Radio România Internațional

Tag: Intelligence Service

  • August 29, 2018

    August 29, 2018

    SWINE FEVER – Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has called on the Government to urgently adopt all measures to contain the number of African swine fever outbreaks and to offer compensations to the affected producers, as soon as possible. Because of the mismanagement of this crisis situation, the government has pushed local producers on the brink of bankruptcy, the President writes in a communiqué. According to him, tens of million of Euros worth of losses have already been registered, thousands of jobs have disappeared and the country missed significant commercial opportunities. At present there are over 700 hotbeds in Romania, in 10 counties, mostly in the south-east and north-west. Hundreds of thousands of pigs have been slaughtered because the virus was spreading at a fast pace, including in a pig farm in Braila, in the south-east, the largest in Romania and the second largest in Europe.



    POPULATION – Some 19.5 million people were residing in Romania on January 1, 2018, that is some 121,000 people less than in the same period of 2017, data released by the National Statistics Institute show. The drop is caused mainly by the negative birth rate, the number of the deceased exceeding the number of living newly born babies by some 71,000. The urban population and women are prevailing over rural population and men, the figures standing at 53% and 51%, respectively. Demographic aging is a phenomenon which continues to grow. Consequently, the difference between the elderly people, aged over 65, and the young population, in the 0 to 14 age bracket exceeding 500,000 people. In another move, Romania continues to be a source of migrants, the phenomenon being the second main cause leading to the decreasing number of the population, the National Statistics Institute shows. As regards international figures, they were negative in 2017, as the number of emigrants exceeded the number of immigrants by over 53,000 people.



    THE ROMANIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE – The Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Eduard Hellvig, has sent a letter to the leaders of the parliamentary parties in which he draws attention to the attacks on his institution. In his opinion, as a result of these attacks officers are less committed to their activity and unmotivated. Such attacks impact the support for the protection and promotion of the constitutional values of the rule of law. Eduard Hellvig reiterates, in his letter, that there is no longer any protocol in force, which can be associated with the act of doing justice in Romania. The head of the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Prosecutor General, Augustin Lazar, have recently said that there were two legal protocols between the two institutions, and the Supreme Council of Magistracy had been briefed on their existence. The protocols were later scrapped because they were no longer needed. Justice minister, Tudorel Toader, has however said that protocols are unnatural in a rule of law. He launched the assessment procedure for the Prosecutor General, Augustin Lazar. Representatives of the Save Romania Union, in opposition, say minister Toader should resign because he puts in jeopardy the stability and independence of the justice system, and that by assessing Augustin Lazars activity he intends to stop the investigation by the Prosecutor General ‘s Office into the anti-government protest rally of August 10. We recall that prosecutors are investigating the wave of violence at the meeting and the forceful intervention by the gendarmes, which has been considered excessive by the protesters, the opposition and presidency.



    THE GOLDEN STAG MUSIC FESTIVAL – The 18th edition of the “Golden Stag International Music festival kick-starts in the central Romanian city of Brasov this evening. This is an anniversary edition, unfolding in the year of the Great Union Centennial. Renowned soloists and bands from the Romanian and international music industry will give recitals. Performing among others will be Nicole Scherzinger, James Blunt, Edvin Marton, Andra, Delia and The Motans. Running in the competition are 18 singers from 15 countries. Well revert to this issue, later in RN.



    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea has qualified to the second round of the US Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, with some 53 million USD in prize money up for grabs. She defeated the American Alison Riske in three sets. In the next match, Cirstea will face 22nd seeded Russian Maria Sharapova. Romania is also represented in the singles at the US Open by Ana Bogdan and Irina Begu. Bogdan will face in the second round 8th seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czeck Republic, whereas Begu will play against Chinas Qiang Wang. On Tuesday, Monica Niculescu lost to Israeli Julia Glushko, and Mihaela Buzărnescu withdrew in the last moment because of an injury. In the mens competition, Marius Copil abandoned the match against Croatias Marin Cilici. We recall that Simona Halep, no.1 WTA, was surprisingly defeated in the inaugural round by Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

