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\n<\/p>\n
VISIT <\/strong> On
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ELECTIONS<\/strong>
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NATO<\/strong> Strengthening security on NATO’s eastern
<\/p>\n
MOLDOVA <\/strong> Nicolae Timofti, the President of
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ANTI-CORRUPTION<\/strong> The
<\/p>\n
SENTENCE<\/strong> The former head
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ECONOMY<\/strong> The Romanian authorities intend to ask the European Investment Bank,
<\/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-100827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWednesday, Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, started a working visit to the
\nGerman state of Bavaria and will attend the Security Conference in Munich, due
\nbetween February 12 and 14. On Thursday, the Romanian President will meet with
\nthe President of the Bavarian State Parliament, Barbara Stamm and on Friday
\nwith the Minister – President of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer. On Saturday, Klaus
\nIohannis will be among the key speakers at the Security Conference in Munich,
\nin the panel devoted to the future of the North Atlantic Alliance. Some of the
\nfocal points of the conference will be the stand on Russia, the refugee crisis,
\nthe future of the North Atlantic Alliance, terrorism, the situation in Syria,
\nUkraine and Africa, as well as climate change. Attending the conference will be
\nheads of state and government, European commissioners and ministers. <\/p>\n
\n
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\nLocal elections in Romania will be held on the 5th of June,
\nand the election campaign will be run between May 6th – June 4th
\nthe Romanian Government decided on Wednesday. The budget earmarked for this
\nsummer’s local elections stands at 350 million lei, the equivalent of some 75
\nmillion Euros. The local elections will be followed by the parliamentary ones,
\nin autumn. Also on Wednesday, the executive approved a long term strategy for
\ncombating poverty. According to the PM Dacian Ciolos, there are many Romanians
\nwho live in poverty, and 1.7 million of them are children. The prime minister
\nhas proposed a plan of measures using funds from the state budget and European funds to help poor people. The
\nmoney will be spent on learning materials, clothes and vitamins for pre-school
\nchildren, on ensuring an identity for all children, vaccines and financial
\nsupport to avoid school drop out, as well as
\nand social care and professional integration programs.<\/p>\n
\n
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\nflank was high on the agenda of talks held in Brussels on Wednesday between the
\nRomanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc and Philip Breedlove, commander of the
\nAllied Command Operations in Europe. On the occasion, Motoc presented Romania’s
\ndefense objectives and gave assurance of this country’s determination and
\ncapacity to fulfill its obligations as a member state and to thus help achieve
\nNATO’s objectives and missions. The agenda of talks also included NATO’s
\npriorities in the run up to the summit in Warsaw. The meeting between the two
\nofficials was held on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers’ summit.<\/p>\n
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\nthe Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly
\nRomanian-speaking population, will pay a formal visit to Romania on February
\n16-17, the Moldovan Presidency announced on Wednesday. He will hold meetings
\nwith his counterpart Klaus Iohannis, PM Dacian Ciolos, Senate Speaker Calin
\nPopescu Tariceanu and other officials in Bucharest. The agenda of talks
\nincludes topics such as bilateral relations, Moldova’s European agenda and the
\neconomic, political and social cooperation between the two countries. Also,
\npresident Timofti will hand in awards to President Klaus Iohannis, to the head
\nof the Emergency Situations Department of the Internal Affairs Ministry, State
\nSecretary Raed Arafat, and the famous Romanian actor Florin Piersic, who has
\nrecently turned 80.<\/p>\n
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\nNational Anti-corruption Directorate has called for the preventive detention of
\nMPs Madalin Voicu, member of the Social Democratic Party, and Nicolae Paun,
\nrepresentative in the Romanian Parliament of the Roma community, accused of
\nmisuse of European funds for projects targeting ethnic Roma. The alleged acts
\nof corruption were committed between 2010 – 2015 and caused millions of Euros
\nworth’ of damage to the state. Voicu is accused of office peddling, forgery and
\nmoney laundering, all aggravated, and Paun of forgery, changing the destination
\nof European funds without observing the
\nlegal provisions in force and carrying out financial operations incompatible
\nwith his position. Judiciary sources have announced that also prosecuted in the
\ncase are the President of the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF ) , Gelu Stefan Diaconu, and the vice-President of the same
\ninstitution, Mihai Gogancea Vatasoiu. The Romanian Finance Minister Anca Dragu
\nhas called for the resignation of the two ANAF heads. She has stated that the
\nAgency is one of the most important institutions in Romania, and its leadership
\nmust be above any suspicion.<\/p>\n
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\nwarden of the Penitentiary in Ramnicu – Sarat, south-eastern Romania, Alexandru
\nVisinescu was taken to prison on Wednesday, just a few hours after he received
\na final 20 year sentence from the High Court of Cassation and Justice for
\ncrimes against humanity. According to the prosecutors, between 1956 – 1963,
\nwhen Visinescu was head of the penitentiary, the political prisoners, who
\nopposed the communist regime, were subjected to abominable treatment, meant to
\ndestroy them physically. The detainees would thus die following a slow but
\neffective process of physical and psychological torture.<\/p>\n
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\nEIB, to get involved in developing projects under public-private partnerships.
\nThe issue was approached on Tuesday in Bucharest by the visiting EIB President
\nWerner Hoyer, during talks with Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis and Prime
\nMinister, Dacian Ciolos. The president of the European Investment Bank is
\npaying this visit against the backdrop
\nof the constant support granted by the financial institution he runs, to Romania.
\nLast year, the loans granted by EIB to Romania amounted to 228 million Euro. In
\nthe same line, two loans worth 1.3 billion Euro, co-financing EU grants, are at
\nan advanced state of preparation. Over the past 25 years, Romania benefited
\nfrom over 20 billion Euro worth of long term investments from the European
\nInvestment Bank, which were instrumental to creating new jobs, consolidating
\neconomic growth and improving the Romanians’ living standards.<\/p>\n