Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader

  • October 2, 2018 UPDATE

    October 2, 2018 UPDATE




    BUCHAREST – According to
    President Klaus Iohannis, Romania supports a close cooperation between the EU
    and Great Britain after Brexit and Bucharest is interested in an agreement on
    foreign security. Also with regard to Brexit, the president has stated that
    Romania firmly supports the importance of negotiating an ambitions regulation
    framework regarding citizens’ mobility, by observing the principles of
    reciprocity and non-discrimination. The statements were made during the meeting
    in Bucharest with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Barnier stated in
    turn that Romania, as holder of the presidency of the EU Council in the first
    half of 2019, will play a major role in ensuring the necessary institutional
    framework that would ensure an ordered withdrawal of the UK and also the smooth
    running of negotiations on the future relations between the EU and the UK. Also
    on Tuesday, Barnier met with the Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, who
    stated that Romania was interested in having all Romanian citizens residing in
    Great Britain continue to live, work and study as before.










    BREXIT – British PM
    Theresa May announced on Tuesday new regulations for migration in the UK, to
    come into effect after Brexit, favoring qualified workers. Details will be
    provided in a speech to be held on Wednesday at the Conservative Party congress
    in Birmingham. According to the new regulations, people who want to settle in
    Great Britain will have to have a minimum level of income in order to guarantee
    they would not take jobs away from British citizens. Student visas are not
    subject to those regulations. EU citizens are right now free to move to the UK,
    which will no longer be the case after Brexit, planned to come into effect in
    2020.










    RULE OF LAW – Romanian PM
    Viorica Dancila and Justice Minister Tudorel Toader will attend in Strasbourg on
    Wednesday the debates in the European Parliament regarding the rule of law in
    Romania. On Monday, the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament
    was the venue for debates between Euro MPs of various political parties and the
    First Vice-President of the EC Frans Timmermans. The latter said that the changes made by
    the authorities in Bucharest in terms of the judiciary worried not only
    Romanians, many of whom took to the streets to protest, but the entire EU.
    Frans Timmermans said that if the EC concluded that European common rules were
    violated, it would not hesitate to bring the Romanian Government to court.












    VAT – The European
    Commission will support Romania in combating VAT fraud, given that the country registers
    a 36% collection deficit, said on Tuesday the Romanian Finance Minister Eugen
    Teodorovici. The statement was made after the meeting Teodorovici had in
    Luxembourg with Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and
    Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. At the meeting, Teodorovici assured
    the EU official that the Romanian presidency of the EU Council will promote the
    solving of VAT-related cases, with focus on the reform of VAT quotas. In
    another move, Commissioner Moscovici accepted the invitation extended by
    Teodorovici to pay a visit to Romania in November.






    MOTION – On Tuesday, the
    Romanian Senate rejected the simple motion filed by the opposition National
    Liberal Party and Save Romania Union against the Transport Minister Lucian
    Sova. The signatories accused him of mismanagement of the country’s roads and
    railroads. A similar vote will be held in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday,
    this time against the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici. According to the Liberals,
    Teaodorovici must answer for the failure of the fiscal and taxation strategy.






    APPOINTMENT – On Tuesday,
    Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis signed the decree appointing the Minister of
    European Funds, Rovana Plumb, as interim Minister of Education. The holder of
    the office, Valentin Popa, announced his resignation last week, after a meeting
    with the leader of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea. That was the
    second resignation in the cabinet headed by Viorica Dancila, after the one of the Research
    Minister Nicolae Burnete.










    NOBEL – The US scientist
    Arthur Ashkin has won the Nobel Prize for physics, alongside Gerard Mourou of
    France and Donna Strickland of Canada, for research into laser physics, which
    the Swedish Royal Academy of Science deemed revolutionary. This year’s Nobel
    Prize season opened on Monday with the announcement for the Nobel Prize in
    medicine. US researcher James P. Allison and Japanese researcher Tasuku Honjo
    were granted the prize for new cancer therapies. On Wednesday, the prize for
    chemistry will be announced, while on Friday the Nobel Peace Prize will be
    awarded. The prize for literature will not be awarded in 2018, for the first
    time after almost 70 years.






    HEALTHCARE – The month of
    October is dedicated to the fight against breast cancer. Organizations all
    across the world are encouraging education and research regarding this danger. The
    Romanian Health Minister Sorina Pintea has stated that almost 9,000 cases of
    breast cancer are diagnosed annually in the country, of which 3,000 fatal.
    According to the minister, many of them could be prevented through regular
    check-ups.

