January 27, 2015 UPDATE
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Roxana Vasile, 27.01.2015, 19:49
President of Romania Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday will be holding talks with the political parties in Parliament on the legislative priorities of the following Parliament session. According to the presidential administration, the agenda will include ways to improve voting procedures abroad, funding election campaigns and political parties as well as stepping up procedures over lifting the MPs’ immunity. This is the second round of consultations the president has had with the political parties after he took office. The first round took place on January 12th and was devoted to an agreement on funding the country’s defence system.
Romania is to support tougher economic sanctions against Russia at the extraordinary EU ministers meeting due in Brussels on Thursday, against the worsening situation in eastern Ukraine, Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said. Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday approved a statement describing Russia as an ‘aggressor state’. Parliament in Kiev also voted to define separatist self-styled “Republics” in eastern Ukraine as “terrorist organizations”. Kiev and the West have been accusing Moscow of backing the pro-Russia rebels, whereas the Kremlin has been denying any involvement in the conflict whose death toll exceeds five thousand in nine months.
European Commission reports on the progress registered by Romania and Bulgaria in fighting corruption and the reform of the legal system within the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification are to be discussed on Wednesday in the College of Commissioners and published on the same day — sources in Brussels have announced. In an interview to Radio Romania in mid-January justice minister Robert Cazanciuc said that Romania is an example of good practice in the field of justice with increased efficiency in fighting corruption and the implementation of three new codes in only one year. We recall the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification was introduced in January 2014 with Romania’s and Bulgaria’s entry into the European Union.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of the head of the Romanian Intelligence Service George Maior, sources with the presidency have announced. Maior’s resignation came a week after the former intelligence chief had lashed out at the Constitutional Court’s decision to rule out a law on cyber security, part of a legislative package concerning national security. George Maior, 48, is a diplomat, former politician and professor who was appointed head of the Romanian Intelligence Service in October 2006.
The new Prime Minister of Greece, leader of radical left-wing Syriza Party, which opposes the austerity measures, made public his cabinet on Tuesday. According to Radio Romania correspondent in Athens, the government has only 10 ministers, and the economy seat has been entrusted to an economist known for his tough stand against Greece’s international lenders. The country has so far benefitted from two bailout packages amounting to 240 billion euros, conditioned on tough economic reforms. At present Greece has 300 billion euros in debt (175% of its GDP) and an unemployment rate that goes up to 25%.
Holocaust survivors, heads of state and government as well as representatives of the royal families on Tuesday convened in Auschwitz, southern Poland, to mark 70 years since the concentration camp was liberated. In Romania, the country’s president Klaus Iohannis has awarded medals to a couple of Holocaust survivors in sign of respect for the suffering they had to endure during the Second World War.
