PENSIONS Romania’s former MPs may keep their special
\npensions, and Parliament is only allowed to eliminate these benefits in the
\nfuture, the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday. On June 26,
\nParliament voted in favour of scrapping special pensions for Senators and Deputies,
\nan obligation undertaken by Romania under its National Recovery and Resilience
\nPlan. Close to 850 former MPs benefited from special pensions in May this year.<\/p>\n
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\n
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INVESTIGATION The Senate of
\nRomania is to decide on Wednesday whether to approve the request of the
\nNational Anti-Corruption Directorate to commence prosecution against the former
\nPM Florin C\u00ee\u0163u for complicity to abuse of office in an investigation
\nconcerning the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Florin C\u00ee\u0163u said he would
\nrequest his fellow Liberal Party members to lift his parliamentary immunity. Previously,
\npresident Klaus Iohannis forwarded to the Justice Ministry the prosecution
\nrequests concerning 2 former health ministers from Save Romania Union, Vlad
\nVoiculescu and Ioana Mih\u0103il\u0103, and notified the General Prosecutor’s Office in
\nthis respect. The 2 are probed into for abuse of office in relation to the
\nprocurement of vaccines.<\/p>\n
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\n
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CORRUPTION The mayor of the city of Baia Mare (north-west),
\nC\u0103t\u0103lin Chereche\u015f, who fled the country after being sentenced to 5
\nyears in prison in a corruption case, was apprehended in Germany, the Romanian
\nPolice announced. He was identified and taken into custody by the police in Bavaria based on the information provided by the Romanian
\nauthorities. Sources close to the investigation say the former mayor was aided
\nby an aunt and was attempting to leave Germany when he was caught. Chereche\u015f
\nhad left the country on Friday, using the ID of a family member, and the procedures
\nfor returning him to the country are under way.<\/p>\n
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\n
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NATURAL GAS Europe
\nhas taken major steps in terms of preparations for winter. Following the energy
\ncrisis in the post-pandemic period and the start of the Russian invasion in
\nUkraine, EU member states have replaced Russian natural gas with liquefied gas
\nfrom the US and natural gas from Norway, and have unprecedented stocks. Reuters
\nreports that in mid-November oil stocks were 12 million barrels above the season
\naverage of the past 10 years. Natural gas stocks are also at record-high
\nlevels, after consumption in the industrial sector dropped by around 13%. Average
\nprices, adjusted to inflation, were around EUR 48 per megawatt hour, down from
\nEUR 223 in August 2022, and analysts expect the downward trend will continue
\nnext year. Bucharest says Romania will not have problems with the supply of
\nnatural gas if temperatures remain normal this winter. The Romanian energy
\nminister Sebastin Burduja said all gas storage facilities are full and the
\ngovernment has emergency supply plans in place if necessary.<\/p>\n
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\n
<\/p>\n
NATO The Romanian
\ndiplomacy chief Luminita Odobescu takes part in a 2-day meeting of NATO foreign
\nministers, held in Brussels. The meeting takes place in a complicated security
\ncontext, with
\nan impact on multiple geographic areas of interest, including the continuing
\nRussian aggression against Ukraine, the military conflict between Israel and
\nHamas and tensions in the Western Balkans. The meeting also has special
\npolitical importance in terms of the preparations for the 2024 Summit in
\nWashington. Luminita Odobescu will highlight the strategic importance of the
\nBlack Sea for the Euro-Atlantic security and will plead for a more structured
\napproach to the region, in line with the decisions taken by NATO in Madrid and
\nVilnius. The NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg hailed Germany’s boosting
\nits support for Ukraine by EUR 8 bln and the additional EUR 2 bln provided by
\nthe Netherlands. He also mentioned the set-up of a training centre for Ukrainian
\nF-16 aircraft pilots. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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