March 7, 2019 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 07.03.2019, 20:14

VISIT On the last day of her visit to
Brussels, Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila met the EU chief negotiator
for Brexit, Michel Barnier as Britain has to leave the bloc on March 29th.
Talks focused on protecting the rights of the European citizens. On Wednesday,
the first day of her visit, the Romanian Prime Minister had a meeting with the
First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans. The two
officials tackled the latest amendments to justice laws in Romania and
Timmermans voiced his increasing concern about the latest developments in
issues related to the Mechanism of Cooperation and Verification for Romania.
The two officials have agreed that experts from Romania and the European
Commission get together next week for talks on the aforementioned amendments.

DNA Laura
Codruta Kovesi, former head of Romania’s main anti-corruption agency DNA, on
Thursday was being heard by prosecutors of the Section for Investigating the
Magistrates. Kovesi said that she had been summoned for hearings in a file and she
was announced that she was suspect in a second penal file. According to her,
she was announced that she would have allegedly coordinated an organised group made
up of DNA prosecutors. Kovesi also said that during the notification procedure,
she had all her rights violated by the prosecutor in charge of the case. She
mentioned among the infringements the fact that she had been handed over
unsigned documents. Kovesi was summoned at the aforementioned section on
Thursday for being heard in a file where she was accused of abuse of office,
bribery and false testimony. Kovesi has rejected all allegations. We recall
that Laura Codruta Kovesi is running for the position of Europe’s Chief Prosecutor.
In late February she was interviewed by the CONT and LIBE commissions in the
European Parliament for this position and mustered the largest number of votes in
both commissions. The European Chief Prosecutor, who is to head the European
Public Prosecutor’s Office, is to be appointed by the European Parliament and
the Council.

AGREEMENT A cooperation agreement between Radio RAI and Radio Romania was
signed in Rome on Thursday by the RAI chief Fabrizio Salini and by Georgica
Severin, president and director general of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting
Corporation (SRR). The agreement with RAI comes after the one in December with
Radio France and according to the SRR chief, Radio Romania’s negotiations with
the BBC are in an advanced stage. Severing also went on to say that Radio RAI
is interested in developing programmes for the Romanian community in Italy. With
more than one million people, the Romanians are Italy’s largest ethnic minority.

(translated by bill)