June 14, 2017

Social Democrats hold Executive Committee meeting over the fate of Grindeanu Cabinet

Newsroom, 14.06.2017, 13:37

CABINET – The fate of the leftist Government of Romania, headed by PM Sorin Grindeanu, will be decided today in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party in power. The Committee will assess the performance of each Cabinet minister and a possible reshuffling. At the end of last week, the Social Democrat leader, Liviu Dragnea, who is also the head of the Chamber of Deputies, voiced his discontent with the work of several ministers, without disclosing any names. Dragnea also said he was not considering dismissing the entire Cabinet. In turn, PM Grindeanu said he had made his own assessment and he was content with the effects of the measures taken by his Cabinet. The Grindeanu Government took office after Decembers parliamentary elections.

DEFENCE – The Romanian Defence Minister, Gabriel Leş, and his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, are on a visit to the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in south-eastern Romania. The two officials will have meetings with the pilots and technical staff working on the Typhoon aircraft of the Royal Air Forces, which have arrived in Romania for air policing missions. The planes are taking part in joint missions with MiG-21 LanceR aircraft of the Romanian Air Forces, until the end of August. According to a news release issued by the Defence Ministry, the RAF aircraft have been deployed to Romania as part of an Action Plan to ensure the NATO operational capability both in the northern and the southern part of the eastern flank of the Alliance.

HEARINGS – The Mayor of Cluj in north-western Romania, Emil Boc, was heard by a special parliamentary committee investigating the circumstances of the 2009 presidential election. The prime minister of the country at that time and a loyal aide to then President Traian Basescu, who won a new term in office after defeating the former Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoană, Boc was the only one heard today. The head of the National Anti-Corruption Agency, Codruta Kovesi, refused to appear before the committee, but apparently she will receive a new invitation. The committee also requested a 60-day extension of the investigation and the postponement of the deadline for their report to early September. The committee was set up after the controversial journalist Dan Andronic, a political adviser to Basescu in 2009, made public allegations that the 2009 presidential vote had been tampered with.

DIPLOMACY – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Teodor Meleşcanu, took part on Tuesday in Berlin in a conference on a decade of Romanian EU membership. On this occasion, he said that although Romania was not a founding member of the EU, it wishes to make a significant contribution to the future of the European project, so that the Union may remain an efficient and united community of values, playing a major role at world level. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, will also be on a visit to Berlin between June 19 and 21, during which he will have meetings with his German counterpart, Frank – Walter Steinmeier, and with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

NUCLEAR PHYSICS – The director for nuclear security at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and Engineering Research and Development in Măgurele, southern Romania, Mitică Drăguşin, Ph.D., is the first Romanian expert in nuclear decommissioning and the management of radioactive waste at the European Commission and parliament. The physicist was selected by the EUs Joint Research Centre. The Măgurele high power laser project is taking part in the World Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan, where the team will also present their offer in the field of decommissioning nuclear research facilities. The scientists in Măgurele are thus trying to generate top-level trade contacts to promote Romanian technologies and experts.

HANDBALL – Romanias womens handball team has qualified to the World Championship due in December in Germany, after outplaying Austria 33-24 away from home on Tuesday night, in the second leg of the playoffs. In the first match, played on Friday at home in Oradea, Romania won 34-29. Romania is the only country to have taken part in all the 22 editions of the World Championship so far, and in 2015 it won the bronze medals.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)