KING MICHAEL I <\/strong>– Three days of national mourning have been declared
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BREXIT <\/strong>– The
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JUSTICE <\/strong>– The Romanian Chamber of Deputies has passed the
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BUDGET <\/strong>– The
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FDI<\/strong> – Foreign Direct
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EUSDR<\/strong> – Romania will hold the
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PATRIOT<\/strong>
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NATO <\/strong>– Canadian pilots at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/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":[32897,30726,32896,32895,32898,31990],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-102432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-eu-strategy-for-the-danube-region","tag-fdi","tag-justice-law-amendments","tag-king-michael-i-funerals","tag-nato-drill","tag-patriot-systems"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nin Romania to honor the memory of its last sovereign, King Michael I. King
\nMichael’s coffin will be lying in state
\nin the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in Bucharest until Saturday, when the
\nfuneral is scheduled. The body of King Michael was brought to Romania on
\nWednesday, and the coffin was taken for a few hours to the Royal Peles Castle
\nin Sinaia mountain resort, where Romanian and Moldovan officials paid their
\nlast respects to the former King. Many people lined the route of the funeral
\nprocession between the airport and the mountain resort of Sinaia to bid
\nfarewell to the last King of Romania who ruled between 1940 and 1947. King
\nMichael died on December 5 in Switzerland at the age of 96. He will be laid to
\nrest at the royal necropolis in Curtea de Arges (in the south). The funerals
\nwill be attended by personalities from all over the world. According to the
\nsite romaniaregala.ro, attending the funerals, besides the Royal Family of
\nRomania, will be representatives of the Royal Families of Great Britain,
\nSweden, Spain, Belgium, Jordan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Bahrain, Bulgaria,
\nGreece, Serbia, Albania, France, Prussia and Portugal. Also attending the
\nfunerals will be representatives of the Imperial Families of Russia, Austria
\nand Germany, the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Princely House de Ligne.<\/p>\n
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\ndevelopments in the Brexit process and the issues caused by migration are the main
\ntopics on the agenda of the winter European Council which started on Thursday
\nin Brussels. Romania is represented by President Klaus Iohannis. The EU leaders
\nwill look at the progress made in the negotiations with London in three
\nspecific fields, namely citizens’ rights, dialogue with Ireland and Great
\nBritain’s financial commitments to the EU budget. The participants will also
\nadopt the guidelines that will facilitate the passing to the 2nd stage of
\nBrexit negotiations, in the context in which the EU chief negotiator Michel
\nBarnier confirmed that sufficient progress was reported in the 1st stage. On
\nthe sidelines of the European Council, President Iohannis will participate in
\nthe Euro+ Summit, which will be attended also by EU countries that are not in
\nthe Euro zone. As regards security and defense, the summit will discuss the
\ninstrument of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). President Iohannis will
\nreiterate Bucharest’s commitment to help render PESCO operational and will show
\nthat the implementation of this instrument should lead to a more efficient
\ndevelopment of military capabilities and to an increased cohesion among EU
\nstates. President Iohannis will also advocate the deepening and extension of
\nEU-NATO cooperation, the presidential administration reports.<\/p>\n
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\namendments modifying the justice laws that refer to the organization of the
\njudiciary and the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy. The bill
\non the organization of the judiciary provides, among other things, for the
\nsetting up of a unit for investigating prosecutors and judges and for the
\npossibility of solutions adopted by prosecutors being rejected by their
\nsuperiors, if the latter consider them illegal or ungrounded. The second bill
\nthat was passed, related to the functioning of the Superior Council of
\nMagistracy, states that the Judicial Inspection, which will remain a part of
\nthe institution, is the only body allowed to take disciplinary actions against
\na magistrate, eliminating from this procedure the justice minister and the
\npresident of the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The two bills will be
\nsent to the Senate, which is currently analyzing, in emergency procedure, the
\nbill on the status of magistrates. <\/p>\n
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\njoint budget and finance committees of the Romanian Parliament on Thursday
\ncontinued debates on the budgets to be allotted in 2018 to the main public
\ninstitutions. The committees endorsed the budgets earmarked for justice, defense, internal affairs and
\nagriculture. The majority coalition wants to finalize debates and
\nthe joint committees’ report by Saturday, so as to be able to debate the draft
\nbudget law during Monday’s plenary session. The final vote on the 2018 budget
\nand social security bill is scheduled for December 21. The budget was built on
\nan estimated 5.5% economic growth rate,
\nand additional revenues are to be distributed to healthcare, education and
\ninvestment. The government has also allotted resources for the rise in the
\nminimum salary and pensions. The opposition has contested the budget, claiming
\nthat revenues are overestimated. <\/p>\n
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\nInvestments in Romania went up by 17% in the first ten months of 2017, as
\ncompared to the same period in 2016, reaching 4.09 billion Euro, according to
\ndata made public on Thursday by the National Bank of Romania. Between January -
\nOctober 2017, the current account of the balance of payments registered a
\ndeficit of 5.3 billion Euros, 87% more than in the same period in 2016, the
\nCentral Bank has also announced. Romania’s external debt grew by 1.3 billion
\nEuros in the first ten months of this year.<\/p>\n
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\npresidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) between November
\n2018- November 2019, the Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs Victor
\nNegrescu announced on Thursday. He said that the term will coincide with the
\nRomanian presidency of the EU Council as of January 2019. EUSDR is one of the
\nfour EU macro-strategies, co-initiated by Romania and Austria and launched in
\n2011. It was developed in order for the Danube Region countries and
\nstakeholders to address common challenges together. The participating countries
\nare Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czcek Republic, Croatia, Germany, Slovakia,
\nSlovenia, Hungary, Bosnia-Hertegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of
\nMoldova and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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\n– Romania has already paid for the first Patriot missile system and next week
\nwill make another payment, this time for armored vehicles. The announcement
\nwas made on Thursday by the Romanian Defense Minister Mihai Fifor in the
\nSenate’s budget-finance committee. Romania wants to purchase six Patriot
\nsystems, worth a total of 3.9 billion dollars, VAT not included. The first
\nsystem costs 756 million dollars. The Patriot air and missile defense systems
\nwill become part of the Romanian Army’s equipment in the second half of 2019,
\nand the first one will be rendered operational in mid 2020. <\/p>\n
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\nin the southeast of Romania on Thursday participated alongside Romanian pilots
\nin an Air Policing drill, which is part of the NATO Plan to strengthen the
\neastern flank of the Alliance. MiG-21 LanceR and CF-18 Hornet planes carrying
\nmissiles are prepared to intercept potential unidentified aircraft nearing
\nRomania’s airspace. The drill is meant for the joint training of
\nmilitary, with a view to meeting NATO’s specific inter-operability requirements
\nand boosting the level of cooperation with the allies. <\/p>\n
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