December 15, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 15.12.2023, 13:43

ACCESSION – The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis congratulated the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine on the start of the EU accession negotiations and said that the European Councils decision Thursdays was a historic one. He gave assurances that Bucharest would continue to support the two neighboring states. The European Council decided to start EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, at the European Commission’s proposal. Also, the Council decided to grant candidate status to Georgia, and gave a positive evaluation report to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

STRIKE – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that an all-out strike is taking place in Italy’s public transport sector, with an expected duration of 24 hours. This may cause serious disruptions of the public transport. Over one million Romanian citizens live in Italy, which is also one of the Romanians’ favorite tourist destinations.

NRRP – Romania is today sending to Brussels its third request for payment under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said at the meeting of the Interministerial Coordination Committee of the NRRP. This has a total value of 2.7 billion euros, of which the pre-financing already received was deducted, and covers 74 targets and milestones of the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2022.

CORRUPTION – The former manager of the “Mavromati” Emergency County Hospital in Botoşani, (northeastern Romania) and the director of the same hospital are in temporary arrest, being involved in a corruption case regarding faudulent exams for getting jobs at the medical unit. Two doctors and six other employees of the Botoşani County Hospital, as well as the manager of a commercial company were also detained in relation to this case. They are all accused of bribery, influence peddling and disclosing non-public information. At the same time, four other people were placed under judicial control. The fraud allegedly took place in the period 2018-2023, and the amounts charged as bribes ranged from 2,000 to 15,000 euros. On Thursday, searches were conducted at the hospital, at the headquarters of the Botosani County Council and at the offices of the PSD branch in the county.

CONFLICT – Romania joins the international community in supporting Israels efforts to free the hostages kidnapped by Hamas, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said. He met, in Bucharest, with the Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, and with members of the families of Israeli citizens of Romanian origin who were held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Ciolacu reiterated, at the meeting, that “de-escalation is a viable solution for restoring security in the region”.

GAZA – Israel continued, on Friday, its military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and warned that the war could last “more than a few months”. On Thursday night the Israeli army reported “fighting” in the northern part of Gaza, in an area where earlier this week it suffered its heaviest losses – 10 soldiers killed in a single day. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas has created an underground and aerial infrastructure that cannot be easily destroyed. On the other hand, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, currentrly in exile in Qatar, described as an “illusion” any post-war plan of a Gaza without his organization and other “resistance movements.” (EE)