Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday went
\nto the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and met with representatives of the Israeli
\ncommunity of Romanian origin. The official agenda of the head of state, whose
\nvisit started on Sunday, also included talks with his counterpart Reuven
\nRivlin, PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein.
\nAlso in Jerusalem, Klaus Iohannis announced he would talk with the Romanian
\nGovernment about setting up in Bucharest a museum dedicated to Jews and the Holocaust.
\nOn Thursday, the Romanian president will travel to the Palestinian territories,
\nwhere he will meet with President Mahmoud Abbas.<\/p>\n
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Romanian society is capable
\nof taking responsibility, without being monitored from the outside, for the
\nfight against corruption and the independence of the judiciary, said on
\nWednesday the Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. He met in the Hague with
\nhis Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, whose country has repeatedly stood against
\nRomania’s joining the Schengen area. On the occasion, Ciolos underscored that
\nRomania’s progress had been highlighted in the latest report of the Cooperation
\nand Verification Mechanism, a tool used by the European Commission to monitor the Romanian justice system. In
\nturn, PM Rutte said that the January report stressed the major steps that
\nRomania had made towards reforming the judiciary and in the fight against
\ncorruption. Scheduled initially to take place in 2011, Romania’s joining the
\nfree movement area has been postponed, because of the opposition of some of the
\nmember countries, which have voiced their distrust in the effectiveness of the
\nRomanian justice system.<\/p>\n
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The last sovereign of Romania, Mihai I (1940-1947), continues to
\nbe in a severe but stable condition, news agencies quote sources close to the
\nRoyal House as saying. No major changes have occurred since the previous
\nmedical report was released on March 4, when doctors said his evolution was
\nrelatively stable. King Mihai, 94, underwent cancer surgery and announced his
\nwithdrawal from public life, on March 1, saying that his first born of his five
\ndaughters, Princess Margareta, the Custodian of the Crown, will represent him
\nand will replace him in accomplishing his public duties. On August 23, 1944,
\nduring WWII, the King ordered the arrest of the de facto leader of the country,
\nmarshal Ion Antonescu, Romania’s withdrawal from the alliance with Nazi Germany
\nand the country’s return to the side of its traditional allies, the United
\nStates and Great Britain. According to historians, his decision shortened the
\nwar by at least 6 months, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Three years
\nlater, when the country was practically under Soviet military occupation and
\nwas led by a communist government, the King was forced to abdicate and to go
\ninto exile in the West. He could return to the country only after the 1989
\nanti-communist Revolution. <\/p>\n
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Romania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday
\nmotivated its decision by which the Romanian Intelligence Service can no longer
\nconduct interceptions relating to criminal cases. According to the Court’s
\nruling, only police officers and prosecutors can intercept phone conversations,
\nnot the Intelligence Service, which is not a criminal investigation body. Among
\nother things, the Court referred to the provisions of the Romanian Constitution
\nand of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights regarding privacy and the right to
\nconfidential correspondence. The
\nConstitutional Court has stated that the ruling also applies to cases pending
\nbefore the court of law. Also on
\nWednesday, the National Anti-corruption Directorate announced that, due to the
\nchanges in the regulations regarding interceptions, it needed an additional 130
\nstaff and technical equipment, which would cost some 10 million Euros from the
\nstate budget.<\/p>\n
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On Wednesday, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies
\ndecided to not endorse the request made by prosecutors with the Anti-corruption
\nDirectorate to place under preventive arrest the Social Democrat Cristian
\nRizea. However, the Chamber endorsed the request for Rizea to be detained.
\nRizea is accused of influence peddling, money laundering and subornation of
\nperjury. Prosecutors say that Rizea allegedly received 300,000 Euros in bribe
\nfrom an American citizen, to intervene in a case of land property return. The
\nMP has rejected the accusations and has stated that, in the run up to the June
\n5th elections, he’s been put under pressure to withdraw from the
\nrace for the position of mayor of one of Bucharest’s districts.<\/p>\n
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The law on giving
\nin payment will trigger a drop in prices on the real estate market of at least
\n10%, which will in turn lead to a decrease in people’s welfare by 2,000 Euro
\nper household. The statement was made on Wednesday by the Vice-Governor of the
\nNational Bank of Romania, Liviu Voinea, according to whom the law will have
\nnegative consequences for the banking sector, the Government and the entire
\neconomy, as consumption will also drop. Late last month, the Senate unanimously
\nadopted the law on giving in payment, under which a debt is discharged if the
\none who took the loan gives to the bank the mortgaged property. The law is now
\nunder debate by the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making body in
\nthis matter.<\/p>\n
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<\/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-100883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n