July 22-26

A roundup of the week's top stories

România Internațional, 27.07.2019, 13:55

New ministers in the Romanian government

On Wednesday, the Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis signed the appointment of Nicolae Moga and Ramona
Manescu to the positions of interior minister and foreign minister
respectively. The two were sworn in on the same day. Nicolae Moga, a former
senator from Constanta and former vice-president of the Senate in the Standing
Bureau replaced outgoing Carmen Dan at the helm of the interior ministry.
Ramona Manescu joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats – ALDE, in the
governing coalition, in 2017. Previously she held the position of transport
minister. An MEP since 2007, Ramona Manescu was appointed foreign minister,
thus replacing outgoing Teodor Melescanu. Through another presidential decree,
Mihai Fifor was appointed vice-prime minister for Romania’s strategic
partnerships.

Romanians in the Diaspora

The Romanian president has
promulgated the law on early and postal voting for the Romanians in the
Diaspora, which allows them to cast their vote for 3 days in order to avoid
what happened at the May 26 EP elections, when many Romanians abroad could not
vote because of the very long queues. According to the new law, the Romanian
citizens abroad will be able to vote either by post or in advance from Friday
to Sunday. On the last voting day, the vote may be extended until midnight for
those people who are inside the polling stations or queuing outside. The
procedure will also be applied in Romania. For the postal vote, Romanians
abroad will have to register on the permanent electoral lists for the Romanians
in the Diaspora by means of an online form that can be found on the website of
the Permanent Electoral Authority. They will also have to attach a scanned copy
or a photo of their ID to this form. They can register on this list starting on
Sunday on the platform www.votstrainatate.ro.
The website was created by the Electoral Authority, to have a clearer record of
Romanians abroad and to provide them with more info on the voting process. An
information campaign has also been started by the Ministry for the Romanians
Abroad that has recently announced that over 5 and a half million Romanians
have left the country. Alongside the Romanians in the historical communities,
there are almost 10 million Romanians living outside the country’s borders,
show data provided by Romania’s 70 diplomatic missions and centralized by the
Ministry for the Romanians Abroad. According to the line minister Natalia
Intotero those who leave the country are discontented with the lack of
financial means, with their small incomes, the lack of a decent job, the poor
quality of the political class and the all pervasive corruption. Minister
Intotero also announced that the ministry officials were preparing a draft law
on the social and professional reinsertion of Romanians who want to return
home, a bill that will be forwarded to Parliament in September. August will see
the start of the 2nd stage of the national campaign ‘Information at
home! Security abroad’ meant to inform Romanians ahead of deciding to leave the
country. The campaign also targets the Romanians abroad who want to return.

European Commission issues warnings for Romania

The European Commission has
launched infringement procedures against Romania in 11 fields, including air
pollution, financial services, transposing firearms standards into national law
or illegal migration. On Thursday the Commission pointed out Bucharest has not
lifted restrictions on natural gas trade among member states, as stipulated by
EU law. The Commission also noticed that one of the changes brought to the
energy law provides for the obligation to sell natural gas on the internal
market as a priority, which is in breach of EU law, creating unwarranted
barriers to gas exports. The environment authorities in Bucharest said they
will take steps to immediately solve the problems in the field. Another
procedure was launched in the case of failing to enact EU standards regarding
combating child abuse, sexual child exploitation and child pornography.

A Romanian appointed as interim head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency

Romanian Cornel Feruta, a career
diplomat for over 20 years, was appointed interim director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency pending a permanent designation. The
appointment follows the death of the former head of the institution, Yukiya
Amano, at a time of intense diplomatic negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Cornel Feruta was a chief coordinator with the Agency, a former chief of staff
for Yukiya Amano. In the 2007-2012 period he also held the position of
Romania’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna.

Romanian football teams enrolled in European inter-club competitions

Romanian vice-champions FCSB on
Thursday defeated Armenia’s FC Alashkert 3-nil in the first leg of the Europa
League second preliminary round. CSU Craiova drew nil-all against Honved
Budapest away from home, while Viitorul Constanta lost 3-6 away from home against
Belgium’s KAA Gent. The return legs are scheduled for next week. On Wednesday,
Romanian champions CFR Cluj defeated 1-nil Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel in the
first leg of the Champions League second preliminary round. The return leg is
scheduled for July 30 in Israel.

(Translated by L. Simion & V. Palcu)