Radio România Internațional

Tag: NATO Summit

  • Preparing for the NATO Summit

    Preparing for the NATO Summit

    An unprecedented NATO military buildup in Eastern Europe, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that started on February 24th, 2014 is the key element that will be in the focus of attention of the leaders of the 28 countries who will gather in Warsaw early this week. This two-day NATO summit is an extremely important one, also to Romania, which is situated on the eastern border of both the EU and NATO.



    Also, the summit will establish the main direction lines of the future NATO strategy, to make sure the alliance will remain an essential source of stability in a world which is growingly unsafe and unpredictable. According to Radio Romanias correspondent in Brussels, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg might also put on the agenda of talks the consequences of Brexit. He has recently stated that after Great Britain decided to leave the EU, NATO has become an even more important cooperation platform between Europe and the US, but also a major platform of military and security cooperation among the NATO allies in Europe.



    The Warsaw summit is of utmost importance to Bucharest. Last year, the anti-missile defense shield in Deveselu, in southern Romania, was rendered operational, placing Romania on the map of NATOs defense system in Eastern Europe. Its one of the most important US bases in Europe, devised as a defense system against threats coming from outside Europe, as the US Ambassador to Bucharest Hans Klemm has stated, also stressing the fact that the shield does not target Russia.



    On Friday, Canada announced it would send 1,000 soldiers to Latvia, under a deployment mission of four NATO battalions in Eastern Europe, stating its wish to be, alongside the US, Great Britain and Germany, one of the framework-nations that will strengthen NATOs advanced presence in Central and Eastern Europe. On the other side, though, Russia accuses the Alliance of involving Russia into a frantic arms race, which breaks the military balance established after the fall of the USSR in 1991.



    Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the NATO military maneuvers near the Russian border, in particular in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, warning that Moscow would respond “adequately to these challenges. Observers estimate that the summit in Warsaw will strengthen NATOs tough stand against Russia. The recent appointment of a specialist in Russian affairs, Rose Gottemoeller, as Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance might be regarded as a sign of this strategy. Before taking this office, Gottemoeller was the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security for the U.S. State Department.

  • May 13, 2016

    May 13, 2016

    LAW – In Romania, the debt discharge law has taken effect as of today. Under the new law, people with mortgage loans under 250,000 euros who can prove they can no longer pay their due instalments may request banks to take over their home and erase the debt. Tens of thousands of Romanians have outstanding payments for their house loans and many of them are already subject to foreclosure. Adding to these are people who took out personal loans and pledged their homes as collateral. A growing number of banks have announced, in response to this law, which they oppose, that they have increased the down payment for granting mortgage loans and that they will appeal the law in Court.




    STATISTICS – Romania’s economic growth in the first three months of this year stood at 4.3% as against the same period of 2016, according to data made public today by the National Statistics Institute. Also in the first quarter of this year, he country’s GDP went up by 1.6% as compared with the same period of 2015. According to the European Commission’s spring economic forecast, Romania’s economic growth is expected to reach 4.2 percent in 2016 and decelerate to 3.7 percent in 2017.




    SUMMIT – Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos are today meeting to discuss about preparations for the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw, due on July 8 and 9. The meeting takes place one day after the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, travelled to Romania for the activation of the anti-ballistic shield in Deveselu, southern Romania. President Iohannis had reiterated the purely defensive purpose of the shield and its role in fulfilling NATO’s underlying mission, namely to ensure the collective defense of its member states.




    DESINFECTANTS SCANDAL – Romanian prosecutors have today indicted Hexi Pharma, the company involved in the hospital disinfectants scandal. Also today, investigators conduced searches at the Hexi Pharma headquarters in an attempt to find evidence for the case. The diluted disinfectant scandal started at end-April, after a journalistic investigation revealed that hundreds of public hospitals in Romania have been buying diluted disinfectants from Hexi Pharma for many years. Moreover, the journalists found that authorities had never tested the quality of the disinfectants used in public hospitals and that the only lab that was authorized to carry such tests was also controlled by Hexi Pharma’s owner. The Health Minister, Patriciu Achimas Cadariu resigned, following the scandal.




