This year, nine foreign citizens suspected of actions
\nrelated to terrorism have been declared ‘personae non gratae’ and expelled from
\nthe country at the proposal of the Romanian Intelligence Service, according to
\nthe spokesman for the Service. Another 246 people have not been allowed access
\nto the country this year, as they presented potential risks. The citizens who
\nwere not allowed access to the country were mostly from Iraq, Palestine,
\nMorocco, Tunis and Syria, and some 70% them are known to have been connected to
\nthe Islamic State terrorist organization. The Romanian Intelligence Service has
\nstated that, given the current security background in Europe, the level of
\nterrorism threat according to the National Terrorism Threat Advisory System is
\n‘guarded-blue’. The service is cooperating with both national and international
\npartners in helping enforce the measures aimed at protecting democratic
\nvalues. <\/p>\n
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\n
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<\/p>\n
The
\nRomanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is participating in Belgrade in the
\n22nd OSCE Ministerial Council. This is the main annual event of the
\nOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which gathers foreign
\nministers and high-ranking officials from the 57 countries members of the
\norganization, as well as representatives of the partner countries. According to
\nthe Foreign Ministry, Romania will keep promoting the full implementation of
\nthe principles of and commitments made under all three dimensions of the OSCE:
\nthe politico-military, the economic and environmental and the human.<\/p>\n
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The Romanian Senate has endorsed in plenary session the request made by
\nthe National Anticorruption Directorate to place in temporary police custody
\nthe Social Democrat Senator Dan Sova. Sova has stated there is no piece of
\nevidence against him and he is not a public danger, therefore the measure of
\nhim being held in detention cannot be justified. The anticorruption prosecutors
\nhave accused Sova of influence peddling in a case concerning legal consultancy
\nagreements with the Govora thermal powerplant, which cost the state over one
\nmillion Euros. In March, the Senate rejected another request filed by the
\nNational Anticorruption Directorate for the arrest of Dan Sova, as he was
\naccused of corruption in cases involving the energy compounds of Rovinari and
\nTurceni. In another move, the Legal Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on
\nWednesday endorsed the National Anticorruption Directorate’s request to place
\nunder preventive detention the Liberal MPs Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu,
\nwho are also being prosecuted for corruption. The final decision in their case
\nwill be made in plenary Chamber of Deputies session next week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The 2016 draft
\nstate budget is on the Romanian Government’s agenda today. Prime Minister
\nDacian Ciolos has stated that indexing pensions by 5% and raising salaries in
\nthe public sector by 10% are measures included in the budget. The main fiscal
\nmeasures due to come into force next year are the reduction of the VAT from 24%
\nto 20% and slashing taxes on dividends from 16% to 5%. The budget for 2016 is built
\non a deficit of 2.8% of the GDP and an economic growth rate of 4.1%.<\/p>\n
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\n
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The head of the National Anticorruption
\nDirectorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Covesi, is on a mission to the
\nneighboring Republic of Moldova, where, alongside other European experts, she
\nwill conduct an assessment of the main law institutions in that country.
\nFollowing the assessment, the Chisinau authorities will receive some
\nrecommendations regarding the reform of the judiciary and the fight against
\ncorruption. The visit made by the European experts comes against the background
\nof the political crisis triggered by the disappearance of one billion dollars
\nfrom the Moldovan banking system, accounting for 12% of the country’s GDP.
\nAccording to the polls, the Moldovan citizens blame the entire political class for
\nwhat the media termed ‘the robbery of the century’, in which the former Liberal
\nDemocrat PM Vlad Filat was allegedly involved too.<\/p>\n
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\n
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<\/p>\n
Retail
\nvolumes in Romania went up by 12.1% in October, as compared to the same period
\nof 2014, accounting for the most significant growth in the whole of the EU,
\nreads a report presented on Thursday by the statistical office of the European
\nUnion, EUROSTAT. In the EU, retail trade increased by 3.1% in October, while in
\nthe Eurozone the growth stood at 2.5%. Next after Romania comes Lithuania, with
\n6.6%, and Estonia with 6.5%. As compared to the previous month, retail remained
\nstable in the EU and dropped by 0.1% in the Eurozone. The biggest growth rates
\nwere reported by Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Portugal, and the most significant
\ndrops were registered in Slovenia, Ireland, Austria and Great Britain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Great
\nBritain has today carried out the first air strikes on Syria, against Islamic
\nState strongholds, just a few hours after Parliament green lighted the action,
\nFrance Presse reports. London has been part of the US-led international
\ncampaign against the jihadist group for a year now, but its military actions
\nwere focused on Iraq alone, as that country had requested international support
\nin its fight against terrorists. Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, in
\nNovember, France too decided to intervene in Syria, and called for its European
\npartners’ support. The German Government has already endorsed the deployment of
\n1200 soldiers to the region. Currently, the US, France, Jordan and, starting
\ntoday, Great Britain, are bombing Islamist targets in Syria. In a separate move
\nin late September Russia launched a string of air strikes against Syria,
\nclaiming it was targeting exclusively terrorist positions, but the US and NATO
\naccuse Moscow of targeting insurgent positions supported by the West. A Russian
\nfighter has been recently downed by Turkey, during an operation against the
\nrebels on the Turkish-Syrian border.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Russian president Vladimir
\nPutin has today started his annual ‘state of the nation’ address by thanking
\nthe Russian soldiers who are participating in the military operation in Syria.
\nHe has stated that the rebels in Syria are a real threat to Russia. He has also
\nsaid that Ankara will regret the downing of the Russian bomber on the
\nTurkish-Syrian border. Putin has also said that Moscow will not ignore the fact
\nthat Ankara is helping the terrorists. According to the Russian president, the
\ndestabilization from the outside of some of the Middle East countries has
\nopened the door for terrorists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian
\nnational women’s handball team on Wednesday defeated away from home the Swedish
\nsquad, 33-30, in its last training match before the World Championship in
\nDenmark. Over the past week, the Romanians have played three games, winning
\nagainst the Czech Republic and Cuba,
\nand losing to France. The Romanian squad will play their first match at the
\nWorld Championship on Saturday against the team of Puerto Rico. Part of the
\nsame group D are also Kazakhstan, Spain, Norway and Russia. The top ranking
\nfour in each group will qualify for the eights finals. Romania is the only
\ncountry which, since 1957, has participated in all the final tournaments of the
\nWorld Championship, winning gold in 1962
\nand silver in 1973 and 2005 respectively. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/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":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n