Category: Today in the News

Steaua Bucharest’s staff, players and supporters have sighed a sigh of relief as the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body has made public its decision relating to a corruption case that could have threatened the club’s European season. It was ruled that Steaua are not eligible to participate in one UEFA club competition for which the club would otherwise qualify, but the sanction has been deferred for a probationary period of five years.

The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body started to investigate Steaua when the club’s financier, George Becali, received a prison sentence over a notorious case from 2008 when he attempted to give 1.7 million euros to a team about to play against Steaua’s rival to the championship title in the last game of the season. Becali’s attempt was considered bribe giving by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which sentenced him to time in prison. UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Body, which is currently fighting a campaign to eradicate corruption in football, has immediately reacted.

Famous clubs such as Juventus have in the past been excluded from European competitions for rigging games and giving bribes to referees. Two of Istanbul’s biggest clubs, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, which were investigated for serious allegations at the same time as Steaua, have been excluded from participating in European competitions. It was perhaps by comparison with the two Turkish clubs that Steaua got off lightly, taking into account certain mitigating circumstances, including the fact that the club made no attempt to bribe direct adversaries or referees.

The decision of the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body gives Steaua the motivation they seem to have lost while waiting for the verdict. The team now look at the Champions League group stage, where they are well seeded in preliminary and play-off games. A qualification would bring Steaua at least 20 million euros, which would make the club independent from funding from George Becali, who is now in prison.

On the other hand, UEFA’s verdict is a stark warning, not only for Steaua but for Romanian football in general, which is suspected of serious corruption. In fact, the heads of the Football Federation and the Professional Football League in Romania are themselves investigated by the National Anticorruption Durectorate for abuse of office. Other important names in Romanian football, from agents to club managers, are also being investigated for illegal transfers of Romanian football players to foreign clubs.

Wonderful scenery, relaxation and fun, what should have been an unforgettable holiday in Montenegro turned into an unimaginable tragedy for 47 Romanians, after their coach Sunday had fallen from a bridge into a ravine, some 30 km north of Podgorica.

Large boulders falling over the coach made the situation even more desperate. The mountain area the Romanian tourists were crossing is in fact notorious for traffic accidents because of its narrow and winding roads. The death toll was 18, and most survivors were injured. The Montenegro locals were quick to react.

Many locals showed up to help the firefighters, military and mountain rescue teams that came to pull the wreckage of the bus out of the ravine, and others donated blood for the injured. After the news had reached Bucharest, Prime Minister Victor Ponta set up a task force to handle the situation. Military aircraft were sent to bring the victims home, in what has been the largest medical air intervention conducted by the National Defence Ministry, according to Minister Mircea Dusa.

Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean, cancelled his plans to attend a summit in Luxembourg and traveled to Montenegro to coordinate the rescue operations conducted jointly by the Romanian and Montenegrin teams. He was received by President Filip Vujanovic, who sent his condolences, on behalf of the Montenegrin people, to the Romanian victims. Titus Corlatean thanked the Montenegro authorities and citizens for their prompt support. Romania will hold a day of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy, on Wednesday.

The Romanian Government can finally take a breather after it managed to find a suitable investor willing and financially able to take over the majority share package in CFR Marfa, the Freight Division of the Romanian Rail Company. The headline-making tender was won by the only bidder remained in the race.

The winning bid was made by a local company, which in exchange for 51% of the shares pledged to pay the state some 200 million euros and to invest approximately the same amount in CFR Marfa. For the Romanian Government, the privatization was not just an effort to get rid of a loss-incurring company.

Economic pundits say the privatization of CFR Marfa was a must, given it ranked high on the list of measures Romania has committed to introducing as part of its standby agreement to be signed with the IMF this summer. In recent years, the International Monetary Fund has had a great say in matters of policy- and decision-making in Bucharest.

Meanwhile, the 10,000 CFR employees fear the privatization, although hailed as a great success by the authorities, especially Prime Minister Victor Ponta, will trigger a massive wave of redundancies.