  • August 28, 2018 UPDATE

    August 28, 2018 UPDATE

    JUDICIARY – The US government does not comment on the opinions or conclusions of private US citizens, the spokesperson of the US embassy in Bucharest, Donald Carroll said today. In a comment to Agerpress news agency, he emphasised that until recently, Romania had shown remarkable progress in combating corruption and building an efficient rule of law. This reaction comes after Rudolph Giuliani, a former district attorney and mayor of New York and currently part of Donald Trump’s legal team, sent a letter to president Klaus Iohannis and other Romanian officials recommending the assessment of the protocols between the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Romanian Intelligence Service and calling for an end to what he described as pressure on the judges. The General Prosecutor’s Office said that in December 2016, it signed two perfectly legal collaboration protocols with the Romanian Intelligence Service which were in place for three months. One of them was of a public nature and was concerned with the conditions to access technical systems of the National Centre for the Interception of Communications, while a second, secret, protocol, dealt with cooperation for crimes against national security, namely terrorism and crimes committed by military staff of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Against the backdrop of these debates, the justice minister Tudorel Toader recently announced he would begin an evaluation of the managerial activity of the prosecutor general, Augustin Lazar. On Tuesday, Toader added that the decision to assess the work of the prosecutor general did not rely exclusively on recent circumstances, but added that protocols between judicial institutions and intelligence services are “unnatural in a country governed by the law.



    SWINE FEVER – The largest pig farm in Romania and the second largest in Europe, located in Braila County, south-eastern Romania, Tuesday initiated the slaughtering of all its 140,000 animals, because of the African swine fever virus. A similar operation is under way in another farm in the same county, where some 35,000 animals are being killed. The Agriculture Minister Petrea Daea said on Tuesday that all the farmers who have incurred damages because of the swine fever will receive compensations, after the forthcoming budget adjustment. He added that Romania will receive funding from the European Commission to fight the epidemics. Daea also explained that he requested support from experts from other European countries having faced this situation. One-quarter of Romanias counties are affected by the African swine fever epidemic, with over 700 hotbeds identified by authorities in the south-east and north-west of the country. The authorities estimate that around 300,000 animals will be killed.



    AMBASSADOR – Brexit will not have a negative impact on Londons relations with Bucharest or on the life of the Romanians who work in the UK, said the new British Ambassador to Bucharest, Andrew Noble. In his first press conference, he said Britain and Romania are working on a new strategic partnership, able to respond to the current concerns. The British official returned to Romania after nearly 30 years. According to Radio Romania Current Affairs, between 1983 and 1986 Andrew Noble worked as a secretary in the British Embassy in Bucharest.



    EMERGENCY NUMBER – Romanias National System for the 112 Single Emergency Number will be modernised using non-reimbursable European funds. The Romanian Minister for European Funds Rovana Plumb and the head of the Special Telecommunications Service Ionel-Sorinel Vasilca Tuesday signed a financing contract for the amount of 47.6 million euros. The project will be implemented in 36 months and consists in the upgrading of hardware and software components to ensure a quicker response of emergency agencies to citizens calls. Special telecoms experts will improve the precision of call tracing, will ease the access of people with disabilities, and the waiting time will be reduced by 5 seconds, to 54 seconds. Rovana Plumb said that during its 13 years of operation, the 112 emergency telephone number received more than 64 million calls.



    MOLDOVA – The Romanian Foreign Ministry is monitoring with close attention and concern the situation at Romanias border with the Republic of Moldova and, in the spirit of dialogue and cooperation that defines the relationship between the two countries, it requested explanations as to why some Romanian citizens were denied access to the country. A news release issued by the Foreign Ministry mentions that the Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Bucharest was invited for additional clarifications. Also, the Romanian Embassy to Chisinau took measures to ensure that the rights of Romanian citizens are respected, as is normal for a country associated to the EU and for a strategic partner of Romania. The Foreign Ministry adds that the Moldovan border police Monday sent back from Albita checkpoint a group of Romanians taking part in the Union March, on grounds that they have disturbed public order in the border area.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Protocol between SRI and General Prosecutors’ Office, in the spotlight

    Protocol between SRI and General Prosecutors’ Office, in the spotlight

    Claudiu Manda, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee overseeing the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) said last fall that 65 collaboration protocols between SRI and various state institutions were in force. One of them, namely the one signed with the General Prosecutors Office, was declassified and made public last Friday.



    The document was signed back in 2009 by the then Prosecutor General Laura Codruta Kovesi, who now heads the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, and George Maior, the SRI chief at the time. Based on this document, SRI granted assistance to prosecutors, with joint operative teams being set up in order to investigate certain misdeeds.



