December 19th, 2013 UPDATE
A roundup of news from Romania
România Internațional, 19.12.2013, 19:03
The Romanian president Traian Basescu has joined other EU heads of state and government to participate in the winter European Council in Brussels. High on the summit’s agenda is the envisaged European Economic and Monetary Union. Following negotiations that lasted for a couple of months, the finance ministers have agreed upon an accord under which a financial body able to shut down banks with problems, will be set up in order to prevent financial crises similar to those in Cyprus, Ireland and Spain. Also high on the agenda will be issues related to common security and defence, against mounting pressure from Britain and Germany to limit plans aimed at consolidating military cooperation at EU level.
The final verdict in the Zambaccian file involving former Romanian PM Adrian Nastase will be announced on January 6th, the magistrates of Romania’s highest court announced on Thursday evening, after the last deadline of appeals against the court ruling according to which the former PM and his wife received suspended sentences. In this file Adrian Nastase, former PM of Romania between 2000- 2004 is being tried for blackmail. This spring he was released on parole after serving 9 months out of the 2-year sentence he received in another file in which he was accused of corruption.
Relatives of the heroes of the anti-communist revolution in Timisoara in 1989 on Thursday started off on a pilgrimage to Bucharest, with the intention of laying wreaths of flowers at the University Square in Bucharest, a symbol of the anti-communist resistance. 24 years ago on December 19th, thousands took to the streets of Timisoara, in Western Romania, in protest of the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. The following day on December the 20th, Timisoara was declared the first city free of communism in Romania. The events in Timisoara, that began as early as December the 16th, were the ignition point of the anti-communist revolution in Romania, which gained momentum a couple of days later and brought down the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
Romania’s national roads company selected the consortium made up of Vinci from France, Strabag from Austria and Aktor from Greece for the construction of a 58 km long highway segment linking Comarnic to Brasov (in the center. The cost of the highway will reach 1.3 billion euros and works will start in April 2014 to be ended in 2016 or 2017. The European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have shown interest in funding the project. Also as many as 60 kms of the Sibiu-Orastie highway segment, in the center of Romania, were inaugurated on Thursday.
The Romanian authorities have taken notice of the measures announced by British Prime Minister David Cameron on restricting the EU citizens’ rights to unemployment benefits in Britain. The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest says that London’s decision is being assessed by the European Commission, which has the prerogatives to assess any moves that might run counter community rights. Under the new measures, EU citizens seeking jobs in Britain do not have the right to unemployment benefits in the first three months of their stay. The decision, which is also targeting the British citizens, is due to come into effect on January the 1st, when restrictions on the British labour market for the Romanian workers are to be lifted.