History shows that in nearly every large-scale privatization process carried out in post-communist Romania the former state-owned companies decided to streamline their activity by laying off some its employees after being passed into private hands. In an attempt to dispel concern, the current Government, unlike its predecessors, has announced it would soon take a decision by means of which some one thousand CFR employees would be given severance payments.

For the time being however, employees continue their protests in front of the Transport Ministry building, accusing the authorities for their lack of transparency in the privatization process. While the deal itself does not raise any questions with regard to its correctness, the remarkable ascending path of the new main shareholder at the Romanian Rail Company on the transport market in Romania has long attracted the media’s attention. Founded in the early 2000s, the company led by the controversial tycoon Gruia Stoica has miraculously managed to take over the entire business at CFR Marfa, from its contracts and employees to its executives and rolling stock.

And so in a very short period of time Stoica’s company turned from a small startup into an influential and very profitable company. Whereas so far the company owned some 30% of the entire transport market, right now its market ownership has risen to some 80%. With this move the Romanian transport market risks turning from an oligopoly into a monopoly, which is why the privatization has also come to the attention of the Competitiveness Council.

After long hours of closed-door talks on Thursday, Parliament in Chisinau failed to adopt a declaration regarding the situation in Transdniester. In recent months things have taken a serious turn for the worse, all the more so as on June the 10th, the leader in Tiraspol, Yevgeny Shevchuk promulgated a law on the so-called “state border” of the breakaway region, which also includes Varnita village, east of the River Dniester, inhabited by a predominantly Romanian-speaking community which accounts for 80% of the local population, and currently under Moldovan authority.

Chisinau has criticised the decision, while experts fear the latest developments might spiral into an armed conflict. Transdniester is the commonly used reference for the so-called Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic, a breakaway region, which de jure continues to be under the territorial sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova. Seen as an autonomous region at international level, it proclaimed its independence in 1990, accusing Moldova for seeking union with Romania.

Internal tension spiralled into civil war in 1992, when the Russian army also intervened, on the separatists’ side. The region has a majority Slavic population, particularly Russians and Ukrainians, with the Romanian-speakers accounting for 40% of the overall population. The separatist authorities control Moldovan territories east of the Dniester River as well as six other communes and the city of Tighina, located west of the Dniester.

Moldova has criticized this week’s vote of the “state border” law, while some political pundits argue a new war between the two states is imminent. Against this background, Moldovan Defence Minister Vitalie Marinuta says the army is ready to retaliate to any prospective attack launched by the forces of the breakaway regime.

In turn, Moldovan president Nicolae Timofti agreed to the idea that the series of provocations have to do with Moldova’s rapprochment to the European Union. Timofti hinted at the Russian Federation’s interest to cause instability in the Dniester region. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin has recently said in an interview that his country cannot withdraw ammunition from Transdniester for fear Chisinau might obstruct the political resolution of the conflict.

The new law adopted in Tiraspol is due to come into effect starting next week, although it has already prompted disgruntled reactions from the OSCE, the US and Romania. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has labelled it an act of defiance, which will attract the disapproval of the international community. The Ministry has already sent a message in that respect to the Irish presidency of the EU.

Most of the substantial changes to Romania’s Constitution concern the relationships between the state’s main institutions: Parliament, the President’s Office and the Government. According to the draft law approved on Wednesday by a parliamentary committee, the main beneficiaries of the revision process are the Romanian citizens, who will enjoy greater rights and individual liberties, as well as Parliament, which will have greater power and authority, especially in its relationship with the President’s Office. This opinion is shared by the chairman of the Committee for the revision of the Constitution, the Liberal MP Crin Antonescu.

As regards the president’s responsibilities, the committee underlined the need to clarify certain aspects in order to avoid political and institutional crises in the future. The main opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Dan Diaconescu’s Party of the People walked out from the meeting to protest against the fact that the draft law does not take into consideration the consultative referendum of 2009, as required by president Traian Basescu. At the time, the majority of Romanian voters stood for the introduction of a single chamber Parliament, with only 300 members. According to the Liberal Democrats, their party refuses to endorse what they call the infringement of the people’s sovereignty and the rule of law by a committee that ignores the results of the referendum.