  • Anticorruption and the independence of the judiciary

    Anticorruption and the independence of the judiciary


    The head of the National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi is often described, both by her unconditional supporters and her sworn enemies, as the most powerful woman in Romania. The former see her as the spearhead of the fight against corruption and a goddess of vengeance on the politicians who enrich themselves by plundering public budgets. The latter paint her as the head of a reprisal machine that does not hesitate to break the law and disrespect human rights in order to build cases at political command. A controversial figure in Bucharest, Kovesi has been invited to New York to attend a debate on the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. In her address at the UN headquarters, she said the greatest challenge for Romania is maintaining the independence of judges and prosecutors.



    Laura Codruta Kovesi: “There have been repeated attempts to limit the efficiency of our investigations by initiatives of amending the anti-corruption legislation, by restricting the tools used by the prosecutors or by denying waiving the immunity of the politicians involved in corruption cases. The entire justice system has faced attacks in the form of fake news and public statements which could weaken the public trust in the judiciary.”



    This is how the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate summed up the situation in the last one and half year, a period in which the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has been accused of trying to put an end to the fight against corruption and place magistrates at their orders. In the last five years alone, said Kovesi, the Directorate has indicted 14 current and former ministers and 53 MPs. 27 of them have already received final sentences. In the same period, the Directorate has seized more than 2.3 billion dollars.



    The justice minister Tudorel Toader responded from Bucharest that the acquittals, the legal conflicts of a constitutional nature, the cases affected by the statute of limitations and the abuses are not fake news. Toader, who has already unsuccessfully called on president Klaus Iohannis to dismiss Kovesi, rhetorically wondered if the principles of the rule of law allow for well-built cases to lead to so many acquittals. He was referring to cases built by the National Anticorruption Directorate against the former Social Democratic prime minister Victor Ponta and his minister Dan Sova, the Liberal Democrat speaker of the Senate Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the former senator and constitutional judge Toni Grebla, all of whom have been acquitted in courts in recent weeks.



    For all its resounding successes and its painful failures, the fight against corruption must continue, the media in Bucharest say. Proof of this is a recent report on Romania drawn up by the European Commission. Although dealing predominantly with economic issues, the report points out that what has happened in the last one year and a half has to a large extent raised question marks over the irreversibility of the progress made in reforming the legal system and combating high-level corruption, a scourge that threatens the business environment itself. (translated by Cristina Mateescu)


  • February 28, 2018

    February 28, 2018


    ANTI CORRUPTION – The Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has today presented the 2017 activity report of the institution she has headed since May 2013. She has stated that last year was a difficult year for the fight against corruption, as it was fiercely challenged and questioned. Despite that, Mrs. Kovesi has announced that the anticorruption prosecutors solved more than 3800 cases, which is a record for the institution, and forfeited goods worth more than 200 million Euros. The presentation of the report comes against the background of the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader starting last week the procedure to dismiss Laura Codruta Kovesi. The final decision in this matter lies with the president of the country, Klaus Iohannis, who has stated that the Directorate and its leadership have been doing a very good job. Today, the head of state has said that he is waiting for a number of documents to substantiate his decision, stressing though that, quote we are far from dismissal.



    VISIT – The first vice-president of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Better Regulation, Interinstitutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights Frans Timmermans will be paying a formal visit to Bucharest on Thursday. According to the European Commission Representation in Romania, he will meet with president Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and the speakers of the two chambers of parliament, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Liviu Dragnea. Timmermans will also hold meetings with representatives of the judiciary and members of the parliamentary committee set up to amend the justice laws.



    JUSTICE – Romanian President Klaus Iohanniss competence to appoint judges for the offices of president and vice-president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice comes in violation of the constitutional competence of the Superior Council of Magistracy, reads the Romanian Constitutional Courts decision on the modifications brought to the status of judges and prosecutors. On January 30th, the Constitutional Court advised that the law was, in its entirety, constitutional as regarded the criticism formulated by the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the National Liberal Party. Among other things, these modifications stipulate that the president and vice-presidents of the High Court of Cassation and Justice are appointed by Romanias president, based on the proposals made by the Judges Department of the Superior Council of Magistracy, and the head of state cannot refuse these appointments. The Constitutional Court noted that the presidents responsibility would be devoid of content if he would not be able to refuse the appointment of a magistrate, but the elimination of this right does not raise constitutionality issues, as it allows a stronger role to be played by the Superior Council of Magistracy as guarantor of the independence of the judiciary.



