July 5, 2023

Romanian PM on official visit to Germany

While on official visit to Germany, Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is expected to meet German business leaders on Wednesday. The meeting comes after Mr. Ciolacu met Katrin Göring-Eckardt, deputy speaker of the German Parliament, and members of political parties in the Bundestag (the German parliament). Today’s agenda also includes meetings with representatives of German defence industry, Radio Romania reports. Prime Minister Ciolacu met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday as talks focused on bilteral economic prospects and ways of improving relations, with Mr. Scholz also expressing his support for Romania in its attempt to join the Schengen free-visa area. Romania’s Schengen admission remains blocked as Austria has not changed its position on the enlargement of the Schengen Area.

Romania’s DIICOT in support of the elderly

An arrest warrant against 24 people is expected after Romania’s DIICOT office (Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised and Terrorism) called on a Bucharest court to approve such move in a complaint on Wednesday. The call comes after DIICOT officers unvailed the bad treatment of elderly in three nursing homes of Voluntari, a city near the capital Bucharest. According to DIICOT, 24 people are accused of establishing a criminal group involved in human trafficking, forgery and embezzlement.

EC concerns of Romania’s state of law

Romania needs measures, especially on operational level, designed to address remaining concerns regarding investigation and trial procedures of criminal offences in its judicial system, according to a report of the European Commission on the country’s state of law issued on Wednesday. However, the commission praizes the significant progress in strengthening tools designed to ensure the independence of the judicial system while also addressing operational challenges of the DNA (Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate). On the other hand, no progress has been made regarding the lobbying rules for legislators and towards ensuring editorial independence of public media services according to European standards.

Alexandru Danga