Romania-IMF.<\/b> The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis had talks on
\nFriday with the director of the IMF’s European Department Poul Thomsen about the positive
\nprospects of the Romanian economy and the latest European developments. The two
\nofficials emphasised the need for Romania to continue reforms against a
\nbackdrop of fiscal, budgetary and financial predictability and reiterated the
\nimportance of consolidating the trust of the business community and Romania’s
\nforeign partners in the government’s policies. The IMF official, who served as
\nthe Fund’s chief negotiator with Romania between 1996 and 1998, also had talks
\nwith prime minister Dacian Ciolos, the governor of the National Bank Mugur
\nIsarescu and the leaders of the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, the largest in Parliament.
\nSince 2009, Romania has signed three consecutive agreements with the IMF and
\nthe European Union. The latest, worth 2 billion euros, expired in September
\n2015 without Romania having had to access the available funds. The purpose of
\nthis precautionary-type agreement was to protect the country’s economy from
\npossible shocks on the financial market. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Economy.<\/b> Romania’s GDP rose by 3.7% in the first 9
\nmonths of the year compared with the same period last year, according to the
\nNational Institute of Statistics. All economic sectors have contributed to this
\ngrowth with the exception of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The European
\nCommission has improved its autumn forecast of Romania’s economic growth rate,
\nwhose pace will accelerate this year and in 2016 to reach 3.5% and 4.1%,
\nrespectively, on the back of recent
\ntax relaxation measures to stimulate domestic demand. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Corruption.<\/b> The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest
\non Friday ruled that the Social Democrat senator and former transport minister
\nDan Sova be placed under house arrest as part of a corruption investigation. He
\nwas detained on Thursday, being accused of peddling in influence in relation to
\na legal assistance contract with a state energy company. According to the
\nNational Anticorruption Directorate, between 2011 and 2014, Sova received
\n100,000 euros to convince the company’s general director to sign a contract
\nwith a certain law firm. Sova is also mentioned in another case involving and
\nthe former prime minister Victor Ponta who resigned last month. Also on Friday,
\nthe MP Florin Popescu was convicted by the High Court to two years in prison
\nfor demanding tens of tonnes of food products which he distributed to voters
\nprior to the local elections of 2012. At that time, Popescu was the president
\nof the Dambovita County Council and was a member of the Liberal Democratic
\nParty, which later merged with the National Liberal Party. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Counter-terrorism.<\/b> Five Somali citizens were found by the
\nRomanian border police while trying to cross the country’s eastern border
\nillegally to reach Western Europe. Border police officials said a careful examination will be made of everybody crossing the border, including
\ndata bases and travel documents, even in the case of European citizens. The
\npurpose of this measure is to prevent persons seen as a threat to domestic and
\nforeign security from crossing the border. In another development, European
\ninterior ministers agreed in Brussels on a system of sharing airline passenger
\ninformation. The police would have access to names, itinerary and credit cards
\ninformation. The details would be collected from European carrier flights
\nentering or leaving the European Union.
\nThe document must first be endorsed by the European Parliament during a
\nvote next month. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Military exercise.<\/b> Around 200 Romanian military
\nand some 350 US troops take part in the Dacian Thunder exercise that started on
\nFriday and comes to an end on the 20th of December at the air bases
\nin Mihail Kogalniceanu, in the south-east, and Campia Turzii, centre-west.
\nAccording to a press release from the Romanian defence ministry, the Dacian
\nThunder, which is now in its second year, aims to increase the level of staff interoperability,
\nensure an exchange of experience and improve the training of the Romanian and
\nUS staff by carrying out joint flights in keeping with NATO standards. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Transdniester.<\/b> The Romanian foreign minister
\nLazar Comanescu on Thursday attended the 22nd meeting of the OSCE
\nMinisterial Council held in Belgrade. In his address, he reiterated his
\ncountry’s support for Ukraine, urged the OSCE to play a more active role to
\nsolve the situation in Transdniester, a break-away pro-Russian region in the
\neast of the Republic of Moldova, and spoke about the organisation’s role in
\nfighting terrorism. On the sidelines of the meeting, minister Comanescu met his
\nMoldovan counterpart Natalia Gherman for talks on the political situation in
\nChisinau and Moldova’s Association Agreement with the European Union.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Handball.<\/b> The Romanian women’s handball team face Puerto
\nRico on Saturday in their first match at the World Championship in Denmark.
\nThey are in Group D, together with Kazakhstan, Spain, Norway and Russia. The
\nfour best-ranked teams in each group will qualify to the round of last 16.
\nBefore the start of the World Championship, Romania played four friendly games,
\nhaving won against the Czech Republic, Cuba and Sweden and lost to France.
\nRomania are the only team to have taken part in all editions of the World
\nChampionship since 1957 and have so far won three medals: gold in 1962 and
\nsilver in 1973 and again in 2005. <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by: C. Mateescu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania’ president Klaus Iohannis had talks with the director of the IMF’s European Department, Poul Thomsen<\/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":[28950,29597,29572,28903,28945,29499],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-corruption","tag-dacian-thunder","tag-handball","tag-imf","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-terrorism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n