    CANNES – The film “Sieranevada”, directed by Romanian Cristi Puiu, which is competing for the Palme d’Or is, according to the French magazine Le Monde, “a domestic ballet, a symphony of movement”, while the American Variety says that “Puiu is something of a philosopher, who manages to weave a tapestry in which deception and the hopeless search for truth is judged both on the micro level and a more global scale and where disturbances in either sphere ripple out into the world at large.” In 2005, Cristi Puiu won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his dark comedy The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. On Sunday, another Romanian production will compete in the Un Certain Regard section – the thriller Dogs, the debut film of director Bogdan Mirica. Romania has five films in this year’s competition, among which Graduation, by the Palme dOr winner Cristian Mungiu (2007). The film explores the challenges of being a parent in Romanian society today.




    INDIAN FESTIVAL – Indian food and culture will take over the capital city Bucharest between May 15 and June 30, when the Namaste India, the Indian Culture Festival unfolds. The festival, held under the high patronage of the Indian Embassy in Bucharest, is currently at its 8th edition. The 6-week event will include film screenings, reading sessions, concerts and dance sessions, discussions, language lessons, yoga sessions, exhibitions as well as cooking workshops. All these events will be held in three locations in Bucharest: the Elisabea Theatre, the Elvira Ppescu Cinema and the Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum.



    (Translated by Elena Enache)

  • December 1, 2015 UPDATE

    December 1, 2015 UPDATE

    Over 2,600 troops and
    military specialists, with 360 technical devices, paraded in Bucharest on
    December 1st, Romania’s National Day. As a first, the parade was joined by a
    detachment from the theater of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of the
    attractions of the parade were the armored vehicles, the Hercules and Spartan
    fighters and the helicopters. Also, this year the traditional parade of the
    Romanian army was joined by troops from the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, the
    US, Poland and Turkey. Romania’s national day was celebrated not only in
    Bucharest, but everywhere in the country, and also at the Romanian diplomatic
    missions around the world, through concerts, exhibitions, film screenings and
    receptions. December 1st became Romania’s National Day after the anti-communist
    Revolution of 1989, and marks the completion in 1918 of the process of setting
    up the Romanian unitary state, by aggregating under Bucharest’s authority all
    the provinces with predominantly Romanian-speaking populations from the neighboring
    multi-national empires.






    This year’s December 1st
    could mark a new beginning for Romania, with regard to its common practices,
    behaviors and mentalities, said in a message to Romanians President Klaus Iohannis, who also stressed
    the fact that a new beginning was necessary in Romanian politics. According to
    the Romanian head of state, a new beginning would entail new ideas, new
    approaches and new behaviors, while at the same time maintaining the stability
    and balance of the Romanian political system. December 1st is not
    just a celebration of the past, it’s an opportunity for Romania to focus more
    on the present, on its place in Europe and the world, Iohannis went on saying.
    In a world in which war and terror seem to have gained significant ground,
    Romania is a provider of certainty and predictability, thanks to its democratic
    values and its solid partnerships within the EU and NATO, the president also
    said in his message. After the parade, Iohannis had a videoconference with the
    soldiers deployed in theatres of operations abroad and attended several
    ceremonies devoted to Romania’s National Day. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos too
    sent a message to all Romanians, both in the country and abroad, urging them to
    join efforts and help make Romania a better country, a country ruled on the
    basis of such principles as decency and transparency.




    The US Secretary of State,
    John Kerry, congratulated the Romanian people, on behalf of President Barack
    Obama, on their National Day, pleading at the same time for even tighter
    relations between Romania and the US. In a communiqué issued by the US
    Department of State, John Kerry recalls that 2015 marks the celebration of 135
    years since the beginning of diplomatic relations between the US and Romania,
    countries united by a friendship built on their joint commitment to promoting
    democracy and the rule of law, to ensuring citizens’ prosperity, through solid
    trading relations and investments, as well as to securing a free and united
    Europe. The US Secretary of State has stated that the US is proud its soldiers
    have participated in missions alongside their Romanian mates, driven by the
    same goal of defending freedom and justice in various parts of the world.




















