February 2, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 02.02.2014, 19:06
Leaders of the ruling Social Liberal Union have announced that elections for the European Parliament in Romania will be held on May 25th, 2014. Also, presidential elections will be held in two rounds, on November 2nd and 16th. In turn, Romanian Parliament is to announce the date for a referendum on the modification of the Constitution. At a joint press conference with the leader of the National Liberal Party, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced that on Monday the Government will set forth a draft law under which the Special Telecommunications Service will be subordinated to the Romanian Government.
Romania’s Supreme Defense Council convened in Bucharest on Sunday to analyze the way in which the Special Telecommunications Service and other institutions reacted to the plane crash on January 20th, which claimed two lives. Prime minister Victor Ponta has asked for the Service to be subordinated to the Government and also for the sacking of its director, Marcel Opris. In a press conference, President Traian Basescu said that the Special Telecommunications Service was not responsible for accurately localizing the plane and blamed the government for its lack of coordination. The plane, which was carrying a medical team, was forced to land in a mountain area. The rescue teams found the victims after six hours of search. Following the situation, the Interior Minister Radu Stroe resigned.
122 detainees have been released in Romania following the coming into force of the new Criminal Code and Criminal Proceedings Code on February 1st. Also, 176 young convicts will be transferred from prisons to educational detention centers. The government has announced it will change some controversial provisions of the Criminal Proceedings Code. President Traian Basescu, the opposition and magistrates stand against the article that forbids phone tapping before the start of prosecution, which would render probation extremely difficult. In another move, Prime Minister Ponta has announce that the article that confines the freedom of the press will also be abrogated.
Washington calls on Moscow to put pressure on Bashar al Assad’s regime to speed up the evacuation of chemical weapons from Syria, for them to be neutralized. According to sources with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Syria has evacuated only 5% of its chemical arsenal. According to an UN resolution, Damascus must surrender its chemical arsenal for neutralization until mid this year. Starting 2011, Syria has been faced with violent reprisals and clashes between insurgents and the security services subordinated to Bashar al Assad. Around 130 thousand people have died.
At the Security Council in Munich, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Ukrainian opposition leaders have reached an agreement regarding the steps that need to be taken to overcome the crisis in Ukraine. According to the leader of the Batkivshcina parliamentary group, Arseni Iatzeniuk, the agreement provides for the cease of violence, the release of all protesters and the investigation of all cases involving the kidnapping, torturing and killing of Ukrainian citizens. A special commission will be set up to this end, made up of members of the opposition, of the ruling power and the Council of Europe Secretary General Thornbjorn Jagland. The agreement also includes a constitutional reform and a semi-presidential republic. Ukraine is being faced with an unprecedented political crisis after the Ianukovici administration refused, in December, to sign the association agreement with the EU, choosing instead a rapprochement to Russia.
The latest incidents in the breakaway region in Transdiestr, in the Republic of Moldova, are not new. The same happened 20 years ago, said the Romanian MP for the Diaspora, member of the legislative commission for Romanians across the world, Eugen Tomac. In an interview to Radio Romania he said that Romanian authorities and the Republic of Moldova’s European partners should get more involved in this matter, for such abuse to stop. The MP stressed that Romanians, who account for 40& of the population of this region, are subject to a cultural genocide, because they do not have the right to study in their mother tongue, they are not allowed to preserve their own identity and are constantly discriminated against, through direct threats.