    The politicians in Power have hailed the declassification and have argued that this document allowed for some abnormal agreements. Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Speaker of the Senate and leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania (ALDE), in the ruling coalition, has said:



    Calin Popescu Tariceanu: “We will see in detail what these abnormal understandings are all about, as they have allowed the intelligence services to play the role of judicial police, something specific to the communist era and to the communist regimes that obviously had no consideration for justice.



    The right-of-centre parliamentary opposition said in turn that in keeping with the principle of transparency, making public the collaboration protocol is natural in a democratic state. Leader of the Save Romania Union (USR), Dan Barna:



    Dan Barna: “Ever since it entered Parliament, Save Romania Union has been promoting the transparency principle. So this decision of the National Intelligence Service, to make public a protocol that does not endanger national security in any way, is only natural in a democratic state, the kind of state that Romania tries to be.



    There are plenty of voices supporting the scenario of a ‘parallel state, where important institutions have allegedly committed abuse in the shadow of secret arrangements. Nevertheless, the chief of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, says this theory is false, and the collaboration between the General Prosecutors Office and the Intelligence Service complies with the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure.



    Laura Codruta Kovesi: “What this protocol did was create a unitary procedure so that everybody worked in the same direction. The law was being applied in different ways, hence the need to harmonise procedures. This is the reason why other judicial institutions signed protocols with SRI as well, its not only the case of the Prosecutors Office.



    Fearing that by signing the protocol between the General Prosecutors Office and the Romanian Intelligence Service prosecutors and prosecutors offices have come to rely on the SRI in their investigations, the National Union of Romanian Judges and the Romanian Magistrates Association have asked the General Prosecutors Office and SRI to make public all protocols and cooperation agreements signed since 1990 to date. Moreover, they have also asked the Supreme Defence Council to make public all its decisions related to justice, made since 1990.


    (translated by: Elena Enache)

  • April 2, 2017 UPDATE

    April 2, 2017 UPDATE

    DECREES – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will sign on Monday the decrees regarding the appointment of two new ministers. Gratiela Gavrilescu will be the new Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister, at the proposal of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), who also nominated Viorel Ilie as Minister for the Relation with Parliament. We remind you that a week ago, the ALDE leadership decided to withdraw political support for the party’s co-president, Daniel Constantin, who was deputy PM and Environment Minister, against the background of misunderstandings between Constantin and the other ALDE co-president, Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu.



    VAT – The Romanian Minister of Tourism, Mircea Titus Dobre, has announced he will submit on Monday the necessary documents to the Finance Ministry so that the VAT for travel agencies be decreased to 9%. Minister Dobre has said he believes this is a way of boosting this sector and a measure likely to trigger a decrease in holiday packages. He has pointed out, however, that slashing the VAT will take time, given that the approval of the European Commission is also required.



    NATO – The Romanian Foreign Ministry hailed the celebration of the NATO Day on Sunday and said that Romania continues to be a beneficiary of the measures taken by the Alliance but also an important contributor to it, by taking part directly in the handling of threats coming from the eastern and southern flanks. On NATO Day, the Romanian Defense Ministry opened its gates to visitors. Also, there was a military ceremony dedicated to Romania’s accession to NATO, an outdoor exhibition of military equipment, as well as film screenings. Romania officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on March 29, 2004. The country celebrates NATO Day every year on the first Sunday of April.



    GENEVA — Romanian won 34 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 10 special prizes at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland. Romania also got 17 prizes awarded by foreign delegations. Romania participated at this year’s edition with 40 inventions funded by the state budget and 8 inventions financed from other sources. Over 2 thousand inventions were exhibited in Geneva this year.



    HEALTH — Romanian doctors who want to return to Romania will enjoy the assistance of a National Centre for Human Resources, set up within the Health Ministry. The Bucharest authorities have decided to open this centre after they received signals from Romanian doctors working in Germany and Britain that they want to return home, encoraged by the recent salary increase in the Romanian health system. The Health Ministry is also considering measures lilely to stimulate doctors to work in rural areas.



    INVESTIGATION — The controversial computer game Blue Whale will be analysed next week by the Control committee of the Romanian Inteligence Service (SRI), Liberal senator Cristian Chirtes has said. The Blue Whale game is believed to be encouraging people to kill themselves. It is believed that an administrator assigns ‘daily tasks’ to members, which they have to complete for 50 days. These tasks include self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours, but these gradually get more extreme. Several children and teenagers in Romania died or have been taken to hospital lately for trying to hold their breath, one of the tasks they received during the game. Romanian Police has recently initiated a prevention campaign, trying to raise awareness over the dangers that teenagers are exposed to in the online environment.



