Radio România Internațional

Tag: Supreme Court

  • March 5, 2018

    March 5, 2018

    PROTESTS – Unionists in the public education sector have today called for a boycott of the first test in the mock exams taken by 8th graders ahead of middle school graduation, namely the Romanian language and literature test. Several schools in Romania boycotted the test. Some of the problems pointed out by teachers are the effects of the new salary scheme on their incomes, the method of calculating bonuses and the scarce funds for equipment purchases. On the other hand, the Education Ministry reminded trade union leaders that the employees in the system received a 20% pay raise on March 1 and that the collective bargaining agreement is being renegotiated. Trade unions promised not to initiate a labour conflict.




    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies is today discussing a new simple motion tabled by the Opposition against the Education Minister, Valentin Popa, whom Liberals accuse of unprofessionalism in tackling problems in the education sector. The National Liberal Party mentioned delays in salary payments, the lack of funds for investments, which might lead to schools being merged or dismantled. The vote on the motion is scheduled for Friday.




    MILITARY – Over 1,700 Romanian and foreign troops will take part, as of today until March 15th, in a large-scale multinational exercise, organised by the Romanian Navy, in Dobrogea (south-eastern Romania) and in the international waters of the Black Sea. Spring Storm 18 is based on a unique training concept which brings together the navy, air and land forces, as part of a NATO immediate assurance action plan adopted at the 2016 Summit. Romanian troops are training jointly with fellow military from the US, France and Bulgaria, and from partner countries like Georgia and Ukraine.




    CORRUPTION – The High Court of Cassation and Justice might pass a final ruling today in the case in which Ludovic Orban, the president of the National Liberal Party, the main Opposition party in Romania, is tried for influence peddling in view of obtaining undue benefits. Last month, Orban was found not guilty by a court of first instance. The National Anti-Corruption Directorate accuses Orban of having contacted a businessman in 2016, to request financial support for the local election campaign, in which Orban was running for Bucharest mayor general. Also today, the Supreme Court may pass the final ruling concerning the former chair of the Prahova County Council Mircea Cosma, and his son, former Deputy Vlad Cosma. The two have been sentenced by a court of first instance to 8 and 5 years in prison respectively, for bribe-taking, abuse of office and influence peddling. Vlad Cosma subsequently accused anti-corruption prosecutors of having tampered with evidence, which generated a huge political and media scandal in Bucharest.




    DEFENCE – The Secretary of State for defence policy, planning and international relations, Mircea Duşa, is taking part today and tomorrow in a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels. According to the Romanian Defence Ministry, the meeting focuses on permanent structured cooperation. The agenda also includes talks on military mobility and the European Defence Fund. The final session, focusing on the EU – NATO cooperation, will be attended by the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.




    ITALY – Italy is bracing up for a parliamentary make-up without a majority, after yesterdays legislative election. The reported turnout was about 73%. According to exit polls, no party or alliance will be able to form a government, and the media expect lengthy negotiations for the formation of a new Cabinet. Analysts note that two things are certain: the failure of the left-of-centre coalition in power up until the election, and the progress of populist and Euro-phobic parties. In fact, Nigel Farage, the former leader of Britains pro-Brexit movement, congratulated the Five-Star Movement, an anti-system party about to become the largest party in Italy, while the president of the French far-right National Front, Marine LePen, said the EU would have a terrible day in the wake of the elections in Italy.




    OSCARS – ‘The Shape of Water’ was the great winner in the 90th Academy Awards gala held on Sunday night, winning 4 categories: best picture, best director, best score and best production design. Gary Oldman and Frances McDormand won the top prizes for lead actor and actress, for their parts in ‘Darkest Hour’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, respectively.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • April 24, 2017

    April 24, 2017

    SENTENCE — The Supreme Court in Bucharest today will issue a definitive ruling on the two year suspended prison sentence issued against the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea. The latter attacked the sentence on technical issues, such as the fact that the decision was not issued within 30 days at the latest from the pronouncement, and that the head justice who presided over the court was no longer a judge at the time, as he had retired. The Social Democratic chair got condemned in April 2016 for rigging the 2012 referendum to impeach then Romanian president Traian Basescu. At the same time, Dragnea said yesterday that he did not rule out setting up a Parliament committee to investigate the 2012 referendum, which was declared null and void for a lack of quorum. A similar committee was set up to investigate the 2009 presidential elections, after claims of fraud appeared in the public space.