The main ally of the Liberal Democratic Party in this battle is the head of state, Traian Basescu. With the declared aim to determine lawmakers to observe the people’s will, the president started a procedure to hold a new referendum on the same issue, the introduction of a single chamber parliament. For their part, the representatives of the ruling Social-Liberal Union have invoked the people’s will, which they say was clearly expressed in the December 2012 elections, when the Social Liberal Union won a large majority, having clearly stated that it is in favour of a two-chamber parliament.

Currently, the draft is being submitted for approval to the Legislative Council and the Constitutional Court. Afterwards, it will return to parliament for debate and approval. The Council of Europe Venice Commission will also have its say, with some its members travelling to Bucharest in early July for talks with the Romanian officials on the amendments to the country’s fundamental law.

At the end of 2012, forced displacement reached record high in the past 18 years, with 45.2 million people being registered as refugees, asylum seekers or persons forced to find refuge in their own countries, says an annual report released by the United Nations on World Refugee Day. According to this report, we are currently seeing the highest number of internally displaced persons since 1994, the present crisis in Syria having largely contributed to the present global displacement of persons.

With 1,262 refugees registered at the end of 2012, Romania ranks fifth among the seven central European states making up the Regional Representation based in the Hungarian capital Budapest. Poland saw the highest number of refugees at the end of 2012, while Slovenia was home to the lowest number of refugees last year. According to the UN report, war remains the main cause of forced migration, with 55% of the total number of refugees coming from five countries ravaged by war: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

The civil war in Syria and the massive exodus from this country has found Romania ready to receive a significant number of refugees. The case of the 150 Syrian children who fled from bullets, cluster bombs and air raids in cities like Hama, Homs and Aleppo is well known. They have been granted asylum and the right to free education at a Bucharest-based school teaching in Arabic.

In order to meet the needs of those in desperate situations all over the world, an Emergency Transit Centre, the first facility of this kind in Europe, was established in Timisoara, western Romania in 2008. The aforementioned institution is functioning under a three-party agreement concluded between the Romanian government, the United Nations and the International Organisation for Migration. This facility, which can house 200 people, offers provisional shelter to refugees, in particular people coming from the Arab world who are facing life-threatening situations.

The Romanian intelligence services, namely the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Romanian Intelligence Service, are truly remarkable and appreciated in the US, said the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, who was in Bucharest on Tuesday for talks with Romanian officials. He had meetings with the heads of the Romanian special services, with president Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta. The head of the Romanian state said the main political goal of the country was to strengthen relations with the USA, and even when, as it happened with the Kosovo issue, the two countries do not share the same views, this cannot question Romania’s determination to consolidate its relations with the USA. The Romanian president also mentioned the strategic partnership signed by the two countries, which helped boost American investments in Romania.

President Traian Basescu also discussed with CIA director John Brennan security issues entailed by the Arab Spring, the situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East. An analysis was also made of ways to increase the security level further to the agreement between the two countries concerning the elements of the American missile defense system deployed in Romania. John Brennan appreciated the cooperation between the intelligence services of the two countries, and the professionalism of the Romanian services, as well as the exchange of information and analyses underlying both bilateral relations and decisions made within NATO.

Brennan emphasized that, since his previous visit to Bucharest, early in his term in office, he had noted the efforts made by the two parties, as well as the professionalism, motivation, integrity and courage of the Romanian intelligence officers. The US official also thanked the Romanian intelligence community for its contribution to the American efforts to fight terrorism and to counter risks and threats to global security. Also worth noting is that the visit of the US official to Romania came one day after the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, was in the Romanian capital city.

The relationship between the Romanian Health Ministry and the National Health Insurance Agency will finally be strengthened, to the benefit of patients. This statement was made by Public Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu, after MEP Cristian Busoi was appointed as the new chief of the Health Insurance Agency. He was nominated for office by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, after the former president Doru Badescu resigned over a scandal triggered by a controversial appointment in the institution’s Board, made by the Presidency.

