Romanian prime minister Dacian Ciolos on Friday met
\nsurvivors and relatives of people wounded in the fire that broke out a year ago
\nat the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest in which 64 people were killed and more
\nthan 100 injured. On Wednesday, the government decided to prolong by two years
\nthe reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the wounded for their treatment
\nabroad. The court has recently begun a trial in the case. The three owners of
\nthe nightclub are accused of manslaughter, bodily harm and for failing to take
\nthe required legal health and safety measures. The owners of the company that
\nsupplied the pyrotechnics, an employee and two legal persons will also stand
\ntrial. The tragedy was followed by large-scale street demonstrations that led
\nto the resignation of the then Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta and
\nthe appointment of Dacian Ciolos’s technocratic cabinet. <\/p>\n
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Independent
\nparties and candidates in Romania have submitted their candidate lists for the
\nparliamentary elections of December 11th. Most political parties
\nhave candidates for all counties and say they propose many new names alongside
\nexperienced parliamentarians. The election campaign takes place between the 11th
\nof November and the 10th of December. <\/p>\n
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Today is the final day of the election campaign ahead of
\nthe first round of the presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova, an
\nex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population. The country’s
\npresident will be elected by direct vote instead of Parliament for the first
\ntime in 16 years. Commentators say these elections are crucial for Moldova’s
\ngeopolitical orientation, given that the pro-Russian Socialist leader Igor
\nDodon is leading in all opinion polls. His main rival is the former reformist
\neducation minister Maia Sandu, who campaigns for a reform of the state and
\naccession to the European Union and who enjoys the support of other pro-western
\ncandidates, who pulled out of the race. Moldova’s ambassador to Bucharest Mihai
\nGribincea said polling stations have been set up in neighbouring Romania at the
\nMoldovan embassy and the consulate in Bucharest, in Iasi, Galati, Bacau and
\nSuceava, all of which are in the east, close to the Romanian-Moldovan border,
\nas well as in Timisoara, in the west, Brasov, in the centre, Cluj, in the
\nnorth-west, Constanta, in the south-east and Craiova, in the south. The
\ngovernment in Bucharest has decided to provide free railway transportation to
\nand from polling stations for Moldovan students in Romania wishing to cast
\ntheir votes.<\/p>\n
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Belgium’s regional parliaments are today to sign the
\nrevised text of the EU-Canada free trade agreement. Yesterday, the federal
\nprime minister Charles Michel said the leaders of the Belgian regions reached
\nan agreement on CETA. The revised document must also be approved by the other
\n27 EU member states and Canada before being signed. The agreement, initially to
\nbe signed on Thursday in Brussels, has been blocked by the regional government
\nof Wallonia, who was unhappy with a number of provisions, in particular the
\nrules of trade arbitration between private companies and governments. Romania
\nalso made the signing of the agreement conditional on Canada’s lifting of visas
\nfor Romanian citizens. Canada agreed to a gradual lifting of visas starting
\nnext year, but only if the free trade agreement with the European Union is
\nsigned.<\/p>\n
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On Saturday
\nnight, Romania will turn the clocks back, with 4 am becoming 3 am. The 30th
\nof October will thus have 25 hours, being the longest day of the year. The move
\ncorrects for summertime changes, when clocks turned forward to make full use of
\nnatural light and reduce electricity consumption. Romania will return to
\nsummertime on the last Sunday in March. The practice was initiated in 1916,
\nduring World War One, by several countries in Europe and adopted by Romania in
\n1931. <\/p>\n
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The Romanian women’s handball
\nchampions CSM Bucharest today face the Hungarian side Gyor in the Champions
\nLeague Group C. The two sides last met in the competition’s final in May in a
\ndramatic match eventually won by the Romanian side after overtime and 7-m
\nthrows. This is the fourth time CSM Bucharest face Gyor, with the latter
\nleading their head-to-head meetings 2-1. In the first two group matches, CSM
\ndefeated the Russian side Rostov Don and lost to the Danish side FC
\nMidtjylland. Gyor currently top the group with 4 points, followed by CSM and
\nMidtjylland, each with two points, while Rostov are yet to collect a single
\npoint. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime minister Dacian Ciolos meets survivors of last year’s tragic fire at Bucharest nightclub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[31069,29434,29971,29572,29137],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-101436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-ceta","tag-colectiv-fire","tag-csm-bucharest","tag-handball","tag-moldova-elections"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n