Radio România Internațional

Tag: First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans

  • February 28, 2018

    February 28, 2018


    ANTI CORRUPTION – The Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has today presented the 2017 activity report of the institution she has headed since May 2013. She has stated that last year was a difficult year for the fight against corruption, as it was fiercely challenged and questioned. Despite that, Mrs. Kovesi has announced that the anticorruption prosecutors solved more than 3800 cases, which is a record for the institution, and forfeited goods worth more than 200 million Euros. The presentation of the report comes against the background of the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader starting last week the procedure to dismiss Laura Codruta Kovesi. The final decision in this matter lies with the president of the country, Klaus Iohannis, who has stated that the Directorate and its leadership have been doing a very good job. Today, the head of state has said that he is waiting for a number of documents to substantiate his decision, stressing though that, quote we are far from dismissal.



    VISIT – The first vice-president of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Better Regulation, Interinstitutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights Frans Timmermans will be paying a formal visit to Bucharest on Thursday. According to the European Commission Representation in Romania, he will meet with president Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and the speakers of the two chambers of parliament, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Liviu Dragnea. Timmermans will also hold meetings with representatives of the judiciary and members of the parliamentary committee set up to amend the justice laws.



    JUSTICE – Romanian President Klaus Iohanniss competence to appoint judges for the offices of president and vice-president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice comes in violation of the constitutional competence of the Superior Council of Magistracy, reads the Romanian Constitutional Courts decision on the modifications brought to the status of judges and prosecutors. On January 30th, the Constitutional Court advised that the law was, in its entirety, constitutional as regarded the criticism formulated by the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the National Liberal Party. Among other things, these modifications stipulate that the president and vice-presidents of the High Court of Cassation and Justice are appointed by Romanias president, based on the proposals made by the Judges Department of the Superior Council of Magistracy, and the head of state cannot refuse these appointments. The Constitutional Court noted that the presidents responsibility would be devoid of content if he would not be able to refuse the appointment of a magistrate, but the elimination of this right does not raise constitutionality issues, as it allows a stronger role to be played by the Superior Council of Magistracy as guarantor of the independence of the judiciary.



    MOTION – The National Liberal Party has today filed in plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies a simple no-confidence motion against the Education Minister Valentin Popa. According to the Liberals, what the coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has done with regard to education, was to close schools in the year in which we celebrate 100 years since the Great Union, to sack inspectors via fax machines because they failed to comply with the directions set by the party, and hold examinations outside the law. Also, the school dropout rate is on the rise, young people have no possibility to learn about trades in school, and diplomas are far from attesting competences. All these, the Liberals say, are alarm signals that call for an urgent dismissal of the education minister. The leader of the Liberal Group in the Chamber of Deputies Raluca Turcan has stated that this should happen before it is too late.



    EXTREME WEATHER – Europe keeps being affected by the bad weather caused by a cold wave from Siberia. Severe weather warnings are in place in many countries neighboring Romania, and more roads and highways are likely to be closed. In Bulgaria, for instance, codes red and orange warnings have been issued for blizzard and frost. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issues travel warnings for Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, France, Sweden and Ireland, which are all under codes yellow and orange for heavy snow, blizzard and frost. Extremely low temperatures have also been recorded in central Europe, in countries like Germany, Italy and Spain. From the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, the cold wave, dubbed the Beast from the East by the British media, has claimed at least 24 lives in the past days and has severely hampered traffic. On the other hand, the Arctic region is faced with abnormally high temperatures, spiking over 30 degrees. (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)




  • December 21, 2017

    December 21, 2017

    DECEMBER 1989 – 28 years since the December 1989 anti-Communist
    Revolution, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has conveyed a message today,
    saying that in 1989, Romanians called for the fall of Communism, an urge that
    can still be heard today. This should be a warning to politicians, who have
    proven lately they are not willing to leave the past and its bad habits behind.
    Upholding the ideals of the anti-Communist Revolution means defending the rule
    of law, freedom and democracy and respect for citizens, wrote the president on
    a social network, stressing that the investigation of the Revolution Case File
    must be completed and the crimes and abuses perpetrated in 1989 must be
    punished. After four days of protests, which started in Timisoara on December
    16th 1989, during which dozens of dead and wounded were reported,
    the army joined the population and revolutionaries developed the first
    democratic platform. Started as a protest staged by citizens of Timisoara
    against an abusive measure taken by local officials, the revolution spread
    rapidly across the country, culminating on December 22nd with the
    presidential couple’s attempt to flee. More than 1,000 people died and some
    3,400 were wounded between the 16th and the 25th of
    December 1989. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the
    regime was changed violently and its communist leaders were executed by firing
    squad.






    JUSTICE
    LAWS – The Romanian Senate, the decision making body in this matter, has today
    adopted the bill modifying the Law on the organisation and functioning of the
    Superior Council of Magistracy. This was the last in the justice law package
    that the Senators had to rule on, after the adoption of the ones on judicial
    organisation and the status of magistrates. The changes that the ruling
    coalition, formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals
    and Democrats, has brought to these laws have been vehemently criticized by the
    right-wing opposition and a large part of civil society. Moreover, hundreds of
    magistrates have protested in Bucharest and in other cities across the country
    against the way in which these changes have been brought, saying the process
    has lacked transparency.






