January 29, 2015
News and current affairs from Romania
Corina Cristea, 29.01.2015, 11:59
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, speaking at the annual meeting with foreign diplomats in Bucharest, said that joining the Schengen area and adopting the Euro were two of the central aims of his presidency. The head of state said that Romania had fulfilled the terms of Schengen integration, and that any other consideration is politically motivated. He also emphasized that the threats to security in the wider Black Sea area draw attention to Romania’s strategic role in promoting peace and security on Europe’s and NATO’s eastern flank.
A delegation from the IMF, World Bank and European Commission continues in Bucharest its evaluation visit in relation to the stand-by loan agreement signed by Romania with those lenders. The discussions will focus on economic evolution, privatization and the tax code. One priority is the law of personal bankruptcy, after the crisis caused by the Swiss Franc. According to the head of the Fiscal Council, the most difficult discussions will be in the area of structural reform, as the privatization of state companies is way behind. The privatizations the state had committed to in two major energy utilities have been delayed. This is the 10th stand-by agreement signed by Romania with the IMF in the last 23 years, and the third requested by Romania since the beginning of the economic crisis.
MP Elena Udrea, the head of an opposition party, has been indicted for money laundering and lying on her revenue statement. Judicial sources claim that between 2009 and 2013 Udrea declared on her revenue statement the purchase of several pieces of property that could not be justified by her salary as a minister, MP or university instructor. According to the Anti-Corruption Directorate, Dorin Cocos, who was married to Udrea at the time, and is now in detention as part of the Microsoft case, is guilty of influence peddling, and that the loans he issued were a front for a 9 million Euro bribe, and Udrea is suspected of collusion. The Microsoft license scandal and case involves nine former ministers from different governments, as well as business people, with damages to the state amounting to tens of millions of Euro.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu takes part today in the extraordinary meeting of his counterparts in EU member states. The discussions involve the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine, and aims at introducing further sanctions against Russia. Since April 2014, the conflict in Eastern Ukraine between government and pro-Russian forces has left 5,000 dead, according to the OSCE.
The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch player Jean Julien Rojer this morning has failed to make it to the men’s doubles finals in the Australian Open, which is the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. In the semifinals, Tecau and Rojer conceded victory to the all-Italian pair made up of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6. In the singles version of the Australian Open, WTA 3rd seed Simona Halep had the longest and the most satisfactory run of all Romanian tennis players competing in the tournament. In the quarterfinals, however, Halep conceded the game to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
