October 26, 2015

A look at some of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 26.10.2015, 12:00

Almost one week after a
policeman died in an accident while leading the motorcade escorting the
Romanian interior minister and deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea, the latter
said he was travelling on official business. He emphasised that any
speculations that he was using an official escort without legal grounds were
completely unfounded. This is Oprea’s first public statement after calls from
the president, civil society and political leaders who, immediately after the
accident, requested him to provide an explanation on whether he was entitled to
a police motorcade escort. After the accident, the Prosecutor’s Office has
started an investigation for involuntary manslaughter. On Sunday, almost 1,000
people took part in a rally in Bucharest to express their solidarity with the
policeman’s family. They called for the resignation of minister Gabriel Oprea,
as did a number of NGOs and the Liberal opposition, who are planning to call
for a vote of no-confidence in this case.

The postal voting bill is under debate in the Chamber of Deputies as
part of an emergency procedure before being debated by both chambers in a joint
meeting in two days’ time. Today is the deadline by which amendments must be
submitted. This afternoon, the committee responsible for drafting election laws
is due to meet NGOs and other bodies interested in the postal voting system.
Under the new bill, which is supported by the Social Democratic Party, the main
ruling party in Romania, and the National Liberal Party, in opposition, the
postal voting system is to be used in the parliamentary, presidential and
European elections and only applies to voters who reside or live abroad. The
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats for Europe have criticised the bill, saying it does not comply
with the article in the Constitution according to which the vote is universal,
equal, direct and secret.

Romania must improve its business environment to reduce companies’
hidden costs and one important means of achieving this is by improving its
public administration, said the head of the European Commission Representation
in Romania Angela Filote at a foreign investors’ forum in Bucharest. In recent
years, Romania has grown faster than other EU states, but this growth must be
backed by local and foreign direct investment, as well as investment in high
added value areas such as research and innovation, Filote also said. Romania
must win back its place on the map of foreign investors and its good current
economic situation should be taken into account, said the state secretary in
the Department for Foreign Investment and Private-Public Partnership, Alexandru
Nastase. He explained that direct foreign investment in Romania amounted to 2.4
billion euros in the first eight months of the year, which shows an increase
compared with 2014. The Foreign Investors Summit in Bucharest brings together
experts from fields such as finance, IT and communications, real estate and the
auto industry and comes to an end on Thursday.

Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis attended an extraordinary meeting of heads of state and government
held on Sunday in Brussels and called for by the European Commission to discuss
migration in the Western Balkans. The meeting was attended by heads of state
and government from eight EU countries, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia, as well as three non-EU states,
Albania, Macedonia and Serbia. The participants agreed, among others, to create
100,000 places in refugee reception centres along the migrant route in the
Balkans, of which 50,000 will be located in Greece.

Until November 6th,
more than 1,800 Romanian military and 300 US military are taking part in the
Justice Sword exercise at the Smardan shooting range near Galati, in
south-eastern Romania. The exercise provides training to achieve harmonisation
of tactics and procedures and improve confidence in equipment and group
cohesion. Another exercise, called Dragoon Crossing Romania, is coming to an
end today in Arad county, in the west. 250 Romanian and 170 US military have
taken part in this exercise, whose aim is to demonstrate the interoperability
between the two armies and develop abilities of planning, leadership and
execution as part of water-crossing operations.

The Romanian men’s handball champions HCM Minaur Baia Mare on Sunday
defeated the Macedonian side RK Metalurg Skopje 23:21 in a Champions League
Group D match. On Friday, the women’s handball champions CSM Bucharest defeated
the Swedish side IK Savehof 28:17 in a Champions League Group D match.