The new president of the National Health Insurance Agency, Cristian Busoi, said he would strive to make the institution more transparent and closer to the ones with whom it should communicate, namely the citizens and the media. He will also request an audit to be run in the institution, and then will decide on the priorities of his term in office, because, he said, this is an opportunity to implement projects that improve the public health system. One such project is the introduction of the national health card, for whose implementation, Busoi says, a detailed roadmap will soon be made public. On the other hand, he tackled the problem of international pharmaceutical producers, which are allegedly privileged, at the expense of domestic producers. The new president of the Agency said the products and services which will be purchased through a centralized bidding system are currently being analysed.

Another priority for the Agency is the cancer treatment sector, and in this respect the Public Health Ministry is working to update the list of fully or partly subsidized medicines. As far as the clawback system goes, Cristian Busoi believes this tax through which part of the pharmaceutical producers’ profits are returned, is based on a good principle, but should not restrict the patients’ access to medicines. The Romanian healthcare system is currently affected by a number of problems, primarily rooted in the chronic under-financing of the system. The low salaries and poor conditions prompted an exodus of the Romanian healthcare professionals to foreign countries. The president of the Romanian Physicians Society, Vasile Astarastoae, has warned that over 800 doctors have left the country since the beginning of this year, and over 14,000 have done so since Romania’s EU accession in 2007.

Romanian president Traian Basescu on Monday received the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, general Nikolai Platonovici Patrusev. After the official meeting, the head of the Romanian state announced that a memorandum of cooperation was signed between Romania’s Supreme Defence Council and the Security Council of the Russian Federation, a document described as necessary in the present international context.

Traian Basescu: “This memorandum will definitely open up the cooperation between the structures of security and police of Romania and the Russian Federation. Cooperation in several areas has been thus established: cooperation against terrorism, which is of the greatest interest to us, mainly because the ISAF mission in Afghanistan is due to end soon; the cooperation with the Russian Federation is interesting to us as hopefully we can jointly prevent any terrorist attack planned in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Another major objective is the fight against cross-border crime, then human and drug trafficking.”

The Romanian president asked that president Vladimir Putin be conveyed a message that while there is cooperation between the two countries in common risk situations, there is room for discussions on issues on which the two countries may have different opinions, such as the situation in Syria. Here is president Traian Basescu again.

Traian Basescu: “The situation in Syria has been thoroughly analyzed, and we have stated Romania’s viewpoint, which is extremely clear. Both the Russian Federation and the Western countries have to refrain from supplying arms to one side or another, as that would mean more victims — there is a civil war going on there and the security of Jordan is at high risk.”

Romanian president Traian Basescu also held talks with general Nikolai Patrushev about anti-missile defence, underlining that Romania would never accept another country’s offensive weaponry on its territory.

Traian Basescu: “The anti-missile system in Romania is not directed against the Russian Federation. The system to be installed in Romania is a defensive one. And what I find difficult to understand is that guarantees are requested from the USA not from us. It is the treaty itself, which is public and could serve as a guarantee, as it says clearly that the anti-missile system in Romania is a defensive one.”

President Traian Basescu went on to say that the issue of the breakaway region of Transdniester was also tackled during the talks. The president explained why that issue was very important to Romania’s security, also highlighting the need for the government in Chishinau to have control over the entire territory of the Republic of Moldova, from which Transdniester broke away in 1990.

The leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania Kelemen Hunor has recently tackled the debates regarding the revision of the Romanian Constitution, saying “I have a feeling that things are moving forward, and everything is normal and in line with EU standards”. Kelemen Hunor has also highlighted the accelerated work rate of the parliamentary committee in charge with drafting proposals to amend the Constitution.

