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RADOR: News from Romania, 98-07-02
July 2, 1998
CONTENTS
[01] According to President Constantinescu, His Advisers at Cotroceni
Palace Had No Relation with Former Securitate Services;
[02] Judicial Commission in the Senate Adopted Draft Law on Romania's
Regional Development;
[03] Romanian Deputies Failed to Amend Penal Code;
[04] Senatorial Defence Commission Dissatisfied with Nini Sapunaru's
Hearing;
[05] Debates in Parliament over Amendments to Education Law;
[06] ApR Press Conference;
[07] PUNR Press Conference;
[08] Niculae Cerveni Denounces Bucharest Court of Appeal's Ruling;
[09] Further Floods in Transylvania;
[10] Romanian-Georgian High Level Meeting;
[11] Italian Foreign Minister on a Visit to Romania;
[12] Romanian Participation in NATO's "Cooperative Dragon '98" Military
Training Excercise;
[13] EUO Defence Commissioners on a Visit to Romania.
[01] According to President Constantinescu, his advisers at Cotroceni
Palace had no relation with former Securitate services
Romanian President Emil Constantinescu told journalists accompanying the
Romanian officials on their visit to Transcaucasia that all his advisers at
Cotroceni Palace had no relation with the former Securitate or any other
institution of the sort in the country. The president pointed out that he
already requested such information at the time when Virgil Magureanu acted
as chief of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and Ioan Talpes as
chief of Romania's Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE). RADOR
[02] Judicial Commission in the Senate adopted draft law on Romania's
regional development
The Judicial Commission in the Romanian Senate has adopted on Wednesday the
draft law on Romania's regional development. The law refers to preparing
the institutional framework answering the EU integration criteria and the
access to EU's structural funds, coordinating the activity and policies of
government departments at regional level in order to stimulate initiatives
and capitalise local and regional resources and, last but not least, to
Jstimulating cooperation between Romanian regions and regions abroad, cross-
border cooperation as well as regional participation in European structures
and organisations promoting the regions' economic and institutional
development. RADOR
[03] Romanian deputies failed to amend Penal Code
At its meeting on Wednesday, the House of Deputies has failed to adopt the
draft law amending the Penal Code in order to decriminalise gay sex and
offence to authority. Romanian Justice Minister Valeriu Stoica, the driving
force behind the changes, has accused 30 deputies representing the majority
in Parliament of neglecting to attend the voting. He has also denounced the
negative stand of the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania
(PDSR) and its leader Adrian Nastase recalling that it was Mr Nastase who
undertook to amend the Penal Code in the first place, at the time when he
was Romania's foreign minister. Minister Stoica warned about emerging
consequences following the vote in the House of Deputies: "Serious
consequences are expected to follow as they involve the international
commitments Romania has assumed. On one hand, Romania undertook to observe
the freedom of speech and the freedom of privacy. On the other hand, we
expect negative international reactions, and I speak mainly about the
Council of Europe". RADOR
[04] Senatorial Defence Commission dissatisfied with Nini Sapunaru's
hearing
Commissioners for defence affairs in the Romanian Senate have expressed
their dissatisfaction with the hearing of Customs Director General Nini
Sapunaru. Chief commissioner Nicolae Alexandru said he felt like Mr
Sapunaru came just for a chat. Deputy commissioner Radu Timofte and other
senators have left the room even before the hearing ended claiming that the
customs director was not prepared for the hearing and accusing him of
repeatedly providing confusing evidence. A new hearing of Mr Sapunaru is
planned for next week. RADOR
[05] Debates in Parliament over amendments to Education Law
There have been further debates on Wednesday over the ordinance amending
and completing the Education Law. The remaining seven articles under debate
refer to minority language teaching education and religious education. The
Commission for education affairs in the House of Deputies has decided that
all Romanian citizens, irrespective of their nationality, should learn and
study the Romanian language. All official documents nominated in the
education minister's ruling should be edited in Romanian while other
documents could be edited in any foreign teaching language. RADOR
[06] ApR press conference
The leader of the Alliance for Romania party (ApR), Teodor Melescanu, told
a press conference on Wenesday that recent remarks by Prime Minister Radu
Vasile claiming that Romania had no chance to join NATO were a recognition
of the country's domestic failure. The ApR leader believes Romania is even
farther on its way to NATO than it was at the NATO summit in Madrid last
year. ApR First Vicepresident Mircea Cosea said the next talks with the IMF
officials should take place at highest level, directly between Prime
Minister Radu Vasile and the IMF president. Mr Cosea has warned that no
agreement with the IMF could be reached unless only technical negotiations
would become a priority. RADOR
[07] PUNR press conference
The leader of Romanians' National Unity Party (PUNR), Valeriu Tabara, told
a press conference on Wednesday that his party received information
concerning efforts abroad supporting the setting up of a Hungarian language
teaching state university in Cluj. PUNR shares the position of Education
Minister Andrei Marga who spoke about the setting up of a multicultural
university. On the other hand, Valeriu Tabara said he was statisfied with
the Tuesday's vote in the House of Deputies against amendments to Penal
Code, and more, the PUNR believed that death penalty should be reintroduced
to punish robbery and murder. RADOR
[08] Niculae Cerveni denounces Bucharest Court of Appeal's ruling
