June 23, 2014 UPDATE
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Roxana Vasile, 23.06.2014, 20:23
Romania’s Parliament is likely to convene on Wednesday for talks on a possible declaration calling for president Traian Basescu’s resignation after the involvement of his brother, Mircea, in a corruption scandal. MPs of the ruling alliance made up of the Social Democrats and the National Union for the Progress of Romania have announced their readiness to back the declaration. In turn the co-ruling Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the opposition Democrat-Liberals say that at the moment there are no reasons to call for the president’s resignation. President Basescu has told a news conference that he won’t step down for facts that can’t be blamed on him, something he wasn’t aware of as he wasn’t informed either by his brother or by information structures. President Basescu has mentioned a possible conspiracy against him by those who want to control the country’s legal system. We recall that Mircea Basescu is remanded in custody for 30 days under the accusation of having received 250 thousand euros in order to influence the judiciary to get a smaller sentence for a crime boss who had been accused of attempted murder.
Romania’s team has walked away with four medals – two gold, one silver and one bronze – from the Central European Olympiad in Informatics held in Jena, Germany, between June 18th and 23rd. This 21st edition of the Informatics Olympiad was attended by 38 contenders from 10 countries. The first edition was hosted by Romania upon its initiative in 1994.
Romanian MPs on Monday turned down a simple motion tabled by the center-right opposition calling for the resignation of the minister for European Funds, Eugen Teodorovici at the same time calling on the government to come up with a coherent strategy for the absorption of these funds. The signatories of the aforementioned motion have criticized what they described as an unacceptable delay in signing the partnership agreement regulating the EU funds as part of the 2014-2020 budget strategy.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta is on a visit to Israel, which has high on the agenda a joint government session, which he is to lead together with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. The bilateral cooperation projects are to be assessed during the talks as well as concrete proposals aimed at developing bilateral cooperation. Also high on the agenda is the introduction of a new cooperation platform in the field of science and research between research institutions and agencies from the two countries. Several bilateral agreements are to be signed, particularly in the field of economy.
Healthcare trade unions continued on Monday their protests, picketing several ministries, including the Finance Ministry. Members told Radio Romania that the authorities failed to meet their demands, including the main one, a 10% raise across the board. At the same time, they said that they received firm promises of meeting other demands, such as the ones related to the situation of public health bureaus, the law regulating healthcare in schools, and unfreezing jobs in the system. A new round of negotiations is scheduled for the following days at the Finance Ministry.