The Romanian official spoke publicly about his cooperation with the Social-Liberals, one which he deems “open” and “responsive”. Instead, the Liberal-Democrats in opposition have not refrained from issuing repeated warnings regarding a possible appeal to the Venice Commission, while the Party of the People headed by Dan Diaconescu decided to withdraw its representatives from the parliamentary committee, arguing that debates are nothing but a “masquerade”. Talks targeting sensitive issues continued to spiral out of control, generating heated arguments that have spilled into the public sphere. In its current form, the draft law to amend the Constitution provides, among other things, for curbing the mandate and remit of the president, while giving Parliament increased control over administrative affairs.

Thus the president’s term in office will be limited to 4 years (as compared to 5 years up to the day), Romania’s coat of arms will be reintroduced on the national flag, after a 23-year break, and media agencies and groups will have to make public their shareholding structures. As regards political party switching, a feature of Romanian post-1989 politics, under the new Constitution the mandate of MPs is terminated the moment an MP withdraws from the party that won him his MP seat. The Constitution also acknowledges the important historical role of the Royal House, of ethnic minorities, of the Romanian Orthodox Church and of other religious denominations in building and shaping the Romanian modern state. So far no proposal has been made to replace the two-chamber Parliament with a single chamber one.

This proposal of civil society, enthusiastically endorsed by the majority of Romanian citizens in the 2009 referendum, has not been included on the agenda of the parliamentary committee. Romanian President Traian Basescu last week insisted on this issue, kicking off proceedings to launch a new referendum on this matter, with a view to introducing the single-chamber Parliament in the new Constitution. Consequently, Parliament’s judicial committee must draft a report on Traian Basescu’s proposal and submit it to Parliament for debate by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. Within 30 days of receiving Parliament’s approval, which is however merely consultative, the president must communicate to the Government a final date when Romanians will have to vote in favour or against a single-chamber Parliament with a limited number of 300 MPs.

“If the president wants a referendum, he will get one. But as long as the president doesn’t interfere directly and unconstitutionally in the Government’s work, Romania won’t have another domestic political crisis”, Prime Minister Victor Ponta has announced, in an attempt to dispel fears that a new scandal would broke out, after last year the Social-Liberals tried to impeach Romania’s president.

The 20th edition of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, the most important event of its kind in Romania, has closed its doors. Considered to be the 3rd largest festival in Europe, after those in Edinburgh and Avignon, the Sibiu festival is well known the world over now. Renowned dramatic societies active in the field of performing arts, outstanding Romanian and foreign directors, theatre critics and spectators met in the former 2007 European capital of culture, under the heading of “Dialogue”, which had been chosen by the organisers as the main theme of the 2013 anniversary edition of the festival.

On Sunday, the last day of the festival, no less than 20,000 people gathered in the Big Square, in the town’s historical centre, to watch the show “Pedalling to the sky”, which offered a mixture of cinematic images, songs and dances. Several Belgian actors pedalling huge-sized tricycles ascended to the sky, being suspended at tens of meters above the stage, with the help of a crane, dancing to musical rhythms, to the delight of those in attendance. For ten days, Sibiu turned into a huge stage, hosting no less than 350 events, half of which were premieres.

Over 2,500 actors and special guests from 70 countries came to Sibiu this year, proving that only culture can defy the economic crisis and, at the same time, a crisis of values. The highlights of the festival included theatre, dance, music and circus shows, book launches in tens of more or less conventional venues, such as public squares, churches, historical sites, pubs and classical theatre halls. The president of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, Constantin Chiriac has further details:

Constantin Chiriac: ”The current edition of the festival showed that Sibiu is a dialogue in itself, a city capable to showcase its beauty, pride and capacity to host such events, comparable to some of the best known in the world. At the same time, it is a city that has the capacity to carry further such projects, a city that has the wisdom to build wonderful things, such as this festival. I thank all the spectators for exceeding our expectations along the years. I also thank all those who supported this festival, for understanding that investment in culture is an engine to development and undoubtedly, culture can bring economic gains apart from spiritual enrichment. Rest assured that every edition will be better than the previous one, as we have proven so far.”

Prominent names of world theatre attended the festival in Sibiu, six of them receiving a star on the newly inaugurated ”Walk of Fame”: directors Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine, Declan Donnellan and Silviu Purcărete, theatre critic George Banu and the legend-making actor of Japanese Kabuki theatre, the late Nakamura Kanzaburo the 17th, who was honoured with the star posthumously.