    GAS PRICE — The liberalization of the purchase price of natural gas for the population came into force on April 1st, and the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has already announced a 2% increase. Also as of April 1st, domestic consumers will be able to choose their provider of natural gas. The ANRE President Niculae Havrilet has told Radio Romania that the price liberalization for domestic consumers, which will bring more competitors into the market, will eventually lead to a drop in the price of natural gas.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)


  • Security and Counter-Terrorism

    Security and Counter-Terrorism

    The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), an institution set up after the anti-communist revolution, on March 26, 1990 and in charge with collecting and using intelligence on Romanian territory alone, presented its annual report for 2014 in Bucharest. The new intelligence director, Eduard Helvig, outlined a map of threats for Romania, primarily the situation in Ukraine. He said the Romanian Intelligence Service accurately foresaw and informed decision-makers on these regional risks, which allowed for important strategic decisions to be made in the national security field.



    Special attention has also been paid to counter-espionage activities, which have increased, whereas with respect to terrorist threats the goal has been to support a set of prevention and countering measures that would keep threats at their current level, namely “cautious.” As Eduard Helvig pointed out, Romania remains one of the few countries that have not been directly affected by this phenomenon:



    “Important resources have been channeled, just like in previous years, into those areas that might have led to a structural impact on the state and its response capacity, particularly into countering high-level corruption tax evasion, and weaknesses in the management of European funds, as well as into the judiciary.”



    In the report presented 25 years since the establishment of the institution, Eduard Helvig also said that, for the Romanian Intelligence Service, one of the priorities of the year 2015 is to improve its performance. The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, who nominated Eduard Helvig for this post in February, argued that in 2014 Romania had no unpleasant surprises, in strategic terms, and was a model of stability in the region, thanks to the work of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Klaus Iohannis:



    “In my view, the principle that must guide our approach to security is cooperation. This requires good communication and good relations between the Service and its beneficiaries, the institutions overseeing its activity and society on the whole. I will closely monitor the conduct of the Service, and I expect it to be balanced, independent from political interests and neutral in its relations with society.”



    The head of state also mentioned that the intelligence service contributed substantially to the fight against corruption and to strengthening national security, which are in fact the defining lines of the institution’s activity this year as well.

  • Security and Counter-Terrorism

    Security and Counter-Terrorism

    The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), an institution set up after the anti-communist revolution, on March 26, 1990 and in charge with collecting and using intelligence on Romanian territory alone, presented its annual report for 2014 in Bucharest. The new intelligence director, Eduard Helvig, outlined a map of threats for Romania, primarily the situation in Ukraine. He said the Romanian Intelligence Service accurately foresaw and informed decision-makers on these regional risks, which allowed for important strategic decisions to be made in the national security field.



    Special attention has also been paid to counter-espionage activities, which have increased, whereas with respect to terrorist threats the goal has been to support a set of prevention and countering measures that would keep threats at their current level, namely “cautious.” As Eduard Helvig pointed out, Romania remains one of the few countries that have not been directly affected by this phenomenon:



    “Important resources have been channeled, just like in previous years, into those areas that might have led to a structural impact on the state and its response capacity, particularly into countering high-level corruption tax evasion, and weaknesses in the management of European funds, as well as into the judiciary.”



    In the report presented 25 years since the establishment of the institution, Eduard Helvig also said that, for the Romanian Intelligence Service, one of the priorities of the year 2015 is to improve its performance. The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, who nominated Eduard Helvig for this post in February, argued that in 2014 Romania had no unpleasant surprises, in strategic terms, and was a model of stability in the region, thanks to the work of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Klaus Iohannis:



    “In my view, the principle that must guide our approach to security is cooperation. This requires good communication and good relations between the Service and its beneficiaries, the institutions overseeing its activity and society on the whole. I will closely monitor the conduct of the Service, and I expect it to be balanced, independent from political interests and neutral in its relations with society.”



    The head of state also mentioned that the intelligence service contributed substantially to the fight against corruption and to strengthening national security, which are in fact the defining lines of the institution’s activity this year as well.