    PARIS — The leader of the French center movement En Marche!, Emmanuel Macron, won Sundays first round of presidential elections in France with 23.75% of the ballot. On May 7th, he faces off against the extreme right National Front leader Marine LePen, who gathered 21.5% of votes. The defeated candidates of the traditional right and left announced they support Macron. During the campaign, the latter stood out by running on mostly economic matters, such as corporate tax cuts, flexibility on the duration of the work week, reducing unemployment, investing in vocational conversion, support for renewable energy and modernizing infrastructure. This first round of elections was held under the shadow of increased security measures against fears of terrorism. In spite of that, presence at the polls was almost 80%.



    MOSCOW — The head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini is today in Moscow for the first time in her term, which began in 2014. She will be talking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The visit comes against deteriorating relations between Russia and the EU, after the former annexed Crimea and fomented conflicts in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Brussels slapped tough sanctions on Moscow for its alleged support for pro-Russian rebels in the east of neighboring Ukraine. On Friday, commenting on the visit, Minister Lavrov said that continued sanctions against Russia were the main reason for the difficulties in Russias relationship with the EU. Also mentioned were supposed Russophobia in the EU, as well as what were called unfounded accusations that Russia is trying to destabilize the Union and influence elections in certain member states.



    MCV — In Bucharest, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar, head of anti-corruption Laura Codruta Kovesi, and European Affairs Minister Ana Birchall, are discussing with European experts the evaluation mission as part of the Mechanism of Cooperation and Verification. The Justice Minister will issue a progress report aggregating data provided by all institutions under monitoring by the Mechanism, in preparation for the evaluation mission of May 2017. The Mechanism has been put in place right after Romania joined the EU alongside Bulgaria in 2007, in order to rectify issues with the judicial system and corruption in both countries. The latest reports in those areas have been largely positive with regard to Romania. EC First Vice President, Frans Timmermans, came to Bucharest last week to talk to PM Sorin Grindeanu and Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader. After the meetings, he said that Brussels would not hesitate to acknowledge any progress made by the country under the requirements of the Mechanism of Cooperation and Verification.



    SALARIES — The unified pay scale bill will be introduced officially in Parliament today. The announcement was made by Social Democratic chair Liviu Dragnea, leading the main ruling coalition party. He said that so far a few dozen amendments have been proposed in the two weeks that the bill has been posted on his partys website. The government promised that the bill, if passed, would come into effect on July 1st, and hopes that it would pass in a speedy manner. The opposition has criticized the bill, accusing the Social Democrats of passing the buck to a future government on raising state employee wages.

  • March 14, 2017 UPDATE

    March 14, 2017 UPDATE

    VISIT – Representatives of the Romanian government will pay a working visit to Italy, between March 15 and 17 to verify the information published by the press over some cases of exploitation of Romanian citizens working in the regions of Sicily and Calabria. Minister for the Romanians Abroad, Andrea Pastarnac, and a representative of the Interior Ministry will hold talks with local officials, with representatives of the Romanian workers’ associations in Italy and of the local organisations in charge of defending the foreign workers’ rights. Also, Romania’s Ombudsman announced on Tuesday that he will get in touch with Italian authorities over the same issue. A report published on Sunday by the British weekly ‘The Observer’ says that nearly 75 hundred women, mostly Romanians, working in agriculture in the provinces of Ragusa in Sicily are victims of numerous abuses, including threats and sexual aggression.




    STATISTICS – In the fourth quarter of last year Romania reported 5.24 million pensioners, their number being by 6,000 smaller than in the previous quarter, a report issued by the National Institute for Statistics (INS) says. According to the same source, the ratio between the average number of pensioners and employees was 9 to 10. The report shows significant territorial variations; there are 5 pensioners to every 10 employees in Bucharest as compared Teleorman county in southern Romania, where the ratio is 17 pensioners to 10 employees. Average pensions may also vary across the territory; the difference between the smallest and the biggest pension being of nearly 88 euros.




