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ESPIONAGE Prosecutors with the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism Offences (DIICOT) have indicted 4 Romanian and foreign nationals as part of an espionage inquiry targeting the Serbian company NIS Petrol, a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom. Prosecutors have ordered searches in Bucharest and Timișoara, both at the company headquarters, and at the homes of a number of employees, confiscating documents and data storage devices. The four are accused of having traded classified information and of facilitating the unauthorised transfer of data concerning Romania's mineral reserves, prosecutors say. In 2009, Gazprom bought the majority stake in NIS under an agreement signed by Belgrade and Moscow.
ECONOMY Romania's economy is expected to grow by 4.6% this year, the World Bank announced on Tuesday. The estimate is better than the one made public in June, when the figure only stood at 2.9%. The improvement is based on robust private consumption and early signs that investments would pick up, but the outlook depends on the developments in Ukraine and their impact on the European economy on the whole, the institution says.
MOTION USR Deputies, in opposition, together with MPs from the Force of the Right, have tabled a simple motion in the Chamber of Deputies against the interior minister Lucian Bode, whom they accuse of incompetence and protecting party interests. The USR leader Cătălin Drulă says Bode must answer, among other things, to allegations that the Romanian Police purchased new cars through public procurement procedures that favoured companies linked to the Liberal Party. Bode is also criticised for failing to reach a number of targets, including the electronic monitoring of offenders and the interior ministry reform. The motion will be discussed and voted on next Tuesday.
LEGISLATION A draft law regulating the judge and prosecutor professions was endorsed on Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies. The bill had passed all the required stages of the legislative process, including the approval of the Higher Council of Magistrates, the justice minister Cătălin Predoiu said. The act was criticised however by the USR and AUR parties, in opposition. The decision-making body in this case is the Senate. The bill is the 3rd normative act in a law package regulating the judiciary, next to one on the Higher Council of Magistrates and the organisation of courts, which have already been endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies.
FUNDING Romania may get about EUR 1.5 billion for energy independence projects and for fighting energy poverty, following the endorsement of the REpowerEU plan by the Economic and Financial Council in Luxembourg. Romania is the 6th EU member state to benefit from the new funding, said the finance minister Adrian Câciu. He explained that during negotiations the funding earmarked for Romania practically doubled compared to the original proposal made by the European Commission this May.
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