The European Commission’s report under the
\nCooperation and Verification Mechanism published on Wednesday reconfirms the
\ncontinuous and consistent progress Romania has made in all the fields assessed,
\ngovernment sources in Bucharest have announced. According to the Executive,
\nthis third consecutive annual report is proof of the durable and sustained
\nreforms of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. The government
\nbelieves that acknowledging progress could be better highlighted through the
\nintroduction of a date on the completion of this monitoring by the European
\nCommission. President Klaus Iohannis has also confirmed Romania’s upward trend
\nin meeting the objectives included in the mechanism, Bucharest’s commitment to
\nstrengthening the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary being
\nirreversible. In the aforementioned report, the European Commission notices
\nRomania’s progress in reforming the judiciary and in the fight against
\ncorruption. The report praises the activity of the anti-corruption agencies at
\nthe same time criticizing Parliament for hindering the anti-corruption fight.
\nThe legislature was also being criticized for turning down requests coming from
\nthe judiciary, without however motivating its decisions. The European
\nCommission expects the authorities to step up efforts in 2016 mainly focusing
\non preventing acts of corruption and providing the right conditions so that
\njudges can do their job properly. <\/p>\n
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The
\nPermanent Bureau of the Romanian Senate has submitted to the Legal Committee a
\nrequest from the National Anti-corruption Directorate on commencing penal
\nprosecution in the case of Romania’s former deputy Prime Minister and Interior
\nMinister Gabriel Oprea. Oprea has invited his Senate colleagues to vote in
\nfavour of his prosecution saying that he doesn’t want to benefit from
\nlegislative immunity as he is completely innocent. Oprea is facing charges of
\nabuse of office with undue benefit for himself and other persons during his
\nmandate. He illegally used the Interior Ministry’s human and material resources
\nfor his personal benefit asking to be accompanied by motorcades while
\ntraveling. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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A pair made up of Romanian tennis
\nplayer Horia Tecau and the American Coco Vandeweghe has qualified for the mixed
\ndoubles semi-finals of the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam
\ntournament after defeating Americans Bob Bryan \/ Bethanie Mattek-Sands, seeded
\n2nd in the competition. The Romanian-American pair will be meeting
\nin the semis a pair made up of Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Treat Huey of the
\nPhilippines. Romania will benefit from the participation of its best tennis
\nplayer, the world’s number two Simona Halep in the Fedcup game against the
\nCzech Republic due in Cluj Napoca, western Romania over February 6th
\nand 7th. Halep had initially announced she was unable to join the
\nRomanian side due to a planned nose surgery. The world’s number 7 Petra Kvitova
\nwill be playing for the Czech team. <\/p>\n
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Romania ranks 58th
\nin Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. With 46 points,
\nas compared to an average of 65.36 at EU level, Romania is among the EU member
\nstates with the lowest number of points, alongside Bulgaria, Greece and Italy.
\nRanking first, for the fourth year in a row, is Denmark, the country with the
\nlowest perceived level of corruption the world over. North Korea and Somalia
\nare at the bottom of the classification, with only 8 points. The points
\naccumulated by a country\/ territory show the perceived level of corruption on a
\nscale from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). 168 countries have been
\nincluded in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions
\nIndex. <\/p>\n
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Romania is affected
\nby obsolete medical assistance structures, the European Medical Systems Index
\nshows. Last year, Romania went up three positions and is now on the 32nd
\nplace, with only 527 out of a total of 1,000 points. In one of the most
\nimportant categories, treatment result, Romania ranked at the bottom of the
\nclassification, alongside Macedonia.
\nBucharest also got a low number of points for other chapters such as
\ninfantile mortality rate,
\nabortion rate and cancer survival rate. The
\nreport, drafted by a Swedish company also shows that Romania, just like Albania
\nand Bulgaria, have a high and costly hospitalization rate. <\/p>\n
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Romania wants to contribute to the
\nconsolidation of education regarding the Holocaust so that the lessons of the
\npast may become foundations for peace and stability, Romanian Foreign Minister
\nLazar Comanescu said on Wednesday on the International Holocaust Remembrance
\nDay. According to Comanescu, in March Romania will be taking over the
\nchairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. We recall
\nthat Romania officially recognized the Holocaust in 2004 and a Holocaust
\nmemorial was inaugurated in Bucharest in 2009. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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