Radio România Internațional

Tag: Gabriel

  • April 22, 2023 UPDATE

    April 22, 2023 UPDATE

    VISIT The presidents of Romania and
    Chile, Klaus Iohannis and Gabriel Boric respectively have agreed to develop
    cooperation between the two countries in fields like trade exchanges,
    investment, green energy, the environment and climate change, civil protection,
    education, culture, research, innovation and digitalization. The two high
    officials met at the La Moneda Palace in Santiago, during a visit, which is part of the Romanian
    president’s South-American tour. Iohannis said that Chile is one of Romania’s
    traditional partners in Latin America as well as an economic partner with a
    major potential. Iohannis has announced that the first Romanian language
    lectureship in South America will be set up this year at the University of
    Chile. A memorandum has also been signed during Iohannis’ visit to Chile for
    cooperation in emergency situations, such as earthquakes and wildfires.
    Iohannis has visited Brazil and will leave for Argentina.



    EXTRADITION The former president of the County Council in Neamţ, north-eastern Romania, Social-Democrat Ionel Arsene will not be extradited to Romania where he must serve a prison sentence of six years and eight months on corruption charges. A court in Italy has rejected the extradition application filed by the Romanian authorities. The politician had fled the country shortly before the sentence was pronounced and went to Italy to join the other indicted Romanians who found refuge in that country. According to the Radio Romania correspondent in Italy, extradition in that country is conditioned by the so-called ‘double criminality’ requirement, which means the act that is the subject of the criminal procedure for which extradition is requested must be provided as a crime both in Italian and in foreign criminal law.






    GOLD
    Romanian athlete Nicoleta Anghel walked away with gold from the European
    Wrestling Championships in Croatia after a win against Turkish opponent Buşe Tosun in the 72 kilogram
    category. This has been Anghel’s best performance so far after the bronze medal
    she reaped in Kaspiysk, Russia and the world’s third performance she obtained
    last year in Belgrade. Anghel has also brought the second continental title for
    Romania that she won in Zagreb after that claimed by Andreea Beatrice in the 55
    kilogram category. Romania has so far won four medals, all in the women’s
    contest, two gold and two bronze, claimed by Catalina Axente in the 76 and
    Kriszta Tunde Incze in the 65 kilograms category.






    STRIKE Trade unions in Romania’s education system have commenced the
    procedure of gathering signatures for an all-out strike after their claims have
    been rejected by the authorities. According to a press communiqué released on
    Saturday, the decision to launch this extreme form of protest is all the more
    so justified as under the latest emergency ordinance on new fiscal-budgetary
    measures, the government intends to implement more measures with an additional
    negative impact for the employees in the country’s education system. Several
    major trade unions in the field are going to again picket the headquarters of
    the Romanian government over 25th and 26th of April and
    stage a protest march, which is expected to be attended by 15 thousand trade
    unionists on May 10th.




    (bill)

  • Corruption during the pandemic?

    Corruption during the pandemic?

    The years 2020 and 2021, the first
    and most difficult of the Covid-19 pandemic, involved huge budget expenses in
    the medical field without which the hospitals couldn’t have coped with the waves
    of infections.


    However, some public procurement procedures
    at that time have raised suspicions, something not unusual in a country where
    contracts with the state are the most rewarding. Anti-corruption prosecutors
    have kicked off a series of investigations, which have revealed the involvement
    of several celebrities in Romania. The National Anti-corruption Directorate,
    known in Romania as the DNA, has detained, among others, the former selector of
    the Romanian national football side, Victor Piturca, and Gabriel Ţuţu, director
    of Romarm, the main company specialized in the production and export of
    military gear, in a file on the purchase of some production lines, which were
    not up to the production standards, and the selling of masks to the Ministry of
    Defence during the pandemic.




    One of the companies involved in
    these transactions allegedly belong to Alex Piturca, the son of the former
    football star, who has also been accused of using his influence in order to
    ease his son’s access to the contracts. Gabriel Ţuţu has been facing charges of
    abuse of office with aggravating circumstances, influence peddling and forgery.
    According to prosecutors, against the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and
    September 2021, Gabriel Ţuţu, as director general of Romarm, would have
    concluded with a series of companies, including one belonging to the other
    person presently under investigation, two public procurement contracts that eventually
    proved to be disadvantageous for the company he was leading. The contracts were
    for buying of seven pieces of equipment used in the production of masks, but the
    machines purchased failed to meet the production standards.




    The transactions concluded eventually
    resulted in a prejudice of 1.7 million euros for the state-owned company Romarm.
    According to prosecutors, Ţuţu would have asked the companies involved in the
    aforementioned procurement transactions to conclude consultancy contracts with
    one of his friends, who wasn’t actually involved in the real trade activities
    under the aforementioned contract.




    The suspect insinuated that he had
    influence over Defence Ministry employees and was able to influence their
    granting of contracts. Ţuţu has allegedly received the sum of 10 thousand Euros through a
    middleman. We recall that selector Piturca had already received a one-year
    suspended prison sentence for perjury. Piturca is the goal-getter of the
    legendary football side Steaua Bucharest with which he won back in late 80s the
    European Champions Cup and Europe’s Supercup. He was also a reputed football
    coach whose prize closet includes numerous trophies he won with the clubs he
    coached and had a considerable hand in the qualification of the Romanian
    national squad for two major European tournaments.


    (bill)

  • June 25, 2019 UPDATE

    June 25, 2019 UPDATE

    PARTNERSHIP
    Romania intends to put into
    practice by the end of next year as many Eastern Partnership objectives as
    possible including energy and digital connectivity, participants in a business
    forum staged by the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest on Tuesday said. The event,
    held under Romania’s EU presidency, involved the participation of government
    officials and representatives of the EU business environment as well as from
    Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
    Over 20 events have been staged during Romania’s mandate at the helm of the
    European Union with a view to bringing significant progress in the relation
    between Eastern Partnership countries and the EU members.












    FLAG
    On the National Flag Day on Wednesday, Romania’s Defence Ministry is staging in
    major cities across the country a series of public events devoted to the
    national flag. The National Flag Day, on June 26th was established
    in 1998 to mark the moment during the Revolution of 1848, when the tricolor was
    adopted as a national symbol.










    JUSTICE Romania’s government would no longer issue emergency ordinances
    in the field of justice, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced on Tuesday also
    adding the citizens’ opinion would be respected. The Prime Minister went on to
    say that any legislative amendment in this field must be subjected to
    transparent debates together with professional organizations. In a report
    published on Monday, the Venice Commission recommended that the Romanian
    government drastically limit the use of emergency ordinances in justice and seriously
    reconsider the need for setting up a special section for the investigation of magistrates,
    its institutional structure and functioning principles.










    GAMES Romanian table tennis players, Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs
    walked away with silver from the mixed doubles event part of the European Games
    underway in Minsk. On Tuesday night the Romanians were defeated in finals by
    Patrick Franziska and Petrisa Solja of Germany 3-0. Several athletes from
    Romania have so far become medalists at the European Games in Minsk. Laura
    Georgeta Coman became gold medalist in the 10-meter air rifle event. Dacian
    Barna and Andreea Bogati stepped onto the second step of the podium in the
    aerobic gymnastics contest and so did Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs in
    the table tennis contest. Three Romanians, Daniela Poroineanu, Anda Mihaela
    Valvoi and Alina-Petronela Paunescu have obtained bronze medals in the Sambo
    contest of the aforementioned European Games where Romania is being represented
    by a delegation of 123 athletes. Some of these results are counting towards qualification
    for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.






    (translated by bill)