Romanian cabinet meeting
Romania’s government is expected to pass measures designed to improve management of the country’s Research Ministry and its Digitalisation Authority. A cabinet meeting on Wednesday is also expected to review bugets of state-owned companies while also appointing the new head of the country’s National Office for Prevention and Control of Money Laundering (ONPCSB), Radio Romania reported. The cabinet will also decide the appointment of Adrian Cucu as head of the ONPCSB. Mr Cucu will rank as secretary of state for a four year-term. It is not the first time when Mr Cucu is getting the job. In 2000, he was removed from office by Adrian Năstase, the Romanian PM at the time, and also by former PM Victor Ponta when he came to power in 2012. Adrian Cucu is currently deputy head of the General Directorate of European Affairs, Schengen and International Relations at the National Agency for Fiscal Administration.
Former Romanian President Traian Băsescu, agent of the former Securitate service
Romania’s former president, Traian Băsescu, was an agent of the country’s political police, the Securitate, the country’s High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled on Wednesday. The ruling is final after being also passed in a first instance. Mr Băsescu stopped short from any comment of the ruling while pointing out he would take his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR – CEDO). In June 2019, Romania’s National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) started court proceedings to ascertain whether Mr Băsescu had collaborated with the political police durng the former Communist regime. According to CNSAS, the Securitate recruited Mr. Băsescu in 1972, when he was a naval student. His file was allegedly distroyed in 1979 after he joined the ruling Communist Party of Romania (PCR).
Romania coronavirus updates
Romania reported 4,521 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, which is 619 cases less than previous day, with 40 deaths (18 men, 22 women) and 3 people under intensive care, one more than cases recorded a day before. In the capital Bucharest, the number of cases hit 1,502, according to data issued by the country’s Strategic Communication Group ((GSC). With its 1,502 cases reported, Bucharest still leads among other regions in the country, followed by the north-western county of Cluj (365 cases), western county of Timiș (351 cases), and north-eastern county of Iassy (189 cases).
Alexandru Danga