    MOTION – The National Liberal Party has today filed in plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies a simple no-confidence motion against the Education Minister Valentin Popa. According to the Liberals, what the coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has done with regard to education, was to close schools in the year in which we celebrate 100 years since the Great Union, to sack inspectors via fax machines because they failed to comply with the directions set by the party, and hold examinations outside the law. Also, the school dropout rate is on the rise, young people have no possibility to learn about trades in school, and diplomas are far from attesting competences. All these, the Liberals say, are alarm signals that call for an urgent dismissal of the education minister. The leader of the Liberal Group in the Chamber of Deputies Raluca Turcan has stated that this should happen before it is too late.



    EXTREME WEATHER – Europe keeps being affected by the bad weather caused by a cold wave from Siberia. Severe weather warnings are in place in many countries neighboring Romania, and more roads and highways are likely to be closed. In Bulgaria, for instance, codes red and orange warnings have been issued for blizzard and frost. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issues travel warnings for Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, France, Sweden and Ireland, which are all under codes yellow and orange for heavy snow, blizzard and frost. Extremely low temperatures have also been recorded in central Europe, in countries like Germany, Italy and Spain. From the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, the cold wave, dubbed the Beast from the East by the British media, has claimed at least 24 lives in the past days and has severely hampered traffic. On the other hand, the Arctic region is faced with abnormally high temperatures, spiking over 30 degrees. (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)




  • February 9, 2018 UPDATE

    February 9, 2018 UPDATE


    INFLATION – The National Bank of Romania has revised upwards to 3.5% the inflation forecast for the end of this year, the Governor of the Central Bank Mugur Isarescu announced on Friday. The previous forecast had indicated a 3.2% inflation rate for 2018. For the year 2019, the Central Bank estimated a 3.1% rate. Isarescu explained that the main driver of economic growth was consumption, which had a negative effect on the trade deficit, which grew by 30% in 2017. As regards the structural issues affecting the economy, Mugur Isarescu highlighted the tensions in the labour market, the growing gap between imports and exports, to the detriment of the latter, but also problems relating to the fiscal and incomes policy, whose effects are expected to fade away no sooner than next year.



    DIPLOMACY – Several Russian companies are interested in the Romanian gas reserves in the Black Sea, said on Friday the Russian Ambassador to Bucharest, Valery Kuzmin, at an event celebrating 140 years of Romanian – Russian diplomatic ties. The ambassador said that last year, trade exchanges went up by 20% and could reach 4 billion dollars in 2018, but as regards political and diplomatic ties, things had been rather modest. Valery Kuzmin also said he hoped relations between Romania and Russia would improve, especially considering Romanias taking over the presidency of the EU Council in 2019 and its running for a seat as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020-2021.



    PRISONS – The legal status of prison staff in Romania will be promoted in Government by the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader within two weeks, and then it will be submitted to Parliament for debates, according to the President of the Trade Union Federation of the National Administration of Penitentiaries, Sorin Dumistrascu. He talked with minister Toader about the problems in the system: improper working conditions, shortage of staff and unpaid overtime. Tudorel Toader has posted on a social network the measures that have already been taken to improve the penitentiary system. Among them, a 10% salary increase as of October 1st, an additional 1000 jobs in the organizational chart and some 1700 new employees. Also, this years budget includes money for expanding prison space for another 5000 inmates in the 2019-2023 time-frame.



    MODERN SLAVERY – On Wednesday, the British police arrested three men on suspicion of modern slavery offences, as some 200 immigrants from Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Poland were found working at a flower farm in Cornwall, in south-western England. According to Reuters and the BBC, humanitarian organizations will provide counseling, shelter, legal and immigration advice. The British Government estimates that at least 13,000 people are victims of forced labour, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, but the police say the real figure could be much higher.



    WINTER OLYMPICS -29 hundred athletes, including 28 from Romania, are attending the 23rd edition of the Winter Olympics underway in the South Korean city of PyeongChang between February 9th and the 25th. At the foot of the Taebaek Mountains, the city of PyeongChang has won the right to stage the Winter Olympic Games after having applied two times before, in 2010 and 2014. This is the first edition of the Winter Olympics and the second Olympic Games staged by South Korea. PyeongChang has become the third Asian city to stage the Winter Olympics after the Japanese cities of Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998. Over the following two weeks, the city of PyeongChang will be seeing 102 sporting events in 15 disciplines of seven major winter sports.



