PSD — The Social Democrats, the ruling party in the governing coalition in Romania, will next week start talks for establishing the makeup of the new executive. President Klaus Iohannis accepted the proposal of the coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and entrusted Social Democrat MEP Viorica Dancilă with the task of forming the government. The Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea announced that Parliament would be convened in extraordinary session so as to be able to give an investiture vote to the government by January 29th.
Weather — Two code orange alerts for snowfalls and blizzards are valid until this evening for 18 counties in central, eastern and western Romania. The wind speed exceeds 80-90 kms/h and is supposed to increase up to 120-140 km/h. Another code orange alert for snowfalls is valid also until this evening in the northern half of the country, in the west, the south and southwest. Highs range between minus 1 and plus 8 degrees C. The noon reading in Bucharest was 6 degrees C. According to the Interior Minister, Carmen Dan, electric energy supply was cut in more than 13 localities in 13 counties because of the blizzard, affecting more than 32 thousand consumers. Classes were suspended in several counties, while the maritime ports of Constanta North, Constanta South and Mangalia on the Black Sea Coast were closed. Also the Danube port of Constanata South Agigea was closed and traffic on the Danube-Black Sea canal was restricted.
GRECO — Romania has made very limited progress in implementing the GRECO recommendations regarding the prevention and the fight against the corruption of MPs, judges and prosecutors, shows a report made public today by GRECO — the Group of States against Corruption, the Council of Europe anti-corruption body. According to GRECO, Romania has fully complied with only two of the 13 recommendations included in a 2016 evaluation report. 7 recommendations were not implemented and another 4 were only partially implemented, the body representatives said. The legislative process is still a matter of concern for GRECO, given the controversies and persistent accusations related to improper consultations, the excessive use of the emergency decree procedure and the lack of transparency in the decision-making process. The evaluation report also shows that the year 2017 was marked by a series of controversial measures, some of them being perceived as attempts to undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Tennis — The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world’s no. 1 and the main favorite of the competition on Thursday qualified to the 3rd round of the Australian Open, after defeating in two sets the Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard. Also on Thursday another Romanian, Ana Bogdan, eliminated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the 2nd round. The two Romanian players that remained in the singles competition will play in the 3rd round against the Americans Lauren Davis and Madison Keys respectively. In the men’s doubles, the pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecău and the Dutch Jean-Julien Roger defeated, in the first round, the Argentinean pair Guillermo Duran/Andres Molteni.
NATO — NATO considers Russia “a strategic competitor” in its immediate vicinity, especially to Africa and the Middle East, said Curtis Scaparrotti, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, fresh from the meeting of the NATO Military Committee. In turn, the president of the NATO Military Committee, general Petr Pavel, said the military bloc would expand cooperation with the Middle East countries to boost security in the region. Romania was represented at the meeting in Brussels by the Chief of the General Staff of the Romanian Army, general Nicolae Ciucă. High on the agenda of the meeting were the security challenges on the Alliance’s eastern flank, NATO’s contribution to stabilizing it, the ways to follow in the mission in Afghanistan and NATO’s role in granting assistance to Iraq in reforming the security field. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
