September 15, 2016
Romanian carriers are today staging a big rally / Former Intelligence officer arrested for involvement in BlacCube case
Newsroom, 15.09.2016, 12:00
RALLY — Romanian carriers are today staging a big rally in protest at the high civil liability insurance premiums. Over 5 thousand vehicles will be taken out to the streets of Bucharest and another 100 thousand across the country. Carriers want insurance premiums to reflect an average value of damages reported by the Financial Surveillance Authority. Negotiations with the Government had previously failed to settle on a ceiling for damages, while freezing insurance premiums, a measure sanctioned by the Competition Council, seemed to sit well with Romanian carriers, who have nevertheless voiced their reluctance pending the publication of the Government ordinance.
ARREST – The Bucharest Tribunal has ordered the temporary 30-day arrest of a former officer with the Romanian Intelligence Service, Daniel Dragomir, for his involvement in the Black Cube case. According to prosecutors, Dragomir got in touch with representatives of the Israeli company BlackCube aiming to denigrate the people he considered responsible for his indictment, last year, by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) on charges of money laundering and influence peddling. Dragomir allegedly paid the company BlackCube to spy on Laura Codruta Kovesi, the head of National-Anti-Corruption Directorate. Three Israeli citizens were indicted in the same case, of whom two were arrested and one managed to flee Romania.
HEARING – The Senate Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has been herd by anti-corruption prosecutors this morning in a case involving the former deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania, Bogdan Olteanu. According to anti-corruption prosecutors, Olteanu received 1 million euros and other benefits from Sorin Ovidiu Vantu to use his influence and get the Government to name Liviu Mihaiu as governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. This happened in 2008, when Olteanu was president of the Chamber of Deputies. According to the media, Liviu Mihaiu was appointed Danube Delta Governor in 2008 at Tariceanu’s order, who at he time was prime minister and leader of the National Liberal Party. Bogdan Olteanu is the first Central Bank official ever detained by prosecutors, but the investigation targets his activity before he took over this position, in 2009.
UKRAINE – The German and French foreign ministers, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault, respectively, have today travelled to eastern Ukraine for the first time since the armed conflict started. The conflict between Russian-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian government troops has killed almost 10 thousand people since it began in April 2014. The Minsk agreement brokered by France and Germany in February 2015 helped end large-scale battles, but smaller clashes have continued to claim lives and a political settlement has stalled.
REFUGEES – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has today said that her country must find “viable solutions” to integrate refugees into the workforce faster, after German companies have hired less than 100 refugees out of more than 1 million who entered the country in 2015. Merkel’s open-door policy brought her harsh criticism and caused her the loss of citizens’ support. Merkels conservative Christian Democrats fell to third place in a recent state election, behind the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
FOOTBALL – Romanian football champion team Astra Giurgiu today take on Austria Vienna in the Europa League group stage debut fixture. Also part of the same group are Czech squad Viktoria Plzen and the famous Italian team AS Roma. Also on Thursday, vice-champions Steaua Bucharest play their debut group fixture against Turkish contenders Osmanlispor, away from home. The forthcoming fixtures will see Steaua taking on Spain’s Villareal and Swiss side FC Zurich. Astra Giurgiu and Steaua Bucharest reached the Europa League’s group stage having been eliminated from the preliminary stages of Europe’s most important inter-clubs competition, the Champions League. Also playing in the Europa League preliminaries, Viitorul Constanta in the southeast, Pandurii Targu Jiu in the southwest and CSMS Iasi in the east have in turn been edged out of the Europa League’s group stage.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