    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Sorana Carstea will be playing Carol Zhao in a singles game in Cluj Napoca, north-western Romania on Saturday, the first game of a series pitching Romania against Canada in the Fed Cup World Group ll. The cast drawn on Friday pitched Irina Begu against Bianca Andreescu, in the competitions second game. Begu will be up against Zhao on Sunday, and Carstea will be playing against Andreescu on the same day. Ana Bogdan and Raluca Olaru will take on Katherina Sebov and Gabriela Dabrowski in the doubles. Ana Bogdan is replacing the worlds number two player, Simona Halep, who is recovering from an ankle injury she got during the Australian Open last month. (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)




  • July 26, 2017

    July 26, 2017


    BRUSSELS – The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader is meeting in Brussels today with the First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans. The two officials will discuss the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and its prospects. The agenda of talks also includes the package law on the judiciary, which Tudorel Toader wants to see passed by the Romanian Government by September 1st. The meeting with Frans Timmermans was agreed upon during the visit that Prime Minister Mihai Tudose has paid to Brussels recently.



    MOLDOVA – The European Peoples Party (EPP) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) have today denounced the deterioration of the rule of law and democratic standards in the Republic of Moldova. In a joint statement, the EPP and ALDE leaders Joseph Daul and Hans van Baalen respectively, call on the EU to reassess the agreement of association with this former soviet state, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population. They are accusing the ruling democrats and the socialists headed by the pro-Russia president Igor Dodon of autocratic tendencies. Daul and van Baalen say that the Alliance made up of the Democratic Party of Moldova and the Socialist Party of Moldova has stubbornly rejected the recommendations made by the Venice Commission and has changed the election system. The two parties also condemn the growing number of acts of intimidation and harassment targeting the pro-European opposition and the use of selective justice to quiet them down, as it has happened with the liberal mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, arguably accused of corruption.



    NATO – A British fighter from the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in south-eastern Romania has been sent to intercept two Russian Tupolev bombers which were flying across the Black Sea, close to the NATO airspace. According to the British media, the NATO combined air operations centre in Torrejon, Spain, was the one that ordered the plane to intercept the Russian fighters. There are four British Typhoon aircraft at Mihail Kogalniceanu, and their role is to carry out patrol missions across the Black Sea.



    DIPLOMACY – The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has voiced Romanias full support for a mediation by Kuwait of the crisis in the Gulf region. He has appreciated the measures taken by the Emir of Kuwait, the Sheikh Sabah Ahmad al Jaber Al-Sabah to ease the tension by bringing the parties to the negotiation table and by starting a political dialogue between Qatar and its neighbours. The latter accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism. Melescanu made the statement during a meeting he had with Kuwaits ambassador to Bucharest, Talal Mansour Alhajeri. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the two officials discussed the current stage of Romanian – Kuwaiti cooperation, with focus on prospects of boosting political dialogue and cooperation within international organisations.



    EXTREME WEATHER – One person has died and 30 have been wounded by storms in various parts of Romania. Heavy rainfalls, hail and strong winds have left dozens of localities without electricity. Houses and yards have been flooded, hundreds of trees have been felled down, breaking electricity poles, cars and roofs, and many roads have been covered in mud. For today, weather experts have announced variable skies and scattered rain showers in the north and east. In the hilly and mountain areas though, heavy rains, thunderstorms and powerful winds continue.



    FRANCHOPHONE GAMES – On Tuesday, Romanian athletes won a golden medal and one silver at the 2017 Francophone Games in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Both medals were won in the mens javelin throw event. Romania has so far won 18 medals: 5 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze. This year Romania is participating in the games with 57 athletes in 6 events. At the previous edition, hosted by Nice, France, Romania won 23 medals. Previously Romania used to take part in both segments of the games, sports and culture, but this year it is only active in the sporting events.



    FOOTBALL – Romanias football champion FC Viitorul Constanta is today taking on APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus, in the first leg of the Champions Leagues third preliminary round. On Tuesday, in the same stage of the competition, Romanias vice-champion FCSB (former Steaua Bucharest) ended in a draw, 2-2, the match against the Czechs from FC Viktoria Plzen. On Thursday, in the Europa League, also in the third preliminary round, CS Universitatea Craiova will meet the famous AC Milan, Dinamo Bucharest will play against Athletic Bilbao, and Astra Giurgiu will take on the Ukrainians from FK Oleksandria. All matches are hosted by Romania. The return games are scheduled for next week.