The leader of the Liberal Party (PL), Nicolae Cerveni believes that last
Friday's ruling by the Court of Appeal in Bucharest designating the Dinu
Patriciu group as the party's decision-making body was actually ordered. Mr
Cerveni told a press conference on Wednesday that the ruling was not final
and he would appeal the decision in court. Mr Cerveni ruled out any chance
of Liberal unification and said that recent incidents in his party
confirmed such a supposition. RADOR
[09] Further floods in Transylvania
Following heavy rains these days, large areas around Barcau river were
affected by floods on Wednesday. Several homes and more than 500 hectares
of land and crops are under water in the villages of Suplacu de Barcau,
Viisoara, Popesti and Boinanu Mare. The villages of Chiribis, Balc,
Nusfalau as well as weather forecasting stations in Marca, Marghita and
Salard are threaten by floods shortly. The railway traffic was suspended
for three hours in the effort to get the water out of the Oradea railway
station. Areas in the county of Hunedoara were also affected by floods on
Wednesday, mainly around the communities of Martinesti and Jeledinti where
more than 55 families had to leave their homes. RADOR
[10] Romanian-Georgian high level meeting
While in Georgia on Wednesday, Romanian President Emil Constantinescu told
a press conference that good relations and full understanding between
Romania and Georgia were due to the countries' common economic and
political interests as well as their mutual support in the efforts to join
the European and Euro-Atlantic structures. The statement was made at the
end of the talks the Romanian president had with his Georgian counterpart
Eduard Shevarnadze. The president pointed out that the talks focused mainly
on ways to restore the so-called "Silk Road", and this was the reason why
all the agreements between the two countries should be implemented. There
is no more time left, and therefore, the officials Jn Bucharest and Tbilisi
were expected to appoint a special delegate who was supposed to solve all
emerging discontinuities in developing the projects. RADOR
[11] Italian foreign minister on a visit to Romania
Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile met Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto
Dini on Wednesday. After the talks, the prime minister pointed out the
major role the cultural and historic conditions played in developing
relations between the two countries while recalling that Italy supported
Romania's efforts to join the Euro-Atlantic structures. The Italian
minister praised the role the strategic partnership played in developing
bilateral relations and mentioned that Italian businessmen were interested
in getting involved in Romania's privatisation projects. Mr Vasile has
thanked the Italian minister for his country's support of Romania's efforts
to join the Euro-Atlantic structures and said that his Cabinet was
carefully examining Romania's chances in this respect. The Romanian
oJficial reiterated that Italy should get further involved in achieving
projects of major interest such as the gas supplying pipe linking the
Romanian port of Constantza and the Italian city of Triest, the development
of Romanian motorways to Europe and the opening of big Italian banking
branches in Romania. The talks concerning the strategic partnership between
the two countries are expected to continue during the visit the Romanian
prime minister is expected to pay to Italy shortly. RADOR
Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini met his Romanian counterpart Andrei
Plesu on Wednesday. Mr Dini told a joint press conference that his country
would like Romania and Slovenia to join NATO as soon as possible. Referring
to the conflict in Kosovo, the Italian minister said that countries in the
region should continue their efforts and find a political solution to the
crisis. If the idea of Kosovo's independence persisted, such a solution
might result in an escalating armed conflict threJtening all countries in
the region, Mr Dini has warned. RADOR
Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini met the speakers of the two Chambres
in Romanian Parliament on Wednesday. As the RRA reports, the talks focused
mainly on issues concerning the Italian-Romanian strategic partnership. Mr
Dini indicated that Romania should make further efforts to achieve economic
reform in its attempt to join the Euro-Atlantic structures. RADOR
[12] Romanian participation in NATO's "Cooperative Dragon '98" military
training exercise
The NATO-coordinated "Cooperative Dragon '98" military training exercise is
taking place in Italy between June 21 - July 4. Operations are going on
under NATO Land Troops Command in Southern Europe in cooperation with
NATO's Air Force Command in Southern Europe. The announcement was made in a
communique issued by the Press Office of the Romanian Ministry for National
Defence (MApN). The operations are taking place around the Ugor Maria
barracks in Solbate Olona, Jome 40 km. north-west from the Italian city of
Milan. Participants include 300 troops in 14 countries (4 NATO member
states - Canada, Greece, Italy and the US, and 10 NATO partner countries,
Romania included). RADOR
[13] EUO defence commissioners on a visit to Romania
Defence commissioners of the EUO Assembly met their Romanian counterparts
in the Commission for foreign affairs on Wednesday. Chief commissioner for
foreign affairs in the Romanian Senate Gheorghe Prisacaru said the visit
expressed both the EUO interest in developing relations with Romania and
Romania's interest of getting further involved in EUO activity and military
programmes. Romania is ready to participate in EUO coordinated operations
such as the monitoring of the embargo on Yugoslavia. The EUO defence
commissioners had further meetings with their Romanian counterparts in the
Senate and the House of Deputies. The talks focused on recent developments
in the Kosovo crisis and the 14-th Army in the Dnestrian region Jf the
Republic of Moldova as a threat to European security. RADOR
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