Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian Foreign Minister

  • March 15, 2015 UPDATE

    March 15, 2015 UPDATE

    The PM of Romania, Victor Ponta, has announced that the Finance Minister, Darius Valcov, resigned, but the resignation will take effect after the draft Fiscal Code and Code of Fiscal Procedure have been finalised, in a few days. Previously, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, had asked PM Victor Ponta to initiate the procedure to dismiss the Finance Minister Darius Vâlcov. The latter is being prosecuted in a corruption case, for offences perpetrated when he was the mayor of the southern Romanian city of Slatina. According to prosecutors, the manager of a company contacted Vâlcov and asked for his support in securing public work contracts, in exchange for 20% of the contract value. The mediator of the deal was the incumbent mayor of Slatina, the Social Democrat Ninel Florin Prina, who has been detained in the case. The Opposition had also called for the resignation of the finance minister.



    The Romanian minister for the diaspora, Angel Tîlvăr, had meetings last week with members of the Romanian communities in the Canadian cities of Ottawa and Toronto, the Foreign Ministry announced. Tîlvăr reiterated the interest of the Romanian authorities in developing and diversifying educational modules in the form of Romanian language and civilisation courses. In turn, the representatives of the diaspora suggested the set up of a Romanian Cultural Centre in Toronto, as a means to contribute to the conservation and promotion of the national identity.



    The Romanian foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu, will take part on Monday in Brussels in a meeting of the EU foreign ministers. The agenda includes the developments in Libya, the migration in the Mediterranean region, prompted by security concerns, and preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit due in Riga on May 21-22. On the side-lines of the Foreign Affairs Council, a meeting will be held of the Group for the Republic of Moldova’s European Action, organised by Romania and France. The group is an informal ministerial mechanism launched in January 2010 at Romania’s initiative, and designed to provide a political platform for promoting Moldova’s EU accession aspirations. Minister Aurescu told the public radio station on Sunday that Romania continues to support the Moldovan authorities in their pro-European efforts, and tries to attract as many EU member states as possible in this process.



    The Dutch Parliament does not support at the moment Romania’s Schengen accession, on grounds that Bucharest has not met all the original requirements for becoming an EU member. The statement was made by the Dutch Ambassador to Bucharest, Matthijs van Bonzel, in an interview to a private television station in Romania. He added that according to the Dutch Parliament, Romania joined the EU without meeting a number of key requirements concerning fields like legislation, the judicial system, efficiency and impartiality in law enforcement, and institutional corruption, and that the country is now catching up, reaching the level it should have reached in 2007. The Dutch diplomat added that there is a connection between the Schengen accession and compliance with the European standards.

  • Challenges Facing the New Foreign Minister

    Challenges Facing the New Foreign Minister

    As of Monday, Teodor Melescanu is the new Romanian Foreign Minister. The change occurred amid allegations regarding the way in which the first round of the presidential election was organized on November 2nd for the Romanians living abroad. The former director of the Foreign Intelligence Service was sworn in just a few hours after Titus Corleatean had handed in his resignation, saying he had made that decision in order not to break the law.



    The bone of contention is the number of polling stations abroad — 294 — which proved insufficient and were not very well organized, as those who could not cast their vote say. Last weekend, Romanians in big European cities such as London, Dublin, Madrid, Paris and Vienna took to the streets demanding Corleatean’s resignation and the increase in the number of polling stations. Romanians at home joined them in token of solidarity. The law does not allow the setting up of more polling stations abroad for the presidential election runoff, outgoing Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean intimated. He explained that by resigning he did not want to give reasons for the presidential election to be challenged.



    “As a minister, jointly with the staff of the Foreign Ministry, I have the obligation to ensure the observance of the law, as well as the preservation of the image and prestige of the Foreign Ministry. Consequently, since I want to observe the law, I have decided to hand in my resignation as Foreign Minister of Romania.”



    The present election law does not stipulate the setting up of more polling stations abroad. In the absence of derogations or amendments to the law, measures can be taken only for the smooth running of the voting process, the new Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu said at the head office of the Central Election Bureau, where he had asked for clarifications.



    “I believe that we must take all the necessary measures for everybody to vote without any difficulty whatsoever. As to how this is going to happen, it depends on the legal aspects entailed and particularly on the time left until the ballot.”



    Monday’s press release of the Central Election Bureau reads that the organization of the polling stations abroad is the exclusive prerogative of the Foreign Ministry and there is no legal obstacle in the way of setting up of more such stations for the Romanian diaspora. A spokesman for the opposition, one of the leaders of the Christian Liberal Alliance, Catalin Predoiu, former minister of justice, claims that Corlatean’s resignation has not solved the problems that occurred during the first round and that more polling stations for the diaspora might be set up under a government ordinance.



    “Prime Minister Victor Ponta should solve the problem, expand the polling stations under a government resolution and do what a prime minister needs to do and give the Romanian diaspora the constitutional right to cast their vote.”



    In the opinion of president Traian Basescu, Corlatean’s resignation came too late.