    Romanian
    Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu attended in Brussels on Tuesday the Resolute
    Support meeting, organized as part of the summit of the NATO Foreign
    Ministers. The participants discussed security in Afghanistan, NATO’ s support to
    the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and means of carrying on NATO’s commitment
    to Afghanistan. The importance of NATO’s cooperation with other international
    organizations, the UN and the EU in particular, was also stressed at the
    meeting. On the sidelines of the event, Lazar Comanescu had a meeting with his
    Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski.














    The Command unit of the NATO
    Multinational Division Southeast was officially activated in Bucharest on
    Tuesday. The setting up of this NATO control structure follows the activation
    in September of the NATO Force Integration Unit. The two structures will ensure
    a visible and consistent NATO presence in Romania and will play a key-role in
    ensuring the connection between the national and the allied forces. In another
    move, the Pentagon has announced that some 70 US military pieces of equipment
    arrived in Romania on Tuesday, from Germany. Other pieces will be shipped in
    late December to Bulgaria and Lithuania. Early this year, during a visit to
    Estonia, the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that the US would
    temporary station vehicles and pieces of equipment in Central and Eastern
    Europe, sufficient to support an armored brigade. Their deployment would
    facilitate the rotation of the US forces in the region and their participation
    in exercises and training missions.








    On Tuesday, the Royal Train took a
    symbolical trip along the Drobeta -Turnu Severin – Bucharest route, as did King
    Carol 1st of Romania 150 years ago. The train passed through the
    counties of Mehedinti, Dolj, Olt and Dambovita, and thousands of people saluted
    Princess Margareta, Princes Maria and Prince Radu, who were on the train. On
    May 8th, 1866, Carol stepped for the first time on Romanian soil in
    Turnu Severin. On the 10th of May he entered Bucharest and the
    Romanian Constitution was adopted on June 29th. The Royal Train,
    made in Italy, started serving the Royal House of Romania in 1928, during the
    first reign of Mihai 1st. It was used by both King Carol 2nd
    and Mihai 1st, and during the communist period it was used as a
    presidential train.

  • October 30, 2015

    October 30, 2015

    The former president of Romania, Traian Basescu, may be prosecuted in a case involving the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005, a Bucharest court decided today, citing abuse of office and conflict of interests among the charges. The case was opened after the former leader of Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, filed a complaint to the General Prosecutors Office in 2009, accusing Traian Basescu and his former Interior Minister, the current co-president of the National Liberal Party, Vasile Blaga, of having appropriated some of the 4 million US dollars paid by the Romanian state as ransom for the three journalists. Prosecutors mentioned that the probe into Vasile Blaga was closed in 2010, and prosecution was ruled out. Traian Basescu finds the accusations ridiculous and views the case as an offence to Romania.



    Nine central and eastern-European countries will take part in Bucharest on November 4 in a high-level meeting, attended by the deputy NATO Secretary General, Alexander Vershbow. He has recently said that there are risks when Russia gets involved in operations close to NATO territory. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who will be hosting the summit, announced that the participants will release a joint message regarding the adjustment of NATO to the current security context.



    The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu is taking part today, in Ulm (Germany) in the fourth Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, organised by the European Commission. On this occasion, Minister Aurescu will have bilateral meetings with German officials. The EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a major European political project launched by Romania jointly with Austria, and the Forum is its central annual event. The project brings together Danube riparian countries, of which 9 EU members and 5 non-members.



    Romania might reach an absorption rate of over 90% by the end of the 2007-2014 National Rural Development Programme, which means that more than 9 billion euros from national and European funds will have been attracted into the sector, said George Turtoi, secretary of state with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This programme is the instrument under which non-reimbursable funds are allotted for private and public investments that ensure the development of villages in Romania. The total funds earmarked under this programme were 9.67 billion euro, which should have been contracted by the end of 2013, but can still be paid until the end of 2015, Agerpres reports.



    The mayor of the north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi, Gheorghe Nichita, and a well-known businessman are to find out today whether they will be placed under custody pending trial for 30 days. The two are subject to investigation in a case involving the award of an EU-funded contract amounting to 15 million euros.



