Radio România Internațional

Tag: bribery

  • February 22, 2025

    February 22, 2025

     

    ELECTIONS The Central Electoral Bureau for the election of the president of Romania in May was selected on Friday. The Bureau is made up of 5 judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the president and vice-presidents of the Permanent Electoral Authority and one representative of each party in Parliament. Parties, political or electoral alliances, ethnic minority organisations and independent candidates will be able to submit their candidacies by March 15, after which the Central Electoral Bureau is to rule on their validity. Thousands of Romanians, supporters of the independent sovereigntist Călin Georgescu, who came out first in the first election round in December, took to the streets again in Bucharest today to demand that the electoral process be resumed from where it was canceled. The billionaire Elon Musk, an advisor to the US president Donald Trump, Friday night posted a critical message on his social network X (the third this week) about the cancellation of the December elections. The US vice-president J.D. Vance had also previously questioned the cancellation of the elections. Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Bucharest would try to provide clarifications about the situation through all diplomatic channels.

     

    RATING Fitch has sent a clear signal that Romania must carry on its fiscal consolidation measures and restore budgetary balance, in order to improve its fiscal credibility, said finance minister Tanczos Barna after the international financial rating agency announced on Friday that it is keeping Romania in the investment grade category. In a statement, the agency confirmed Romania’s long-term rating at ‘BBB minus’, with a negative outlook. According to Fitch, the rating relies on the country’s EU membership and capital inflows that contribute to public revenues and macro-stability. The gross domestic product per capita and the governance and human development indicators are also higher than in countries in the same rating category, the agency explains. These strengths are overshadowed, however, by a significant deterioration of public finances and a sharp slowdown in economic growth in 2024. Adding to this is a possible adverse effect of political uncertainty. In December last year, Fitch announced that it had downgraded the outlook assigned to Romania from stable to negative. The same announcement came later from Standard & Poor’s.

     

    ENERGY Electricity and natural gas tariffs could be offset in Romania even after April 1, when the current aid scheme is set to expire. The energy ministry has posted for public review a draft act extending the capping period, under which the scheme for electricity is extended until July 1, and for natural gas by one year, until April 1, 2026. The capping extension proposal comes as prices on European electricity and gas exchanges have increased significantly, and also as the low temperatures in Romania this winter entailed a significant increase in consumption. As a result, the line minister Sebastian Burduja announced that the government had decided to protect Romanians and support the competitiveness of Romanian companies. After the energy market was deregulated on January 1, 2021, Romania was among the European countries the most severely affected by record-high electricity and natural gas prices. Thanks to the government’s price capping decisions, households and businesses were protected from excessive prices.

     

    CORRUPTION A company and 2 individuals are prosecuted in a case handled by the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), together with investigators from the US Department of Defence, the DNA announced today. The company owned by a Greek national has allegedly bribed a foreign official to get a EUR 9 mln contract to refuel aircraft at the NATO military base in Mihail Kogălniceanu. Two other individuals are suspected of complicity in continuing bribery in connection with an official of a foreign country.

     

    GERMANY Germany holds federal elections on Sunday that are crucial to the country’s future, as the far-right is on the rise and the economy is heading for a third year of recession. The vote comes after the coalition of the Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens led by the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed late last year. According to polls, the Conservatives are expected to win. With the far-right in second place in the polls, however, analysts say that in order to govern, the Conservatives will have to reach a compromise with the Social Democrats or the Greens, overcoming their differences.

     

    FOOTBALL The Romanian football champions FCSB will face the French team Olympique Lyon in the Europa League round of 16, according to Friday’s draw in Nyon, Switzerland. FCSB will play the first leg at home on March 6, with the return leg scheduled on March 13. FCSB qualified for the round of 16 of the Europa League after outplaying the Greek team PAOK Thessaloniki, coached by the Romanian Răzvan Lucescu. The aggregate score was 4-1, with the Romanians defeating the Greeks 2-1 in the first leg, and 2-0 in Bucharest on Thursday evening. (AMP)

  • December 5, 2022 UPDATE

    December 5, 2022 UPDATE

    Summit — President Klaus Iohannis will participate, on Tuesday, in the EU – Western Balkans Summit, which will take place in Tirana, Albania. According to the Presidential Administration, the Summit in Tirana is the first event of the kind organized in a capital in the region, a fact that reconfirms the European commitment in relation to the states in the Western Balkans. On this occasion, the head of state will reiterate the availability of continued support for concrete efforts and actions to integrate the countries of the region into the European Union. At the same time, Klaus Iohannis will point out the aspects related to the need to strengthen the resilience of partners, as well as to the European support in sectors such as energy, digital transformation, cyber security and migration management. On the occasion of the Summit, the Tirana Declaration will be adopted, which reflects the support of the Union and of the member states towards the European perspective of the Western Balkans.