    BUDGET
    BILL – The Romanian Parliament continues to debate today the 2018 state budget
    bill, which establishes the amounts allocated to ministries and the main credit
    authorizing bodies. The budgets of some of the most important institutions have
    been maintained as they were in the draft proposed by the government, as the
    amendments filed by the opposition were not voted by the majority. The budget
    was built on an estimated 5.5% economic growth rate, an average exchange rate
    of 4.55 lei for one Euro and a monthly salary of 565 Euro, as well as an
    estimated budget deficit standing at 2.97%
    of the GDP. The priority fields in 2018 are health, education and
    infrastructure. The right-wing parliamentary opposition has criticized
    Government’s measures, saying the structure of the budget is dangerous and will
    trigger an increase in the public debt.








    POLISH LAWS – The Polish president
    Andrzej Duda has promulgated two controversial laws, which give the government
    more power over the judiciary, right after the European Commission decided to
    activate art.7 of the EU Treaty, saying that the laws represent a high risk of
    violation of the rule of law. Brussels’s decision may leave Poland without the
    right to vote in the European Council. The first-vice-president of the European
    Commission Frans Timmermans has stated that it was the only option and Poland has
    three months to implement the recommendations issued by the Commission, and
    then the EU leaders would have to decide on penalty measures. France and
    Germany have announced they support the Commission’s decision, but Hungary has
    announced it might use its veto power to block what they termed an abusive
    sanction against a democratically elected government.




    CATALONIA – Five and a half million
    Catalans are called to the polls today to elect the members of the regional
    parliament. Currently, the region of Catalonia, one of the richest in Spain, is
    governed by the central government in Madrid, after the regional executive
    headed by Carles Puigdemont held on October 1st an illegal referendum that
    subsequently led to a unilateral declaration of independence. Today’s favorites
    are the Republican Left of Catalonia, whose leader, Oriol Junqueras, is in
    prison, for having organized the referendum, and Ciudadanos, a liberal party
    which supports Spain’s unity, whose main candidate is Ines Arrimadas. The
    candidate of the coalition Together for Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, who is
    currently in Belgium, is wanted by the Spanish judiciary for rebellion and
    embezzlement. If he gets to Spain, he will be arrested right away.



  • July 26, 2017

    July 26, 2017


    BRUSSELS – The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader is meeting in Brussels today with the First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans. The two officials will discuss the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and its prospects. The agenda of talks also includes the package law on the judiciary, which Tudorel Toader wants to see passed by the Romanian Government by September 1st. The meeting with Frans Timmermans was agreed upon during the visit that Prime Minister Mihai Tudose has paid to Brussels recently.



    MOLDOVA – The European Peoples Party (EPP) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) have today denounced the deterioration of the rule of law and democratic standards in the Republic of Moldova. In a joint statement, the EPP and ALDE leaders Joseph Daul and Hans van Baalen respectively, call on the EU to reassess the agreement of association with this former soviet state, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population. They are accusing the ruling democrats and the socialists headed by the pro-Russia president Igor Dodon of autocratic tendencies. Daul and van Baalen say that the Alliance made up of the Democratic Party of Moldova and the Socialist Party of Moldova has stubbornly rejected the recommendations made by the Venice Commission and has changed the election system. The two parties also condemn the growing number of acts of intimidation and harassment targeting the pro-European opposition and the use of selective justice to quiet them down, as it has happened with the liberal mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, arguably accused of corruption.



    NATO – A British fighter from the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in south-eastern Romania has been sent to intercept two Russian Tupolev bombers which were flying across the Black Sea, close to the NATO airspace. According to the British media, the NATO combined air operations centre in Torrejon, Spain, was the one that ordered the plane to intercept the Russian fighters. There are four British Typhoon aircraft at Mihail Kogalniceanu, and their role is to carry out patrol missions across the Black Sea.



    DIPLOMACY – The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has voiced Romanias full support for a mediation by Kuwait of the crisis in the Gulf region. He has appreciated the measures taken by the Emir of Kuwait, the Sheikh Sabah Ahmad al Jaber Al-Sabah to ease the tension by bringing the parties to the negotiation table and by starting a political dialogue between Qatar and its neighbours. The latter accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism. Melescanu made the statement during a meeting he had with Kuwaits ambassador to Bucharest, Talal Mansour Alhajeri. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the two officials discussed the current stage of Romanian – Kuwaiti cooperation, with focus on prospects of boosting political dialogue and cooperation within international organisations.



    EXTREME WEATHER – One person has died and 30 have been wounded by storms in various parts of Romania. Heavy rainfalls, hail and strong winds have left dozens of localities without electricity. Houses and yards have been flooded, hundreds of trees have been felled down, breaking electricity poles, cars and roofs, and many roads have been covered in mud. For today, weather experts have announced variable skies and scattered rain showers in the north and east. In the hilly and mountain areas though, heavy rains, thunderstorms and powerful winds continue.



    FRANCHOPHONE GAMES – On Tuesday, Romanian athletes won a golden medal and one silver at the 2017 Francophone Games in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Both medals were won in the mens javelin throw event. Romania has so far won 18 medals: 5 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze. This year Romania is participating in the games with 57 athletes in 6 events. At the previous edition, hosted by Nice, France, Romania won 23 medals. Previously Romania used to take part in both segments of the games, sports and culture, but this year it is only active in the sporting events.



    FOOTBALL – Romanias football champion FC Viitorul Constanta is today taking on APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus, in the first leg of the Champions Leagues third preliminary round. On Tuesday, in the same stage of the competition, Romanias vice-champion FCSB (former Steaua Bucharest) ended in a draw, 2-2, the match against the Czechs from FC Viktoria Plzen. On Thursday, in the Europa League, also in the third preliminary round, CS Universitatea Craiova will meet the famous AC Milan, Dinamo Bucharest will play against Athletic Bilbao, and Astra Giurgiu will take on the Ukrainians from FK Oleksandria. All matches are hosted by Romania. The return games are scheduled for next week.