After 60 years since the inauguration of the first bridge over the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria, the second one is open for circulation starting Friday. Although the idea of a bridge linking the Romanian town of Calafat to the Bulgarian town of Vidin goes back to 1925, it was only in 2000 that Bucharest and Sofia signed an agreement on the construction proper.

7 years passed by before the works started, and the project was awarded to a Spanish construction company. The total investment exceeds 220 million Euros, money that comes from the EU, the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency and the German Credit Institution for Reconstruction. Built on a segment of the Danube where the river is 1 thousand 3 hundred meters wide, the bridge is approximately 2 kilometers long, has 4 lanes, a railroad, two sidewalks and a bike lane. It is the longest such construction over the Danube.

Crossing it on this bridge will be faster and cheaper than with the ferryboat. Moreover, its importance in the region is significant, as it connects the southwest of Romania to the northwest of Bulgaria and it is part of the pan-European corridor linking Dresden to Istanbul. The bridge facilitates road and rail transportation on the southern flank of the 4th Pan-European corridor and a rapid interconnection of the south-European axes to the big European transport corridors.

A joint Romanian — Bulgarian company will manage the bridge and collect the tolls. Pedestrians and bicyclers, as well as ambulances and vehicles used by firefighters and police will be exempt from paying any toll. This week, the Romanian and Bulgarian governments have approved all fees, which will range from 6 to 37 Euros, depending on the type of vehicle that crosses the bridge.

Bucharest and Sofia would like to build another bridge connecting Calarasi and Silistra, following an agreement between the Romanian President Traian Basescu and his Bulgarian counterpart Rosen Plevneliev in Bratislava, at the summit of the Central European heads of state. The two countries will look for various options to fund the project from structural funds, under the cross-border cooperation program and the Danube Strategy. Actually, the second annual Danube Strategy Forum will this year be held in Bucharest, on the 28th and 29th of October.

Any resemblance to Sci-Fi characters and stories is purely coincidental! Yes, Romania will soon have the most powerful laser on the planet, what scientists call Extreme Light Infrastructure, or in short ELI. The brainchild of scientists from several countries, the super-laser is expected to turn Romania into a genuine attraction for experts from the world over.

Once completed, ELI could be used in research and will also have practical applications, helping in the prevention of the world’s number one threat, terrorism. This super-laser will be able to identify nuclear, radioactive materials even in closed containers from a distance, enabling a better management of the nuclear waste. Last and not least it is expected to have a significant contribution to the development of new medical treatment.

The construction of ELI is going to be of an unprecedented complexity because both the laser system and the Gamma radiation unit are surpassing any existing technology at this time. This super-laser will have a power of 10 petawatts, which is the equivalent of 100 thousand billion electric bulbs each of 100 watts. If a laser pulse of such a magnitude lasted for a second, it would suck up all the energy produced in the world in almost two weeks. The 10 petawatts will be tantamount to the installed power of all the power plants in the world multiplied more than 1,000 times.

Because the laser pulse is extremely short (of tens of femtoseconds, that is millionths of billionths of seconds) the average energy consumption during its functioning will stay within reasonable parameters. Experts say that when you apply such a huge amount of energy on a tiny surface, you can even transfer matter from one place to another like in Star Trek.

The Magurele compound, whose tender was won by a consortium led by Austrian group Strabag, will be built on ultra-sensitive shock-absorbers, as even the faintest vibrations, such as those produced by stiletto shoes might cause a disaster. The gamma beam installation will be housed by a building with 12 underground levels, whereas the laser beam will be located in a special facility with 8 underground stories.

The impact this super-laser will have is a major one, as it is set to place Europe on the first position in the world in terms of extreme photon-beam research. Our country will also become a major reference point on the world’s map of elite research, which is nothing but the continuation of a long tradition as back in the 1960s Romania became the fourth country in the world to build its own laser.