April 2, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 02.04.2025, 13:55
A roundup of local and international news.
OECD – Romania is on track to complete all the technical analyses to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the next 12 months or so, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said on Wednesday. In a video message sent to the conference “Romania and the OECD – The main country project after NATO, the EU and Schengen”, held in Bucharest, Mathias Cormann said that excellent progress has been made since Romania became a candidate for accession in January 2022 and encouraged the continued involvement of the business community, trade unions and civil society in shaping the OECD accession process. Romania’s unique perspective and policy experience will contribute to the OECD’s work of building bridges between advanced, emerging and developing economies, Mathias Cormann said. Membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will be an anchor for Romania’s further development, said the country’s interim president, Ilie Bolojan. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in turn that OECD membership, coupled with accession to Schengen and the completion of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, would represent a peak moment in the development of modern Romania.
TRADE – The White House announced that US President Donald Trump is adding the final details to his plans to impose increased tariffs, which he is expected to announce today. According to economic analysts, the measure could trigger a global trade war. In Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the Union is ready to retaliate against the new import taxes by the Americans, although negotiation would be preferable.
MOTION – Romanian deputies are debating and voting today on the simple motion submitted by the parliamentary group AUR (the ultranationalist, populist opposition) against the liberal Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu. AUR is requesting Predoiu’s dismissal from office and an analysis with a view to initiating criminal prosecution for alleged offenses committed as minister. According to AUR deputies, the suspension of Romania’s entry into the Visa Waiver program and the downgrading of the country from “deficit democracy” to “hybrid regime” in the Democracy Index 2024 would also be the direct result of the policies promoted by the Interior Ministry under the leadership of Cătălin Predoiu. The latter defines as intoxication the statements made by the AUR leaders, according to which he does not want to be present in Parliament during the debate on the motion against him.
COURT – Former left-wing President of Romania Ion Iliescu and former Prime Minister Petre Roman have been prosecuted in the June 1990 Miners’ Riot case, for crimes against humanity. In the same case, former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu-Voican Voiculescu, former Intelligence Service chief Virgil Măgureanu, as well as Miron Cozma, former leader of the miners in the Jiu Valley, alongside former officers with the Ministry of Interior have been referred to justice. Aged 95, Ion Iliescu was previously sent to trial in this case alongside the other defendants in 2017, but the courts ordered the case to be returned to the Military Prosecutor’s Office, for a fresh start of the investigation. In June 1990, demonstrations against the leftist government installed in Romania after the collapse of communism were violently repressed by the police, with the help of miners called in from the Jiu Valley. The violence of June 13-15, 1990 resulted in deaths, injuries and extensive material damage.
TRAVEL – Romanians, like other Europeans, will need a mandatory travel authorization (ETA) as of today, April 2, if they want to travel to the United Kingdom. All travelers, including children, will need this electronic travel authorization for both short-term stays and transit through the United Kingdom. To obtain the document, Europeans must have no criminal record or any record of past immigration violations in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. The British government imposed this measure to reduce illegal immigration and strengthen border security.
DEFENSE – The Romanian Minister of National Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, is participating, on April 2 and 3, in the Informal Meeting of Defense Ministers of the EU Member States, held in Warsaw. The meeting’s agenda includes talks on the implementation of the directions of action highlighted in the programmatic document on the White Paper on European Defense Preparation. The defense ministers will also discuss the security situation on the continent and solutions to strengthen the support offered to Ukraine by the European Union. (EE)