    TALKS – The European Commissioner for regional policy, Corina Cretu, will be in Romania between March 15th and 17th for talks with the Bucharest authorities and the civil society over the White Charter of the future of Europe. The European official will be holding a meeting with the European affairs committees of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. President Iohannis has recently said that a multi-speed Europe for an indefinite period of time is not a good solution; on the contrary, it might lead to a rift inside the union. Iohannis added that Romania should not be afraid of the projects that are worked on at different speeds.




    RULING – Magistrates with the Supreme Court in Bucharest on Tuesday postponed for April 25th the first term of a case in which former deputy PM and Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea is accused of abuse of office. According to prosecutors, in July 2015 Oprea, at that time Interior Minister, used the Ministry’s funds illegally, causing 90 thousand euros in damages to the state budget. Oprea is also being probed in for abuse of office in another case, on the illegal use of the official motorcade, an issue that came into the limelight after a policeman from this motorcade was killed in an accident. Oprea’s name also appears in another court file against the suspended mayor of Bucharest’s Sector 2, Neculai Ontanu.




    BREXIT – British Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that Article 50 will be triggered by the end of March. “This will be a defining moment for our whole country,” she added. “We will be a strong, self-governing global Britain with control once again over our borders and our laws.” In the following days, Queen Elizabeth would approve the bill, the Prime Minister said. After receiving this “Royal Assent,” the cabinet would be free to send formal notification to the EU at any time. British Lawmakers on Monday debated and then rejected two amendments put forward earlier by the House of Lords. The rejected amendments would have included a guarantee of the rights of EU nationals living in the UK and would have given lawmakers more powers to reject the final terms of negotiations with the EU.




    GOVERNMENT – Romania believes that the re-launch of the European project is possible based on the idea of unity around the fundamental values and principles of the EU, Romanian PM Sorin Grindeanu said on Tuesday in Bucharest. Grindeanu had a meeting with the Croatian deputy PM and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Davor Ivo Stier, in the context of Croatia marking 25 years of international recognition. The two officials also discussed about bilateral ties and cooperation with a view to the two country’s accession to the Schengen area.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)

  • The 1989 Revolution case, reopened

    The 1989 Revolution case, reopened

    A quarter of a century after the fall of the communist regime in Romania, the families of the people who lost their lives during those chaotic days of December do not know yet who killed their loved ones. The 1989 anti-communist revolution left deep wounds in Romania, the only country in the former communist bloc where freedom was won by bloodshed. The police state, the economic policy, the harsh austerity regime imposed by dictator Ceausescu are only some of the reasons that made Romanians take to the streets in an attempt to topple the communist regime.



    In October 2015 military prosecutors decided to close the file, after investigations had been dragging for years. According to prosecutors, 709 people were killed during the events of December 1989, some 1,855 were wounded through gunshot, 343 were wounded under different circumstances and 924 were arrested. According to prosecutors with the General Prosecutors Office, the events back then fell under the statute of limitations or do not fall under criminal law provisions, in the case of accidental deaths, so the file was closed. The decision angered a lot of Romanians, which made them file a challenge at the Supreme Court.



    Delays in solving the Revolution case also made the European Court of Human Rights rule that the Romanian state had to pay damages to a number of Romanians who sued against the lack of an investigation into the violence of 1989. On Monday, judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which is Romania’s Supreme Court, confirmed the decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office to reopen the 1989 Revolution file. In April, Bogdan Licu, interim General Prosecutor at the time, decided to reopen investigations in that case, saying that the military prosecutors’ decision to close the case was ungrounded and illegal.



    According to Bogdan Licu, military prosecutors closed the file based on insufficient investigations, by ignoring crucial documents regarding the events of 1989, which entailed a faulty classification of the crimes and hindered efforts to find the truth and the offenders. Bogdan Licu also said that the manner in which the investigation had been conducted by the Military Prosecutor’s Office, showed no concern for establishing some essential aspects as to the events of December 17-30, 1989.



    In his opinion, military prosecutors did not take any action to declassify the documents underlying the report of the Senate’s committee on actions that unfolded during the 1989 Revolution, although that committee made thousands of hearings and received documents from the Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Romanian Intelligence Service. Some of the verbatim reports of the hearings performed by that committee and also excerpts from documents submitted by state institutions have been included in several books published over the past 26 years.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)