    Budget — Romanias draft state budget and social insurance budget for 2023 will be posted on the website of the Finance Ministry on Tuesday for transparency reasons, and they will be on the agenda of the government meeting on Thursday. The ruling coalition proposes that the two draft laws should pass the Parliaments vote before the winter holidays. It will be the first time that the budget will be built on economic and social programs and also the first time that the amount allocated to Defense will be 2.5% of the GDP. It is believed that the budget built around programs will allow better monitoring of expenses, of the degree of implementation and of the real impact in the economy.



    Bribe – The Romanian Parliament decided, on Monday, to dismiss Niculae Bădălău from the position of vice-president of the Court of Accounts, after the former Social Democratic MP was arrested on charges of bribery. There were 308 votes in favor and one abstention. The Social Democratic Party – PSD, which requested the dismissal, pointed out that keeping Niculae Bădălău in office would seriously affect the institutions credibility. The opposition equally demanded the initiation of the dismissal procedure. A week ago, the Bucharest Court of Appeal decided that former PSD senator Niculae Bădălău be arrested, for a period of 30 days, for bribery and influence peddling, in a case in which he is accused of offering bribe worth 170,000 Euros to a mayor from Giurgiu (south), in exchange for the granting of public works contracts.



    Gaudeamus — The 29th edition of the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair opens on Wednesday at the Romexpo Compound in Bucharest. The event thus returns, after the pandemic, to the format that made it famous for over a quarter of a century as a solid landmark of the book market in Romania. 200 participants will offer the public an extremely varied range of editorial products, on different supports, suitable for all ages and fields of interest, music and educational games. The fairs honorary president will be the poet Ana Blandiana.



    Sanctions — New economic sanctions applied to Russia by the European Union and the G7 group have come into force. They consist in capping the price at which Russia exports oil and in the European embargo on Russian oil imported by sea. The measures are meant to reduce Russias incomes, which it uses to finance its war machine. Although some experts fear a destabilization of the world market, Brussels decision includes a reserve margin, so that Moscow should not be forced to stop its exports. Capping is rejected by Russia, which claims that it will only sell oil to those countries that do not cap its price. In Bucharest, the energy minister Virgil Popescu gave assurances that the embargo on Russian crude oil will not affect Romania, given that the oil companies in our country have found alternative resources. He pointed out that, as of last week, the domestic oil companies and refineries had started processing only non-Russian crude oil. For his part, the general director of the TRANSGAZ company, Ioan Sterian, emphasized that there are no reasons to fear that Romania will run out of gas this winter.



    Hospitality – Romanians spending at restaurants, cafes, pubs or fast-foods this year could be more than 30% higher than in 2021, exceeding 7.5 billion Euros, which is an absolute record for the food service industry, shows a study co-financed by the actors in the field and launched by the Hospitality Culture Institute. Practically, foodservice is becoming the most attractive sector for investments, which is also faced with two big problems: poor digitization and lack of staff, Florin Maxim, founder of the organization, said. According to the cited source, 9% of Romanians who go out spend more than 100 lei (20 Euros) per person on a restaurant meal, a figure that is growing significantly. This year too, even if the anti-pandemic restrictions on the operation of the hospitality industry units were removed, the food delivery sector retained its supremacy. (LS)

  • March 25, 2016 UPDATE

    March 25, 2016 UPDATE

    Belgian police have arrested several people in connection with Tuesdays attacks in Brussels, in which at least 31 people died and more than 270 were wounded. The authorities carry on counter-terrorism operations, and 3 suspects were arrested on Friday in one of these operations, which was linked to the foiling of a plot in France on Thursday. The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that plot was at an advanced stage. Meanwhile, the US State Secretary John Kerry said in Brussels on Friday that “we will not be intimidated and (…) will not rest until we have eliminated the nihilistic beliefs of the Islamist groups. Also on Friday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, called on states to step up security against “nuclear terrorism. According to Belgian authorities, originally the targets of the Brussels attacks were the nuclear facilities in that country.



    The chief prosecutor of the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Daniel Horodniceanu, said there were suspicions of terrorism financing in Romania. He announced that a Counter-Terrorism Office would be again established within the Directorate. The order concerning the resumption of the operations of the Counter-Terrorism Office has been submitted to the Justice Ministry and will then be forwarded to the Higher Council of Magistrates for approval. Meanwhile, Horodniceanu proposed the criminalisation of acts such as the repeated accessing of jihadist websites or the establishment of an organised criminal group specialising in acts of terrorism. The measures were proposed by DIICOT several days after the brutal attacks in Brussels.



