In Romania, the
\nextremely cold weather of the past few days has led to record levels of gas and
\nelectricity consumption. The consumption of natural gas went up to over 60
\nmillion cubic meters per day, 20% more than on a regular winter day. The
\nleadership of Transgaz, which is the national gas carrier, has given
\nassurances, though, that there is enough gas to avoid starting the emergency
\nprocedures. As regards electricity, the consumption has these days reached over
\n9,400 megawatts. The normal consumption on a regular winter day is 9,000 megawatts. To cover the high demand,
\nadditional units have been rendered operational, which produce electricity from
\ncoal and fuel oil.<\/p>\n
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According to Bloomberg
\nBusinessweek, Romanian officials are afraid they might be accused of corruption
\nand therefore avoid signing loan agreements worth billions of Euros with the
\nEU. The publication recalls that the Romanian National Anti-corruption
\nDirectorate is investigating over 10,000 cases and hundreds of public servants
\nhave been charged with corruption, following a campaign supported by the chief
\nprosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, who was appointed head of the Directorate in
\n2013. Under the operations conducted by the Directorate, many politicians have
\nbeen charged with corruption, such as the former mayor of Bucharest, Sorin
\nOprescu or Finance Minister Darius Valcov. The Representative in Romania of the
\nEuropean Investment Bank, Dietmar Dumlich has stated, quoted by Bloomberg, that the
\ninstitution has endorsed 1.7 billion euro worth of credits for infrastructure
\nprojects, but cannot find anybody to sign the documents.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The President of the Republic
\nof Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, had a phone conversation with Romania’s president
\nKlaus Iohannis on Thursday night. The two officials discussed the current
\nsocial – political situation in Chisinau, as well as the relations between the
\ntwo countries, the Moldovan presidency announced in a communique. Klaus
\nIohannis stressed the fact that Moldova’s having a new sworn-in government is a step forward
\ntowards overcoming the political crisis and implementing the Association
\nAgreement with the EU. Also, the two officials reaffirmed the two countries’
\nwillingness to cooperate at all levels: political, economic and social. Also on
\nThursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution saluting the Chisinau
\ngovernment, which took office after a long period of political deadlock. On
\nWednesday, the legislative endorsed the swearing in of the pro-West coalition
\ngovernment, headed by Pavel Filip. Discontent with the corruption and lack of
\neffectiveness of the political class, thousand of protesters went to Parliament
\nright after the vote, to call for early elections.<\/p>\n
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\n
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The Group of
\nStates Against Corruption – GRECO – has today made public the report on the
\nfourth evaluation round on transparency
\nof the legislative process in Romania. The recommendations made by GRECO
\ninclude the development of a code of conduct for MPs and completing the code of
\nethical conduct for judges and prosecutors, so that they can provide adequate
\nguidance in particular with regard to conflicts of interest. Also, GRECO
\nrecommends that the judiciary in Romania should improve its response to the
\nintegrity risks facing judges and prosecutors.<\/p>\n
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At least 21
\npeople, including 8 children, died this morning after their boats sank off the
\nGreek islands, with dozens of migrants reported missing, according to
\ninformation provided by the Greek coast guard and taken over by FP. On
\nThursday, at least 12 immigrants, also including children, drowned in Turkey’s
\nterritorial waters, as the boat on board of which they were trying to reach the
\nGreek coast sunk. According to estimates by the International Organization for
\nMigration, between the 1st and the 18 of January, 77 people coming from the
\nTurkish coast, trying to reach western Europe, died while attempting to cross the sea.
\nAccording to the same organization, over 31,000 people have arrived to the
\nGreek islands since the beginning of the year, which means 21 times more than
\nin January 2015. Last year, over one million refugees and immigrants reached
\nEurope, most of them crossing the Mediterranean. 3,700 people died trying to
\nreach the continent.<\/p>\n
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\n
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<\/p>\n
At the year’s
\nfirst Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, the pair made of the Romanian
\nFlorin Mergea and the Indian Rohan Bopanna has today qualified to the
\ntournament’s round of 16. 4th-seed Mergea and Bopanna have
\noutclassed the all-Czech pair made of Lukas Dlouhy si
\nJiri Vesely, 6-3, 6-2. The top-seed pair made of the Romanian Horia
\nTecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer on Saturday will be facing the German -
\nAustrian pair made of Benjamin Becker and Dominic Thiem. In the women’s
\nsingles, all five Romanian tennis players who have played their fixtures in the
\nmain draw have been edged out of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\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":[29795,29807,29818,29819,29130],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-australian-open","tag-extreme-weather","tag-greco","tag-immigration","tag-moldova"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n