Romania”s CSAT meeting at Cotroceni Palace
A meeting of Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAŢ) is scheduled at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in the capital Bucharest on Wednesday. CSAT is meeing under the leadership of the newly reelected president Klaus Iohannis. The meeting is expected to focus on the country’s agenda at the NATO summit scheduled in London next month. The two day-meeting (December 3-4) will mark NATO’s 70th anniversary. The event is seen as an opportunity for leaders to address current and emerging security challenges and to ensure that the Alliance continues to adapt to keep its population of nearly one billion people safe. However, French President Emmanuel Macron bluntly told The Economist that “what we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO” . Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise we will no longer be in control of our destiny”, Mr Macron warned.
Romania”s PSD under change
Former Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă resigned as leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the former governing party in the country. The former prime minister said she had to submit her resignation following a tense meeting of the party’s Executive Committee late on Tuesday. An acting PSD leadership includes Marcel Ciolacu, speaker of parliament’s lower house, and Paul Stănescu. A PSD congress is scheduled later this winter. „We concluded we should move to a party reset, and it was not the carnage expected. As a premiere for the PSD, former party leader Dăncilă is included in the new team as president of PSD Women Organisation”, Mr Ciolacu told reporters after the meeting. Ms Dăncilă is also expected to get a parliament seat following next year’s general elections.
Romania”s CC to rule on senate speaker”s case
Romania’s Constitutional Court is expected to rule on a complaint against nomination of former Foreign Minister Teodor Meleşcanu as Senate speaker. A CCR ruling on the matter was repeatedly postponed. The complaint was put forward by 33 senators, former collegues of Mr. Meleşcanu at the time when he was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Romania (ALDE), the junior party in the former PSD-led governing coalition. ALDE left the governing coalition earlier this year but Mr. Meleşcanu became speaker of the Romanian Senate with support of the PSD. Former Senate speaker, ALDE president Călin Popescu Tăricenu, resigned from the job but he was against Mr. Meleşcanu’s nomination while also making a complaint against the decision at the CCR.
Romania sends a team to Albania on rescue mission
Romania sent a 50-member team to Albania on Tuesday to conduct search and rescue missions after a strong earthquake measuring 6.3-magnitude on the Richter scale hit the country. Two aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, C-27J Spartan and C-130 Hercules, were assigned to send to Tirana the Romanian Urban Search and Rescue Team, with the necessary equipment, according to a press release of the Ministry of National Defense.The team is a United Nations-authorized one for such a mission and will act in the disaster area until the search-and-rescue operations are stopped, head of the Emergency Situations Department Raed Arafat was quoted by local media as saying.
Alexandru Danga, RADOR
