Almost one week after a
\npoliceman died in an accident while leading the motorcade escorting the
\nRomanian interior minister and deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea, the latter
\nsaid he was travelling on official business. He emphasised that any
\nspeculations that he was using an official escort without legal grounds were
\ncompletely unfounded. This is Oprea’s first public statement after calls from
\nthe president, civil society and political leaders who, immediately after the
\naccident, requested him to provide an explanation on whether he was entitled to
\na police motorcade escort. After the accident, the Prosecutor’s Office has
\nstarted an investigation for involuntary manslaughter. On Sunday, almost 1,000
\npeople took part in a rally in Bucharest to express their solidarity with the
\npoliceman’s family. They called for the resignation of minister Gabriel Oprea,
\nas did a number of NGOs and the Liberal opposition, who are planning to call
\nfor a vote of no-confidence in this case.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The postal voting bill is under debate in the Chamber of Deputies as
\npart of an emergency procedure before being debated by both chambers in a joint
\nmeeting in two days’ time. Today is the deadline by which amendments must be
\nsubmitted. This afternoon, the committee responsible for drafting election laws
\nis due to meet NGOs and other bodies interested in the postal voting system.
\nUnder the new bill, which is supported by the Social Democratic Party, the main
\nruling party in Romania, and the National Liberal Party, in opposition, the
\npostal voting system is to be used in the parliamentary, presidential and
\nEuropean elections and only applies to voters who reside or live abroad. The
\nDemocratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the Alliance of Liberals
\nand Democrats for Europe have criticised the bill, saying it does not comply
\nwith the article in the Constitution according to which the vote is universal,
\nequal, direct and secret. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania must improve its business environment to reduce companies’
\nhidden costs and one important means of achieving this is by improving its
\npublic administration, said the head of the European Commission Representation
\nin Romania Angela Filote at a foreign investors’ forum in Bucharest. In recent
\nyears, Romania has grown faster than other EU states, but this growth must be
\nbacked by local and foreign direct investment, as well as investment in high
\nadded value areas such as research and innovation, Filote also said. Romania
\nmust win back its place on the map of foreign investors and its good current
\neconomic situation should be taken into account, said the state secretary in
\nthe Department for Foreign Investment and Private-Public Partnership, Alexandru
\nNastase. He explained that direct foreign investment in Romania amounted to 2.4
\nbillion euros in the first eight months of the year, which shows an increase
\ncompared with 2014. The Foreign Investors Summit in Bucharest brings together
\nexperts from fields such as finance, IT and communications, real estate and the
\nauto industry and comes to an end on Thursday. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s president Klaus
\nIohannis attended an extraordinary meeting of heads of state and government
\nheld on Sunday in Brussels and called for by the European Commission to discuss
\nmigration in the Western Balkans. The meeting was attended by heads of state
\nand government from eight EU countries, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia,
\nGermany, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia, as well as three non-EU states,
\nAlbania, Macedonia and Serbia. The participants agreed, among others, to create
\n100,000 places in refugee reception centres along the migrant route in the
\nBalkans, of which 50,000 will be located in Greece. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Until November 6th,
\nmore than 1,800 Romanian military and 300 US military are taking part in the
\nJustice Sword exercise at the Smardan shooting range near Galati, in
\nsouth-eastern Romania. The exercise provides training to achieve harmonisation
\nof tactics and procedures and improve confidence in equipment and group
\ncohesion. Another exercise, called Dragoon Crossing Romania, is coming to an
\nend today in Arad county, in the west. 250 Romanian and 170 US military have
\ntaken part in this exercise, whose aim is to demonstrate the interoperability
\nbetween the two armies and develop abilities of planning, leadership and
\nexecution as part of water-crossing operations. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian men’s handball champions HCM Minaur Baia Mare on Sunday
\ndefeated the Macedonian side RK Metalurg Skopje 23:21 in a Champions League
\nGroup D match. On Friday, the women’s handball champions CSM Bucharest defeated
\nthe Swedish side IK Savehof 28:17 in a Champions League Group D match. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look at some of the main stories in Romania today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":100004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28877],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n