Romania’s Prime Minister designate, Liberal
\nLudovic Orban on Thursday submitted to Parliament proposals for the country’s
\nnew Executive and the governing programme<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s
\nPrime Minister designate, Liberal Ludovic Orban on Thursday submitted to
\nParliament proposals for the country’s new Executive and the governing
\nprogramme. The future cabinet will have 16 ministries and a Deputy Prime
\nMinister. Ensuring the proper conditions for the good functioning of the
\npresidential election in November, nominating a European commissioner candidate
\nand the draft budget for the next year are among the urgent measures stipulated
\nin the governing programme. The investiture vote will be taking place after the
\nfirst round of talks with the Pro Romania party, led by Romania’s former Prime
\nMinister Victor Ponta, ended in a deadlock. The cabinet may not rely on support
\nfrom the People’s Movement Party either, as the PMP do not agree with the Prime
\nMinister’s decision to forge a single-color cabinet. On the other hand the USR
\nand ALDE have announced they have reached a political agreement with the
\nLiberals. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) says that
\nthe cabinet stands good chances to get the investiture vote while the
\nrepresentatives of the national minorities have announced their support for a
\nPNL government. We recall that the National Liberal Party rallied support from
\nthe other political parties in opposition to bring down the PSD government led
\nby Viorica Dancila on October 10th. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where do the Romanians abroad cast their
\nballot in the upcoming presidential election?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry
\nhas published a list and an interactive map of the 835 polling stations where
\nthe Romanians living abroad can cast their ballot in the presidential election
\nof November 10th and 24th. The number is almost three
\ntimes higher compared to the previous presidential election of 2014. Most polls
\nwill be opened in Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, France, the United States,
\nthe Republic of Moldova, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Austria,
\nGreece, Portugal and Switzerland. Overall, 639 polls will be opened in EU
\nMember States. Additionally, apart from polls created in theatres of operation
\nin Afghanistan, a poling station will be opened this year in Mali, created
\nespecially for the Romanian military taking part in the UN peacekeeping missions
\nin this country. The voting process will be held over the course of three days
\nabroad, namely over November 8-10 for the first round and November 22-24 for
\nthe runoff, between 12 – 9 PM local time on Friday, and between 7 AM and 9 PM
\nlocal time on Saturday and Sunday. All voters who are still in line either
\ninside or outside polling stations at 9 PM will be able to cast their votes by
\nmidnight.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The European Commission maintains the
\nCooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The latest developments in the
\nreform of the judiciary and the process of fighting corruption in the first
\nmonths of 2019 were reasons for serious concern for the European Commission,
\nsays the latest assessment report with the Cooperation and Verification
\nMechanism released on Tuesday. According to the document, since the previous
\nreport in November 2018, the Commission has continued to announce the
\nauthorities in Bucharest about its concerns over the rule of law. The
\nkey institutions of Romania would need to collectively demonstrate a strong
\ncommitment to judicial independence and the fight against corruption as
\nindispensable cornerstones, and to ensure the capacity of national safeguards
\nand checks and balances, a press release from the Commission reads. In
\nBucharest Romania’s Justice Minister Ana Birchall says that Romania is
\nready to assume an active role in consolidating the European construction in
\nwhich justice plays a major role. The minister decided to immediately summon the
\nspecialized national committee for a joint action plan. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian president and
\nhis wife attended the enthronement ceremony of Japan’s emperor Naruhito<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s
\npresident Klaus Iohannis and his wife Carmen on Tuesday attended emperor
\nNaruhito’s enthronement ceremony in Tokyo. Naruhito proclaimed his ascension to
\nthe throne in the presence of 180 foreign dignitaries, including Prince Charles,
\nthe heir to the British throne, King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia. In
\nTokyo, the Romanian president had talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
\nthe Finnish president Sauli Niinisto, and with his
\nLatvian counterpart Egils Levits. Emperor Naruhito, who is the 126th
\nmonarch of his dynasty, took over imperial duties in May this year after the
\nabdication of his father Akihito, now known as emperor emeritus. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Is the Schengen zone expanding?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The future Schengen accession of
\nCroatia, Bulgaria and Romania would make the European Union better equipped for
\nprotecting this border-free area, Dimitris Avramopulos, the EU Commissioner for
\nMigration, Home Affairs and Citizenship said in Strasbourg on Tuesday. The
\nEuropean Commission decided in Strasbourg on Tuesday that Croatia meets the
\ntechnical conditions for Schengen accession. Avramopulos recalled that at
\npresent 400 million EU citizens can travel without restrictions in 22 EU
\ncountries and in four associated non-EU countries. The EU official has
\nunderlined that the Schengen zone is the largest border-free area in the world.
\nInitially scheduled for March 2011, Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to this
\nzone has been repeatedly postponed due to opposition from some member states which
\ninvoked the lack of reforms in the country’s justice system. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A decision to
\nappoint Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania’s former anti-corruption chief prosecutor
\nas head of the future European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) was signed at
\nthe European Parliament<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A decision to appoint Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania’s former
\nanti-corruption chief prosecutor as head of the future European Public
\nProsecutor’s Office (EPPO) was signed by European Parliament President David
\nSassoli and by the Finnish Minister for European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen on
\nWednesday. The idea for setting up the aforementioned institution has been
\nlaunched and promoted by another Romanian, former minister and MEP, Monica
\nMacovei. The EPPO is expected to become operational at the end 2020 as an
\nindependent institution in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes
\nagainst the EU budget, such as fraud, corruption or cross-border fraud with
\nover 10 million Euros in VAT. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of the week’s main stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":124654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[42469,31801,30138,34708,28976],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review","tag-avramopulos","tag-eppo","tag-kovesi","tag-naruhito","tag-schengen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n