Radio România Internațional

Tag: pardons

  • January 2, 2019 UPDATE

    January 2, 2019 UPDATE

    EU The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, congratulated Romania on taking over the EU Council presidency on January 1, for the first time since its accession, and wished it good luck. I am confident that you will deliver and I am looking forward to working with you, Donald Tusk posted on his official Twitter account. Between January 1 and June 30, Romania will have to handle an EU agenda filled with political developments and dossiers with a decisive impact on the future of the bloc, including Brexit, the negotiation of the forthcoming EU budget, the European Parliament elections due in May. The European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu says Romania should use all the opportunities entailed by the EU Council presidency, including in terms of the cohesion policy for 2021-2027. In a Facebook post, Creţu adds that both herself and the European Commission as a whole are ready to support the Romanian authorities for a successful presidency.




    EURO Twenty years since the introduction of the single currency, high-ranking EU officials, including the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, emphasised the importance of the European currency. The Euro has become a symbol of unity, sovereignty and stability, said the European Commission chief, who is one of the signatories of the treaty that created the single currency. I know that was the most important signature I ever made, Juncker added in a news release. 20 years on, we have a generation that only knows the Euro as a national currency, the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi said in his turn. The Euro became the official currency of 11 EU member states on January 1, 1999, with notes and coins going into circulation in 2002. At present the Euro is used by some 340 million people in 19 of the 28 member countries, and is the second most important currency in the world after the US dollar.




    JAPAN Emperor Akihito, who is to step down in April, sent his hopes for peace for his nation and the entire world, in his last New Years address, delivered before a record number of people who came to see the event, according to Kyodo and dpa. On April 30, at the age of 85, Akihito will be the first Japanese sovereign to relinquish power in the last 200 years. In 2016 he announced his intention to withdraw from power, putting forth concerns that his old age would prevent him from accomplishing his duties. Akihito became the 125th Emperor of Japan on January 7, 1989, at 55 years of age, after the death of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought in World War 2. Akihitos oldest son, Prince Naruhito, will be crowned on May 1.




    JUSTICE The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said in an interview aired by a private television channel on Tuesday that he would like to close the subject of a government decree regarding amnesty and pardons. He emphasised that the most his ministry can do is to approve a bill initiated in Parliament on this topic. Toader also said that he has never done and will never do something likely to create a situation similar to the one triggered by the 2017 government decree no. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of Romanians into the streets and prompted criticism from the EU and the USA.



    ELECTIONS The elections for the European Parliament will be held between May 23rd and 26th this year. MEPs are elected every 5 years, and as of this year the Parliament will have 705 members, as compared to 751 at present. This is because of Britains withdrawal from the EU. Of the 73 seats currently held by UK, 46 will be eliminated and the other 27 will be distributed to EU member states that are under-represented in the Unions legislative body. Romania gets 33 seats, 1 more than at present.




    TENNIS The Romanian player Monica Niculescu (99 WTA), Wednesday qualified into the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament in Shenzhen (China), after defeating the Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4. In the quarter-finals Niculescu will play against the Chinese Yafan Wang (70 WTA). Tomorrow in the same tournament another Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea (84 WTA) takes on the American Alison Riske (62 WTA).



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • January 2, 2019

    January 2, 2019

    EU The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, congratulated Romania on taking over the EU Council presidency on January 1, for the first time its accession, and wished it good luck. I am confident that you will deliver and I am looking forward to working with you, Donald Tusk posted on his official Twitter account. Between January 1 and June 30, Romania will have to handle a EU agenda filled with political developments and dossiers with a decisive impact on the future of the bloc, including Brexit, the negotiation of the forthcoming EU budget, the European parliament elections due in May. The European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu says Romania must use all the opportunities entailed by the EU Council presidency, including in terms of the cohesion policy for 2021-2027. In a Facebook post, Creţu adds that both herself and the European Commission as a whole are ready to support the Romanian authorities for a successful presidency.




    EURO Twenty years since the introduction of the single currency, high-ranking EU officials, including the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, emphasised the importance of the European currency. The Euro has become a symbol of unity, sovereignty and stability, said the European Commission chief, who is one of the signatories of the treaty that created the single currency. I know that was the most important signature I ever made, Juncker added in a news release. 20 years on, we have a generation that only knows the Euro as a national currency, the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi said in his turn. The Euro became the official currency of 11 EU member states on January 1, 1999, with notes and coins going into circulation in 2002. At present the Euro is used by some 340 million people in 19 of the 28 member countries, and is the second most important currency in the world after the US dollar.




    JAPAN Emperor Akihito, who is to step down in April, sent his hopes for peace for his nation and the entire world, in his last New Years address, delivered before a record number of people who came to see the event, according to Kyodo and dpa. On April 30, at the age of 85, Akihito will be the first Japanese sovereign to relinquish power in the last 200 years. In 2016 he announced his intention to withdraw from power, putting forth concerns that his old age would prevent him from accomplishing his duties. Akihito became the 125th Emperor of Japan on January 7, 1989, at 55 years of age, after the death of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought in World War 2. Akihitos oldest son, Prince Naruhito, will be crowned on May 1.




    JUSTICE The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said in an interview aired by a private television channel on Tuesday that he would like to close the subject of a government decree regarding amnesty and pardons. He emphasised that the most his ministry can do is to approve a bill initiated in Parliament on this topic. Toader also said that he has never done and will never do something likely to create a situation similar to the one triggered by the 2017 government decree no. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of Romanians into the streets and prompted criticism from the EU and the USA.