    The Mayor of Bucharests district 2, Neculai Onţanu, was arrested for 30 days under bribery charges, after on Friday the Bucharest Court of Appeals approved the request lodged by the prosecutors of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Ontanu is suspected of having received as bribe, in 2006 – 2007, a plot of land in Bucharest, in return for having helped the holder of disputed property rights to acquire several properties. Onţanu, currently at his fourth term in office as district mayor, is also the interim president of a parliamentary party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania.



    Healthcare education should be a compulsory school subject, the Romanian Healthcare Minister Patriciu Achimaş-Cadariu said on Friday. After consultations with civil society and professional organisations, the Ministry will present a new bill concerning the introduction of health education as a school subject. The doctors and nurses working in education institutions may play a major role in teaching this subject, the Minister added.



    The Romanian Ambassador to the US, George Maior, said the development of bilateral economic relations, particularly attracting American investments, is one of the priorities of his term in office. Together with the US Ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm, he took part in a roundtable in Washington, organised by the American-Romanian Business Council. Among others, Maior emphasised the performances of the Romanian economy and its positive prospects, encouraging American investors to take advantage of the opportunities that Romania has to offer. In turn, the representatives of major US companies with operations in Romania appreciated the openness of public institutions, but warned that governmental policies are still needed in order to ensure fiscal stability and the investment climate.

  • 7 September, 2015

    7 September, 2015

    Prosecutors with the higher court in Bucharest have placed under preventive detention the mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu, under charges of bribery. Several of his subordinates and associates have also been detained for questioning in this same case. His arrest did not come as a surprise to commentators, who had pointed out that over the last few months a number of public servants ranking high in City Hall had been convicted of corruption. Find out more after the news.



    Romanian PM Victor Ponta and Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici submit today a bill in the lower chamber of the Romanian Parliament to reform public procurement. The head of the government claims such a reform is necessary because the present regulations cause unspent moneys to accrue without the possibility of being spent. At the same time, Chamber of Deputies chairman Valeriu Zgonea is set to present the principles for absentee voting. He is in favor of the speedy passing of a bill to provide the necessary resources for the ballot to be fair and guarantee Romanians living abroad the proper exercise of this fundamental right.



    World nr. 2 in womens tennis, Simona Halep of Romania, plays in the eighth finals of the last Grand Slam this year, the US Open, against Sabine Lisicki of Germany, ranked 24th. The Romanian player leads 3-1. She will also play in the quarter finals of the mixed doubles, joining another Romanian star, Horia Tecau. The two will face off against the fourth favorite pair, Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Leander Paes of India. Tecau will also join his long time partner in the doubles, Jean-Julien Rojer, against the US pair Eric Butorac/ Scott Lipsky.



    The George Enescu International Festival continues in Bucharest. Performing today is the San Francisco Symphony, directed by Michael Tilson Thomas, part of the Great World Orchestras cycle. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen conducted by Trevor Pinnock plays as part of the Chamber Recital cycle. Through 20th of September, over 3,000 Romanian and foreign artists take part in the most prestigious music event in the country. This edition also features the London Symphony Orchestra, under Romanian conductor Ion Marins baton.



    A strategic inter-agency exercise, Histria 15, run by the Ministry of Defense will run for two weeks starting today in south eastern Romania, involving around 7,000 personnel from the ministries of defense, interior, justice, transportation, public finance, economy, health and information society, joined by employees of all the intelligence services. This is the largest such exercise ever run in Romania, aiming to prepare for organizing and executing a wide array of missions.



    Tens of thousands of protesters have set up tents in the center of Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova, after Sundays widespread marches. They call for President Nicolae Timofti to step down, claiming he represents the interests of elites and does not act against corruption. In early April, Moldovas central bank announced it discovered that three institutions accounting for about a third of the countrys banking assets have granted loans worth about 15% of the GDP to undisclosed parties. Protesters also call for the removal of immunity for elected officials in order to facilitate prosecution.



    Romanian Minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin request on Monday from European officials emergency support solutions for farmers in Romania hit by the drought, as well as for farmers hit by the dairy crisis. He attends in Brussels the meeting of the European Council for Agriculture and Fishing. The debates, chaired by Luxembourg, focus on hardships in farming across Europe. Talks will also be held at the level of commissions to identify concrete means of applying solutions.