    The European Union announced it was closely monitoring the political developments in the Republic of Moldova, after the Parliament in Chisinau Thursday dismissed the Cabinet headed by Valeriu Streletz through a no-confidence motion. In a press release issued by the office of the EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, Brussels urges the politicians in Chisinau to form a new and stable government as soon as possible, considering that the Republic of Moldova is experiencing a difficult period in all respects – economic, political and social. The new Cabinet will have to carry on efforts to fight corruption, to solve the banking crisis and to negotiate a new agreement with the IMF, which is vital to ensuring macroeconomic stability, reads the press statement.



    Talks are held in Vienna today between the foreign powers that back the rival parties in the Syrian civil war. According to the BBC, the goal is the bridge the differences between the US and its allies, which support the rebels, and the key supporters of the Syrian regime, Russia and Iran. This is for the first time that Iran takes part in such talks. Recently, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, urged the participants in the Vienna talks to prove “flexibility. The war, which has been going on for four years, started out as a rebellion against the President Bashar al-Assad, and has so far killed 250,000 people, forcing half of the countrys population, nearly 11 million people, to leave their homes.

  • September 28, 2015

    September 28, 2015

    The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who is on an official visit to the US, has talks in Washington today with Vice-president Joe Biden. The two will discuss the strategic partnership between Romania and the US, the fight against terrorism and the refugee crisis facing Europe. On Sunday, at the UN Summit focusing on a new sustainable development programme for the next 15 years, Iohannis announced that Romania would revise its national strategy on sustainable development, which will focus on supporting the inclusion of people with disabilities, of the youth and of women. Also yesterday, Klaus Iohannis gave a speech on gender equality, in which he pleaded for non-discrimination and said Romania would remain fully committed to protecting and promoting womens rights. Last night President Iohannis visited New Yorks Ground Zero, dedicated to the victims of the 2001 attacks in which 2 Romanians were also killed.




    The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, discussed in New York with the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, particularly about the Romanian-American strategic partnership. According to a news release issued by the Foreign Ministry, the two officials also analysed the bilateral cooperation in the field of energy security, with an emphasis on the need to diversify energy sources and transport routes. As for the political-military and security fields, the parties agreed that Romania and the US should work closely together for the preparation of the NATO Summit due in Warsaw in 2016.



    Large groups of immigrants Sunday continued to cross the border between Croatia and Hungary, where they were taken over by Hungarian police and taken to the registration centres in the west of the country. From there they crossed into Austria. On Saturday, the Hungarian police registered nearly 9,500 illegal immigrants, most of them at the Hungarian-Croatian border. The UN warns that the current migrant inflow to Europe will not recede, particularly considering that living standards are worsening in Iraq as well. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that some 8,000 people get into Europe every day. In turn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, said Europe is expecting growing numbers of refugees to come from Lebanon.



    The Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice postponed to November 23 the appeal in a case in which Liviu Dragnea, the interim president of the Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition, is being tried for frauds in the 2012 referendum on the impeachment of president Traian Băsescu. In the court of first instance, Dragnea received a one-year imprisonment suspended sentence, for having misused his influence and position in the party in order to secure the minimum number of voters for the validation of the vote. Liviu Dragnea is also the main candidate for the presidency of the party after PM Victor Ponta, who faces corruption charges, has stepped down. The election is scheduled for October 11. Ponta was sent to court for corruption offences committed while he worked as a lawyer. His Cabinet is subject to a no-confidence motion tabled by the Liberals in Opposition on grounds that the Prime Ministers legal problems may severely affect the credibility of the country.



    A separatist alliance that promised the independence of Catalonia in north-eastern Spain won Sundays regional elections in Spain. With 99% of the ballots counted, the pro-independence coalition Junts pel Si (“Together for Yes) secured 62 seats in the regional parliament, whereas a far-left separatist party won another 10 seats. With a combined 72 seats, separatist parties have the majority in Parliament, France Presse notes. Around 77% of the 5.5 million Catalan voters took part in the polls. Spains PM Mariano Rajoy announced that the Government will never allow Catalonia to break away. EU politicians have warned that an independent Catalonia will not be a part of either the European Union or the Eurozone.



