February 9, 2016
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 09.02.2016, 12:00
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis will on Wednesday start
an official four days visit to Germany to participate in a European conference
on security issues. This is not the first time when president Iohannis, who is
an ethnic Geman in Romania, pays a formal visit to Germany. In fact Germany was
the first country Iohannis went to shortly after the beginning of his mandate
back in 2014. In February last year, Iohannis met German chancellor Angela
Merkel in Berlin for talks on Romania’s accession to the travel-free area of
Schengen and the fight against terrorism. Romanian Prime Minister, Dacian
Ciolos, also paid a visit to Germany on January 7th, having high on the agenda
ways of strengthening bilateral relations and the common objectives in the
European agenda, including migration and the EU foreign policy.
Iran wants Romanian investment in its oil&gas industry, as
well as in its construction field, Iranian ambassador in Bucharest Hamid
Moayyer said in an interview with our radio station. According to him, if
Romania invested in the oil and gas exploitation industry it could import
natural resources from Iran at a much cheaper price. The ambassador has also
referred to what he called the excellent relations Romania and Iran used to
have in the past before the Western embargo imposed on Iran for its
controversial nuclear programme. The international sanctions against Teheran
were conditionally lifted in January 2016, shortly after the International
Atomic Energy Agency had published a report proving that Teheran reduced its
nuclear activity observing the agreement signed last year with the great
powers.
NATO will continue
to offer support to the Republic of Moldova for modernising its defence and
ensure its security – NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said
in Brussels during the talks with Andrei Galbur, Deputy Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking
country. The NATO official has assured Galbur of the Alliance’s support for
Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Also high on the talks agenda
were the partnership between NATO and Moldova and the setting up of a NATO
office in Chisinau.
Prosecutors have today announced the beginning of a
criminal investigation against Romania’s former Prosecutor General Tiberiu Nitu
for conspiracy to abuse of office in a file on the illegal use of official
motorcades, which also involves former deputy Prime Minister and Interior
Minister Gabriel Oprea. Nitu stepped down last week after his being involved in
the Oprea file. According to Romania’s Anti-corruption Agency DNA, Nitu illegally
used motorcades 700 times while traveling across the country, from April 2014
until November 2015. Nitu explained he benefited from the official motorcades
under a protocol signed upon the initiative of minister Oprea, who has been
under criminal investigation also for abuse of office since February 5th. The
DNA investigation started in October 2015, when a policeman died while being
part of the motorcade accompanying minister Oprea.
Romania’s Central Bank has revised its
inflation forecast for the end of this year up to 1.4%, 0.3% higher than the
previous estimate of 1.1%, Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu has announced.
The bank official has reconfirmed the quarterly report on inflation and its
downward trend in the following months, whose main cause is the cut in the VAT
and other taxes. The bank has forecast an inflation rate of 3.4% in 2017, its
main target being 2.5%.
At
least eight people have died and 55 have been seriously wounded after two
commuter trains collided in southern Germany, police have today announced. The
crash happened near the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling on Tuesday. Several
carriages overturned after the trains that were travelling in opposite
directions, had collided head on.