    ELECTIONS The elections for the European Parliament will be held between May 23rd and 26th this year. MEPs are elected every 5 years, and as of this year the Parliament will have 705 members, as compared to 751 at present. This is because of Britains withdrawal from the EU. Of the 73 seats currently held by UK, 46 will be eliminated and the other 27 will be distributed to EU member states that are under-represented in the Unions legislative body. Romania gets 33 seats, 1 more than at present.




    TENNIS The Romanian Monica Niculescu (99 WTA), is playing today against the Czech Kristyna Pliskova (94 WTA) in the 8th-finals of the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China. Tomorrow, in the same tournament, another Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea (84 WTA) takes on the American Alison Riske (62 WTA) in the quarter-finals.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • The Pardons Bill: Debates and Sanctions

    The Pardons Bill: Debates and Sanctions

    Ever since the start of the year, the pardons bill issue has dominated public debate in Bucharest more than Romanias favourite pastimes, namely football and the private life of public figures, ever did. Back in winter, the new power, made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, said that they would solve the problem of prison overcrowding by granting collective pardons through an emergency decree. Ever since, this has seriously irritated civil society and has brought hundreds of thousands of people into the street. The large scale protests, accompanied by harsh criticism from the rightist opposition, the media and Romanias foreign partners, have forced the Government to scrap the decree and have prompted its initiator, the infamous Justice Minister Florin Iordache, to resign.



    Given that the issue of prison overcrowding remains unsolved, and the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly fined Romania over the poor detention standards, the collective pardons idea was left for Parliament to deal with. Fiery but nevertheless unproductive, the debates on the law drafted by the Government have yielded no results yet.



    They did however make another victim, in the person of the Social Democrat Serban Nicolae, the head of the Senates legal committee. His determination to include corruption offences among the crimes covered by pardoning has affected the already damaged image of his party, and this has visibly irritated the Social Democrats leader Liviu Dragnea. Consequently, the latter ordered Nicolaes removal from the helm of the Senates legal committee and of the Social Democratic floor group.



    In turn, Serban Nicolae says that the bill, in the form adopted by the Senates legal committee, is completely ineffective, as it fails to solve the problem of overcrowded penitentiaries and does not meet any needs of society or any of the obligations that Romania has before the European Court of Human Rights. According to Nicolae, only 1,032 people will benefit the provisions in the bill.



    The former head of state Traian Basescu, currently a Peoples Movement Party MP, seems to have taken over Nicolaes rhetoric when he said on Wednesday that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and its leader Liviu Dragnea no longer want to deal with the pardons bill issue, which allows him to further support it from an independent position. Romania, Basescu says, needs to grant extensive pardoning, and this bill will result in the release of only 433 people and in reduced sentences for another 589. Basescu promises to do everything he can to free physicians, professors, and other categories of employees with higher education, who ended up in prison for corruption deeds such as bribe taking.



    Thus, commentators say, after having claimed that the fight against corruption was the fundamental dimension of his presidency, Basescu ruins his political heritage, making his supporters regret that they have ever voted him.


    (translated by: Elena Enache)

  • Protests and reactions to proposed changes to criminal code

    Protests and reactions to proposed changes to criminal code

    Less than a month after being sworn in, the
    Government in Bucharest already stirs up negative reactions due to some major
    changes it wants to bring to the justice system. Civil society, judicial
    institutions, the US Embassy in Bucharest, opposition parties and President
    Klaus Iohannis have all criticised in more or less diplomatic terms the plans
    of the Grindeanu government, made up of representatives of the Social
    Democratic Party (PSD) and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE),
    referring to collective pardoning and the elimination of a number of crimes
    related to corruption.




    Unlike the Government, that says this plan is
    intended as a solution to prison overcrowding, its opponents see the changes as
    a ticket to freedom for many influential people convicted in recent years. On
    Thursday evening, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital
    Bucharest and several other cities asking for zero tolerance for corrupted
    people and denouncing what they see as an attack on democracy.




    Also, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the National
    Anti-Corruption Directorate and the Directorate for the Investigation of
    Organised Crime and Terrorism have firmly criticised the bills proposed by the
    Government, warning that they will not only benefit some corrupt people now in
    prison, but also some dangerous criminals and paedophiles. The representatives
    of the three institutions have argued that these changes would partially or
    totally decriminalise the crimes of abuse of office, actionable negligence and
    conflict of interests. The chief of the Anti-Corruption Directorate Laura
    Codruta Kovesi explains:




    The Romanian
    judiciary is being reformed, at high speed, by amending three crimes: abuse of
    office, actionable negligence and conflict of interests. These three types of
    crimes can only be committed by public officials, that is ministers, state
    secretaries, senators, deputies, magistrates, policemen, mayors, county council
    presidents and directors.




    The Superior Council
    of Magistracy must analyse the draft emergency orders proposed by the
    government by January 27. Talking about this situation, the US ambassador to
    Bucharest Hans Klemm has said that any measure that weakens the rule of law is
    inappropriate, while the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, in
    opposition, say they are considering calling for a no-confidence vote in
    Parliament against Justice Minister Florin Iordache. Also, President Klaus
    Iohannis has recently said that passing such legislation would destroy the rule
    of law and push the country away from the European and Euro-Atlantic values. It
    remains to be seen if the Government goes ahead with its plans or takes a step
    back amid all the pressure.