    Romanias womens table tennis team has qualified today in the finals of the European Championships in Ekaterinburg (Russia), after defeating Ukraine in the semi-final, 3-1. In the final, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Romanias team will take on the winner in the match between Germany and Russia, which is played later today. Romania has so far won three continental titles, in 1992, 2002 and 2005.




    Romanias national rugby team was defeated by Ireland, 44-10, on Sunday night on Wembley in London, in a match in the World Cups Pool D. This was Romanias second loss in the current World Cup, after 11-38 against France. Sundays game between Ireland and Romania brought a new world record attendance to a World Cup match, with 89,267 people attending. Romania is to play next against Italy and Canada.

  • September 19, 2015

    September 19, 2015

    The head of the Romanian diplomacy, Bogdan Aurescu, holds talks in Bucharest today with his Dutch counterpart, Bert Koenders. The agenda includes topics related to the eastern border of the EU, including the situation in Ukraine, the European prospects of the republic of Moldova, the Western Balkans, developments in the refugee crisis. The two will also look at aspects concerning the forthcoming Dutch presidency of the EU Council, in the first half of 2016. Special attention will be given to security issues, with a focus on the preparations for the next NATO Summit, due in Warsaw in 2016, and on fighting terrorism.



    Hungarys Defence Minister, Istvan Simicsko, ordered the mobilisation of some of the countrys voluntary reserve corps to help handle the “mass migration crisis. The Hungarian news agency MTI said the reserve troops would be primarily used to staff garrisons left empty by soldiers deployed to the border, but could be assigned to other duties. In Budapest, an official was quoted by France Presse as saying that more than 4,000 migrants entered Hungary on Friday. According to Reuters, Hungary is increasingly at odds with its southern neighbours, as Serbia and Croatia struggle to deal with the wave of migrants that flee Middle East countries and transit the region en route to western Europe. Croatia is the new route for the migrants coming from Syria and Iraq, after the sealing of the Serbian-Hungarian border. Meanwhile, the Slovenian Ambassador to Germany, Marta Kos Marko, said in an interview to German media on Saturday that Slovenia was ready to take up to 10,000 refugees, if they filed asylum applications in this country.



    The Greeks are preparing to go to polls on Sunday, in a snap election whose result is uncertain, as the two main rival parties, the radical left-wing SYRIZA headed by the ex PM Alexis Tsipras, and the right-wing New Democracy headed by Vangelis Meimarakis, are very close in opinion polls, apparently with SYRIZA slightly ahead. Both Tsipras, and Meimarakis have promised to carry on the tax reforms requested by Greeces international lenders, the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, but also to try to take measures to reduce the impact of the austerity programme. A total 14 parties and five coalitions take part in Sundays legislative election in Greece.



    EU member states have reached an agreement on the targets they will support at the UN Climate Change Conference held in Paris between November 30 and December 11. During a meeting in Brussels, the EU environment ministers decided to plead for a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990, by 40% until 2030 and by 50% until 2050, aiming for as close to zero as possible in 2100. To this end, the EU will argue for a legally binding agreement to be enforced globally, not only in the more developed countries.



    In Romania, 7,000 employees of the defence, public order and national security structures have been involved, in the past few days, in the HISTRIA 15 military exercise. According to the Defence Ministry, the exercise involved the use of armoured carriers, tanks, ground-to-air systems, aircraft and helicopters. HISTRIA 15 is a large-scale strategic war simulation exercise, which took place in nine shooting ranges in the country between September 7 and 18. It is the largest such exercise held in Romania so far, and it was designed to train the national command and operational structures for planning and conducting a wide range of missions.



    The Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Pentagon chief Ashton Carter agreed, during a phone conversation, to carry on the dialogue on Syria and on how to tackle the IS group, the Pentagon announced. Russia proposed a “military-to-military dialogue on the conflict in Syria, so as to avoid incidents between the American and Russian troops deployed there, Secretary of State John Kerry said. News agencies note that Russias initiative comes amid Washingtons growing concerns with the strengthened Russian military presence in Syria to support the Bashar al-Assad regime, whereas for the past year the US has been heading an international coalition against the Islamic State.

  • The Week in Review 11-15 May 2015

    The Week in Review 11-15 May 2015

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis pays an official visit to the Vatican and Italy.

