October 2, 2019
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 02.10.2019, 13:55
MOTION – The no-confidence motion filed on Tuesday against the minority Social Democratic government is to be read today and voted on Saturday, the Romanian Parliament has announced. The opposition has termed as abusive the Social-Democrats decision to schedule the voting for Saturday. The motion is titled In order to rebuild Romania, the Dancila Government must be urgently dismissed!”. The document has been signed by 237 MPs, thus exceeding by 4 the minimum necessary to sack the Government.
DIICOT – The Chief-Prosecutor of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Felix Banila, has announced he will soon submit his resignation, stressing however that he has not failed in fulfilling his professional responsibilities. On Monday, the head of state Klaus Iohannis called for Banilas resignation, for the way in which the investigations into the killing of two teenagers in Caracal were conducted. The president emphasized that, in both cases, he saw delayed reactions and scandalous public gestures of some authorities, denoting a lack of concern for the victims and their families.
EUROPALIA – The EUROPALIA International Arts Festival in Brussels opens today for the larger audience, with Romania as guest of honour. The official opening was held on Tuesday, and it was attended, among others, by King Philippe of Belgium, Queen Mathilde and Romanias President Klaus Iohannis. They visited the exhibition devoted to the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, titled Brancusi – Sublimation of Form, hosted by the Bozar centre and organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute. This is the most important exhibition devoted to the Romanian artist in the past decades, and the main event of the festival. Over the next four months, Europalia events will be held in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and Great Britain. There will be some 250 visual arts, music, theatre, cinema, literature and performing arts projects.
MEDIA 2020 – On Thursday, Radio Romania is organizing the fifth edition of the Media 2020 Conference, in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). The event takes place in Bucharest and brings together over 40 representatives of the most important public media organizations in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Dr. Javad Mottaghi, General Secretary of ABU, Graham Ellis, Director of BBC Radio, Chairman of the Radio Commission of the EBU and Chairman of the Prix Italia, Dr. Yan Bo, Deputy Director of CCTV, China, Giacomo Ghisani, Deputy Director of Vatican Radio, are only some of the media leaders present in Bucharest. The debate sessions will focus on the future of the public media in the digital age, on strategies for protecting copyright and on combating the phenomenon of fake news. Adapting the radio to the new digital context, 5G technology, promoting cultural diversity and collective memory between East and West through the use of new digital technologies will also be on the agenda of the conference. At the beginning of the conference, Radio Romania and BBC Radio will sign a bilateral agreement on the development of a creative partnership of cooperation between the two institutions. This agreement follows the other two signed with Radio France and RAI and is part of Radio Romanias strategy of cooperation with the most prestigious media institutions in Europe.
INFRINGEMENT – The European Commission has initiated the infringement procedure against Romania because of the non-transposition into the national legislation of the two directives related to the Technical Pillar of the IV Railway Package, and the Safety Directive and the Interoperability Directive respectively. Romania, as a member of the European Union, had to ensure the transposition into national legislation of the Railway Safety Directive and to communicate to the European Commission the texts of the respective national provisions by June 16, 2019. The main purpose of the Package is to create a unique European railway space, which entails a reform of the railway sector in the EU by encouraging competition and innovation in the area of internal rail passenger transport markets.
EU FUNDS – Romania has an absorption rate of EU funds of 32% in the current programming period 2014-2020, which places the country below the European average, the Minister of European Funds, Roxana Mânzatu, has stated today, at a conference on major infrastructure projects. The overall absorption rate is 32%, which means that almost 10 billion Euros have entered the country from Brussels, in the area of agricultural cohesion and policy, the minister said. Regarding the Big Infrastructure Operational Program, the second largest in Europe, Roxana Mânzatu mentioned that it is the most important program for Romania, for which a total of 11 billion Euros have been earmarked. The money will be invested in transport, environment and waste management, and energy efficiency. For the transport sector, Romania has about 5 billion Euros available. (translated by M. Ignatescu)
