\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
Romania’s General Prosecutor,
\nTiberiu Nitu, resigned on Tuesday, 4 months before the end of his term in office and a week after his name
\nappeared in the case in which the National Anti-corruption Directorate called
\nfor the prosecution of the former Deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea, for
\nabuse of power in using official motorcades. Nitu has stated that his
\nresignation comes despite the good results of the Romanian judiciary, as also
\nreflected by the latest country report drawn up the European Commission. He has
\nsaid he does not want the name and position of general prosecutor to be
\nassociated with an image that might damage the Romanian judiciary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The legal
\ncommittee of the Romanian Senate has endorsed the prosecution of the former
\nDeputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea. The Anti-corruption
\nprosecutors have accused Oprea of office malfeasance regarding the illegal use
\nof the official motorcade and also of having concluded with the General
\nProsecutor’s Office a protocol under which Romania’s Prosecutor General would
\nillegally benefit from official police escort. Senator Gabriel Oprea claims he
\nis not guilty and does not want to make
\nuse of its parliamentary immunity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos
\nhas had a meeting with the EU Ambassadors to Bucharest, organized by the Dutch
\nEmbassy, devoted to the Dutch presidency of the EU Council. After the meeting,
\nCiolos stated he had explained the ambassadors the priorities of the Romanian
\ngovernment, Bucharest’s stand on migration and the reasons why Romania
\ncontinued to be a major candidate for Schengen accession. He also said the
\nparticipants discussed the situation in the Republic of Moldova, against the
\nbackground of Romania being known by the European and Euro-Atlantic partners as
\nregards its coordination and cooperation with that country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The European Bank for
\nReconstruction and Development – EBRD-
\nwill help Romania use European funds for projects aimed at
\nboosting economic and social development. This is the object of the agreement
\nsigned on Tuesday between the Romanian Government and EBRD. The document was
\nsigned by the Romanian State Secretary with the Ministry of European Funds,
\nEmanoil Dascalu and the EBRD Regional Director for Romania and Bulgaria, Matteo
\nPatrone, in the presence of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and the EBRD President
\nSuma Chakrabarti, reads a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the bank. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian Foreign Minister
\nLazar Comanescu attended in Sofia on Tuesday the informal meeting of the
\nforeign ministers of the countries that are party to the South-East European
\nCooperation Process. In his speech, Comanescu reiterated Romania’s support for
\nthe advancement of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration in the south-east
\nEuropean region and stressed Romania’s concern over the worrying developments
\nin the eastern neighborhood of the EU. The Romanian Foreign Minister also
\ntalked about Romania’s approach to curbing the effects of migration and
\nterrorism on the countries members of the SEECP and EU. On the sidelines of the
\nmeeting, the Romanian minister also held talks with his Bulgarian, Macedonian
\nand Albanian counterparts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
NATO stages naval
\nmilitary exercises in the Black Sea waters this month, involving military ships
\nfrom Bulgaria, Romania, Spain and Turkey. The exercises will consist mainly in surveillance of
\nthe sea routes, to prevent illegal trafficking of goods and people. The
\nexercise is part of the Romanian Navy’s work plan for 2016 and aims at raising
\nthe Romanian military interoperability level with NATO partners.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The President of the European
\nCouncil, Donald Tusk, has presented its proposals for an agreement regarding
\nthe reform of the EU, which would prevent Great Britain from leaving the Union.
\nTusk has set forth a safeguard
\nmechanism, under which welfare for European immigrants in Great Britain
\nwould be limited to four years. He has also promised London to observe the
\nrights and competences of the countries that are not members of the Eurozone.
\nDonald Tusk has held negotiations in London with the British PM David Cameron,
\nwhose main request concerned the limitation of the European immigrants’ access
\nto the British welfare system. Following the talks, Cameron has stated that the
\nproposals made by the EU to make sure Great Britain remains part of the EU
\naccount for a real progress but, he has also added, there is still a lot more
\nto be done in that respect. The British PM has promised the population he will
\nrenegotiate his country’s relations with the EU and will then hold a referendum
\non whether Britain should stay or not in the EU.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Pentagon estimates a four
\ntimes increase, up to 3.4 billion dollars, of its expenditure for Europe in
\n2017, against what it called the ‘Russian aggression’, announced on Tuesday the
\nUS Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, quoted by Reuters and FP. Carter stated
\nthat Pentagon’s request for funding would be in line with the agreement reached
\nin the US Congress regarding the budget, but spending would focus on the five
\nmain challenges facing the US armed forces: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran
\nand the Islamic State. He also stated that by 2017 he envisaged an increase by
\n50%, up to 7.5 billion dollars, of the budget earmarked for funding the fight
\nagainst the Islamic State jihadist movement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The head of the Syrian
\ndelegation to the peace negotiations in Geneva said on Tuesday that talks were still in the preparation phase
\nand was still waiting for the UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to present
\nthe list of members of the Syrian delegation, Reuters and FP reports. On the other
\nside, representatives of the opposition say that they will not negotiate unless
\nthe Damascus government ceases bombardments in civil areas and releases the
\nprisoners. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Zika virus
\nposes no threat to Romania at the moment but people who travel to Central and
\nSouth America might be exposed to it, the head of the Romanian Society of
\nMicrobiology, Alexandru Rafila, said on Tuesday. The World Health Organization has stated that the clusters of
\nbrain-damaged babies born in Brazil – linked to but not proven to be caused by
\nthe Zika virus – constitute a public health emergency of international concern.
\nThe WHO director Margaret Chan called Zika an extraordinary event and a public
\nhealth threat to other parts of the world.The infection has been linked to cases of microcephaly, in which babies
\nare born with underdeveloped brains. The WHO, which puts Zika in the same
\ncategory of concern as Ebola, made the announcement on Monday evening in
\nGeneva. Currently, there is no vaccine
\nor medication to stop Zika. In Europe
\nand North America tens of cases if infection with the virus have been reported
\namong people that have traveled to Latin America.<\/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-100811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n