    On a 3-day official visit to Italy and the Vatican, the Romanian head of state, Klaus Iohannis, was received by Pope Francis on Friday, whom he invited to pay a visit to Romania. On Thursday Iohannis visited the Universal Exhibition in Milan dubbed “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. On Thursday evening Iohannis met with representatives of the Romanian community in the city, on which occasion he voiced his dissatisfaction with how the voting by mail project advances. This is the Romanian president’s second official visit to Italy, after the one in April 2014, when he met with his counterpart Sergio Mattarella, PM Matteo Renzi and the Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso.



    Economic forecasts for Romania.


    Romania and Cyprus had the most substantial economic growth in the EU in the first quarter of the year, as compared to the previous three months, according to preliminary estimates released on Wednesday by the European Statistics Office. In figures, thanks to a 1.6% growth rate, the two countries are the EU leaders, followed by Spain, Bulgaria, Slovakia, France and Hungary. The year-on-year rate Romania has reported, 4.2%, is also the largest in the EU, followed by Hungary, with 3.1%. Also this week the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has improved Romania’s economic growth forecast this year up to 3% from 2.8% in January. For 2016 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimates that the Romanian economy will advance by 3.2%, one of the highest growth rates in the emergent Europe.



    Romanian senators green lighted the VAT decrease on foodstuffs.


    The reduction of the VAT for foodstuffs as of June 1st was green-lighted by the Romanian senators. The measure is aimed at reducing the VAT from 24% to 9% for all foodstuffs, non-alcoholic drinks, and restaurant and catering services. Seen by the executive as a way to encourage consumption and implicitly to consolidate the growth trend reported by the Romanian economy, the measure was regarded with skepticism in terms of the significant drop in shelf prices it was supposed to produce. The calculations presented by the Agriculture Ministry point to a drop in prices for foodstuffs of about 12%. Most Romanians believe that the reduction of the VAT for foodstuffs and non-alcoholic drinks is a good measure both for them and for the economy, shows an opinion survey made by INSCOP.



    The Romanian Foreign Minister’s proposal at the NATO meeting in Turkey.


    Attending the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Turkey, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu recommended an integrated strategy targeting both NATO’s southern and eastern vicinities. Bogdan Aurescu pointed out that given the challenges to the Alliance’s security, all decisions taken at the NATO summit in Great Britain should be implemented. The recommendation comes against the backdrop of mounting instability in Northern Africa and the Middle East over the course of last year, which is affecting the entire Europe. The NATO foreign ministers have decided at the meeting in Turkey to maintain the NATO presence in Afghanistan even at the end of its current mission, that is after 2016. The new NATO mission, expected to be smaller than the current 12,000-strong training operation, will be civilian-led and include both soldiers and civilians. Its aim will be to advise and instruct Afghan security forces. Over 600 Romanian military are currently deployed in Afghanistan.



    The Social Democrat Liviu Dragnea received a 1-year suspended prison sentence.



    Romanias regional development minister and deputy prime minister, the Social Democrat Liviu Dragnea, on Friday received a 1-year suspended prison sentence for using his influence and authority, as secretary general of the Social Democratic Party, with a view to obtaining undue benefits for himself and other persons. This means that Liviu Dragnea will not serve time in prison but he will be banned from holding public office. The decision can be appealed. Right after the sentence was delivered, Liviu Dragnea resigned from the Government and has announced he will also resign his position as executive president of the Social Democratic Party.


    According to the anti-corruption prosecutors, Dragnea, as his partys secretary general, organized a system by which local party members sent back real-time information about the turnout and the results, which is illegal before the voting deadline expires and he told local party members and mayors to use whatever means to swell the turnout.



    Romanian films in Cannes.


    The film “Head Up” by French filmmaker Emmanuelle Bercot, featuring Catherine Deneuve in the leading role, opened the Cannes Film festival on Wednesday. Over 50 productions have been included in the festival, of which 19 will compete for the Palme d’Or. 2 Romanian productions have been included in the Un Certain Regard section, namely, “The Treasure” by Corneliu Porumboiu and “One Floor Below” by Radu Muntean. Andrei Cretulescu’s short “Ramona” is also part of the competition.