  • March 5, 2017

    March 5, 2017


    UNITARY PAY LAW On Monday, the Romanian Labour Ministry starts talks with trade unions on the unitary pay system law. The first participants in the discussion will be representatives of the public order and health-care sectors. The line minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has stated that incomes up to 4000 lei (888 Euro) will double, those that exceed this cap will increase by 45% and salaries higher than 1500 Euro will be slightly raised. She has also said that the Government is open to any kind of discussions, but it would prefer to not amend the bill. As regards pensions, Lia Olguta Vasilescu has stated that the next raise is due on July 1st, when the pension point will go up to 222 Euro.



    US REPORT Corruption continues to be Romanias biggest problem, reads the US Department of State country report on human rights practices in 2016. According to the report, bribe is a habit well spread across the public sector in Romania, laws are not always effectively implemented, and public officials, including judges, get involved in acts of corruption without being punished. Also, according to the document, immunity held by former and current ministers, who are also members of Parliament, has blocked many judicial investigations. The report also accuses the discrimination of the Roma population, the poor detention conditions and prison overcrowding, as well as an excessive political bias in the media. Politicians and groups of politicians either own or control many local and national media outlets, and their editorial policies reflect the views of their owners, the report also shows.



    EC REPORT The economic situation and the health-care and welfare systems are generating most of the issues facing Romania today, according to the country report drawn up by the European Commission based on Romanians views. Other problems identified by the Romanian citizens are the price rise, inflation and living costs, as well as unemployment. In the second half of the year 2016, Romanias economic situation was perceived as being good and very good by a quarter of the Romanians. As regards expectations for the next 12 months, Romanians were less optimistic than at the end of 2015, with a quarter of the interviewees saying they expected the economic situation would improve, and 29% believing it would become worse.



    ROMANIAN JUSTICE The new Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has announced that in approximately one month he will submit a bill amending the criminal legislation in keeping with the Constitutional Courts rulings. In an interview on Radio Romania, he said that the bill will be debated and adopted in parliament. Toader says that, as regards abuse of office, there must be a delimitation between contraventional and criminal liability and this can be done only by setting a threshold of the damage. Toader took the office in February, after the serious political crisis triggered by the Governments attempt to amend the criminal codes and grant collective pardon under emergency decrees. The threshold set for abuse of office was the equivalent of some 45,000. The decision triggered the largest street protests in Romania after the 1989 anti-Communist Revolution so the Government withdrew the decrees, and their author, the then Justice Minister Florin Iordache, resigned.



    HEALTH SECTOR More than 14,000 physicians and 28,000 nurses left Romania between 2009-2015, and many of them are now working in different fields, according to the president of the Sanitas Bucharest Federation Viorel Husanu. In an interview to Agerpress news agency, he has stated that in the past two years the physicians exodus abroad has diminished, as they have started to be satisfied with the working conditions in Romania. In the trade union leaders opinion, the fact that many people in the sector are appointed for political reasons, starting with hospital directors and ending with chief of departments or even chief nurses, and the system being underfunded are still the main issues facing the Romanian health-care system. Viorel Husanu does not believe that bribe will disappear completely from the Romanian hospitals, but if incomes go up, the health workers will start giving up on this practice.



    FOREIGN AFFAIRS On Monday, the Romanian Defence Minister Gabriel Les will attend in Brussels the proceedings of the Foreign Affairs Council. The agenda of the meeting includes current topics and focuses mainly on the implementation of the EU global defence and security strategy and measures to develop the common security and defence policy. Also, the participants will discuss important topics on the European defence agenda, such as the on-going structural cooperation, a coordinated revision of defence, the operational and leadership capability and the EUs commitment to the common security and defence policy.



    EUROVISION Mihai Traistariu, Xandra and Ramona Nerra are among the ten finalists of the Eurovision Romania contest. The winner is to be designated tonight by televoting. Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will be hosted by Kiev in May. Romania will compete in the second semi-final. Held uninterruptedly for 60 years now, the show is one of the oldest and best rated television programmes in the world. Romania has participated in the contest since 1993 and its record includes two third places, in 2005 and 2010 (Luminita Anghel&Sistem, Paula Selling and Ovi), and a fourth place in 2006 (Mihai Trastariu). Besides Romania, there are another 42 countries participating in this years edition of the contest.