in Brasov County, the TRIDENT JOUST 15 exercise brings together 1000 soldiers from 26 NATO members. It is designed to test the capability of the Joint Allied Command in Naples to coordinate common defense for NATO. A command structure from a Joint Allied Command was for the first time relocated to Romania, and also as a first, a command and control unit of NATO’s Response Force, of which the Naples Command is in charge this year, is transferred to a temporary location. At the same time, until June 26th, Romanian soldiers take part in the a multinational special forces exercise ROUSOFEX 15. Around 1,500 soldiers from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Poland, Romania and the US, with over 100 combat assets, take part in this tactical exercise running at several Romanian locations.