February 24, 2016
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Newsroom, 24.02.2016, 12:00
The future of the debt-ridden Romanian public television TVR, has been the main topic of discussions recently hosted by Parliament in Bucharest. Among the solutions proposed were law amendments allowing the TVR to get into insolvency or the setting up of a new structure following the bankruptcy of the aforementioned institution. The panelists have disapproved the idea of uniting the two broadcasters, the public radio and television, as the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation is functioning well and isn’t facing the same financial problems as the national TV company. The talks were also attended by technocrat Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, who expressed the executive’s readiness to get involved in finding solutions.
Former Romanian MEP, Social-Democrat Adrian Severin was indicted to three years in prison on Tuesday for bribe taking and influence peddling. The sentence is not yet definitive. Severin said he would appeal the decision and fight to prove his innocence. According to prosecutors, Adrian Severin accepted a promise from two Sunday Times journalists who offered him 100,000 euros per year in order to lobby for amendments in the specialised committees of the European Parliament. Two other MEPs from Slovenia and Austria who also accepted bribes, stepped down from their positions, but Severin refused to do so.
An IMF delegation is in Chisinau to asses the Republic of Moldova’s macro-economic situation. The visit comes at a time when the former soviet republic with a Romanian-speaking majority is in dire need of foreign funding in order to avoid a financial breakdown. Pundits in Chisinau say that even if an agreement is reached with international creditors, the money cannot be received earlier than October. According to experts in the past year the Republic has registered more drawbacks than progress, fueling the IMF representatives’ already high level of skepticism concerning Chisinau’s intention to improve its legislative and financial situation.
A first group of 15 refugees from Greece and Italy are to arrive in Romania in early March, under the EU relocation quota system. They will be accommodated in Galati, eastern Romania. Romania will have to receive at least 4180 refugees in 2016 and 2017. Six centers have been set in Romania for refugees and asylum-seekers, but more suchlike centers are needed so that the country may cope with the total 6200 refugees it will have to accommodate in the following years. According to data released by migration officials, the capacity of these centers is of only 15 hundred people.
Romanian tennis player WTA 37th ranked Monica Niculescu is today taking on WTA 3rd ranked, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who is also 3rd seeded to winning the tournament tin Doha. The fixture counts towards the round of last 16 in the Qatari tournament, with 2.5 million dollars prize money up for grabs. In the second round, Monica Niculescu edged out Serbian contender Jelena Jankovic, WTA 20th-ranked. Doha tournament’s second seed and WTA 4th-placed, the Romanian Simona Halep sustained a defeat by WTA 118th- ranked Elena Vesnina of Russia. Halep lost the inaugural game in her third consecutive tournament, having been edged out of the Australian Open from the very first round. Simona Halep was eliminated as early as the round of last 16 in the Dubai tournament as recently in the second round in Doha. Since the beginning of the year Simona Halep has won three games and sustained five defeats in the WTA circuit. The Romanian tennis player will most likely be deprived of her current 4th position in the WTA rankings.
Miners from the Jiu Valley, central Romania, are carrying on their protests against a plan on streamlining the energy producing unit in Hunedoara, central Romania. Hundreds of miners from the Lonea and Lupeni mines have remained underground while other miners are in hunger strike. According to the protesters, the board failed to come up with viable solutions to keep the mines operational. The energy producing unit in Hunedoara has over 6,000 employees working in the mines of Lonea, Lupeni, Livezeni and Vulcan and in the power plants of Mintia and Paroseni. With about 380 million euros in debt, the company has been declared insolvent. Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu explained the board didn’t lack the right mechanisms to improve the situation, what it lacked was the determination to sack incompetent decision-makers. He said he understood the miners’ discontent but ruled out a political solution in this case.
