March 17, 2023 UPDATE

ECCC The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) will be inaugurated on May 9th, on Europe Day, in Bucharest, at the Polytechnic University, rector Mihnea Costoiu told Radio Romania. He also said this is the first European agency headquartered in Romania's capital. The ECCC has a 4.5-billion euro budget for investment. Bucharest could thus become a hotspot for global cybersecurity leaders, given that the EU lays great emphasis on digital economy and protecting companies and citizens in the online environment. The ECCC aims to increase Europe's cybersecurity capacities and competitiveness, working together with a Network of National Coordination Centres (NCCs) to build a strong cybersecurity community.

NATO Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has eventually agreed with Finland's NATO accession, but not with Sweden's as well. "We have decided to initiate the ratification of Finland's accession process to NATO in our parliament," he said after a meeting in Ankara on Friday with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto. As far as Sweden is concerned, the Turkish official said talks would be carried on. Hungary, the only other country yet to approve Finland's and Sweden's NATO accession, announced it would back Finland at the vote on March 27. Turkey's veto so far to the 2 countries joining the Alliance revolved around what Ankara called the harbouring of "terrorists," i.e. militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), on their territories.

WARRANT The International Criminal Court Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of Russia's president Vladimir Putin in relation to war crimes committed in Ukraine since the start of the invasion in that country, France Presse reports. Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation," the ICC said, and emphasised that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes." A similar arrest warrant was issued against Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia. For over a year, the ICC has been investigating possible war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow repeatedly denying allegations of its forces committing atrocities in Ukraine.

FILM The nominations for the Gopo Awards, a yearly event dedicated to Romanian cinema, have been made public. The film "Metronome", directed by Alexandru Belc, got most nominations, alongside "Immaculate" and "Men of Deeds", with 10 nominations each. The awards ceremony will be held on April 25 in Bucharest. (AMP)