October 3, 2018 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 03.10.2018, 19:11
MEETING European Commission experts held talks in
Bucharest on Wednesday with a delegation of the Public Ministry led by general
prosecutor Augustin Lazar as part of the periodic information missions within
the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification (CVM). According to a communique
issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office, the main issues under discussion
were the setting up of a section for the investigation of the crimes in the
country’s legal system as well as the amendments to the Penal and Penal
Procedure Codes and to Romania’s justice laws. We recall the European
Commission has been monitoring the latest developments in Romania’s legal
system since the country’s EU accession in 2007.
WTO In the first semester of the next
year, Romania and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are to be staging in
Geneva a conference on entrepreneurial issues, the Bucharest-based Ministry for
Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship announced on Wednesday. The
decision was made during the meeting the Romanian field minister Stefan Radu
Oprea had in Geneva with Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo director general of the
World Trade Organization. The event will be unfolding under the aegis of the EU
presidency Romania is to hold in the first semester of 2019.
LAWS The offshore law, regulating gas exploitation in
the Black Sea, was debated upon Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies’ plenary
sitting, that decided to send it back to the expert committees. The Social
Democratic Party’s deputies introduced some important changes to the law adopted by the Senate last week. These amendments have been criticized by the opposition MPs
as well as by deputies of the coalition partner ALDE. Oil companies
have expressed concern about the new offshore law, saying that it may
discourage new investment in the Black Sea. This
is the second time this law is being voted. The Parliament initially adopted
the offshore law in early July, but president Klaus Iohannis sent it back for
review.
PROTESTS Hundreds of trade unionists
from the Romanian penitentiaries protested in front of the Justice Ministry’s
headquarters on Wednesday, against the poor working conditions and the unpaid
overtime. They say their protest is also against the indolence and
incompetence of the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, and ask for the
resignation of the general director appointed unlawfully.
RULING Romania’s
Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected a notification submitted by the
country’s president Klaus Iohannis, regarding the modifications to the Law on
the Romanian territory’s administrative organisation, Agerpres news agency
reports. Iohannis had signaled the presence of some major dirfferences in terms
of legal content, between the versions passed by the two Parliament chambers.
(translated by bill)
