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A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 29 december 2018

5 things to know about Romania’s EU presidency before Jan. 1

By ALISON MUTLER in July and Kovesi — highly
Associated Press praised by the EU and U.S.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) for hundreds of success-
— Romania will take over ful prosecutions during her
the rotating presidency five-year mandate — still
of the European Union on hasn’t been replaced.
Jan. 1 from Austria. The role Dragnea is pressing for an
is partly symbolic but does amnesty for “thousands
involve setting the EU agen- of people” he says were
da and being a diplomatic wrongly imprisoned by an-
go-between to reach con- ti-corruption prosecutors.
sensus among the 28 mem- Romania’s government
bers on issues ranging from claims prosecutors have
Brexit to fishing rights. had too much power and
Here are five things you the country should be al-
should know about the East lowed to decide its own
European country’s first laws.
ever EU presidency. PRESIDENT v. GOVERNMENT
IS IT READY? Romania’s presidency will
President Klaus Iohannis likely bring to the fore dis-
last month said Romania agreements between Io-
wasn’t up to the presiden- hannis, a centrist whom
cy, creating momentary Brussels regards as a sup-
panic in the EU. Finland im- In this April 27, 2018 file photo, the leader of Romania’s ruling Social Democratic party, Liviu porter of the anti-corrup-
mediately upped its readi- Dragnea, walks out of the anti-corruption prosecutors’ office, in Bucharest. tion fight, and Dragnea,
ness (it’s due to take over Associated Press who has recently been
from Romania on July 1). garding the EU presidency Romania has 257 files, in- nia joined the bloc in 2007, vocal in his criticism of for-
Romania’s most powerful during its duration. cluding issues such as mi- its justice system remained eign companies and banks
politician, Liviu Dragnea, THE AGENDA gration and a multiannual under special monitoring, and considers the anti-cor-
the chairman of the Social March 29 is the official date EU budget, to deal with and that hasn’t been lifted ruption fight to be deeply
Democratic Party, then when Britain leaves the EU, during its presidency. It will — most recently due to a unfair. Dragnea, who was
asked party colleagues to deal or no-deal. Romania, likely try to close as many contentious judicial over- handed a 3½-year prison
find a way to prosecute which has up to half a mil- as possible, insiders say. A haul the Social Democrats sentence in June for abuse
Iohannis for treason over lion citizens working in the number of EU officials will embarked on two years of office, will hear his ap-
those remarks. Iohannis has U.K., will host an EU summit be seconded to Bucharest ago that critics say will peal in that case during
since struck a more opti- in the picturesque Transyl- to help out. stifle efforts to tackle high- the presidency. Although
mistic tone and there is re- vanian city of Sibiu for the CORRUPTION level graft. The government he can’t be premier due to
ported to be an unstated event. The big sticking point in the was successful in dismiss- a 2016 conviction for vote-
agreement between Io- European Parliamentary presidency is corruption ing chief anti-corruption rigging, he recently hinted
hannis and Premier Viorica elections for the 751-seat and the rule of law in one prosecutor Laura Codruta he may eye a run for presi-
Dancila to present a rea- Parliament will happen of the bloc’s most graft- Kovesi over mismanage- dent against Iohannis in the
sonably united face re- from May 23-26. riddled states. When Roma- ment allegations. That was 2019 election.q

Weather hampers efforts to inspect Indonesia tsunami volcano

Associated Press Gegar Prasetya, co-found- Banten province in Java
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) er of the Tsunami Research ends Jan. 9 and on Friday
— Bad weather and a mas- Center Indonesia, said the for Lampung province in
sive ash column hampered severity of another poten- Sumatra.
efforts to assess whether tial tsunami could be less About 1,600 people have
Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau since satellite radar shows been evacuated from
volcano island could trig- the volcano is now much Sebesi island nearest Anak
ger another deadly tsuna- smaller. Krakatau and the remain-
mi as authorities said Friday Saturday’s tsunami hit ing residents from its popu-
the search for victims in the more than 300 kilometers lation of more than 2,800
worst-affected province (186 miles) of coastline with will be transported Friday,
will continue into January. waves of 2 meters (about 6 the agency said.
Indonesia’s disaster agen- 1/2 feet) or higher. Sulphur and thick ash from
cy said that 426 people “According to the theory the continually erupting
died in the Sunda Strait tsu- Soldiers remove debris from a damaged house in the tsunami- and my past research, the volcano has blanketed the
nami that struck Sumatra hit village of Carita, Indonesia, Friday, Dec. 28, 2018. severity of the potential tsu- island. Janine Krippner, a
and Java without warn- Associated Press nami is reduced significant- New Zealand-born volca-
ing on Saturday. That was stant eruptions have hin- no collapsed following an ly. This morning we tried to nologist at Concord Uni-
slightly lower than previous- dered attempts to visually eruption Saturday, trigger- take an aerial photo from versity in West Virginia, said
ly announced due to some inspect Anak Krakatau, the ing the tsunami. the plane to confirm the it’s hard to assess the risk
victims being recorded offspring of the infamous Authorities have warned satellite image but failed of another Anak Krakatau
twice. It said 23 are missing Krakatau volcano whose Sunda Strait residents to due to cloud cover,” Pra- collapse and tsunami be-
and more than 40,000 dis- eruption in 1883 caused a stay a kilometer away from setya said. cause authorities don’t
placed. period of global cooling. the coastline, citing the po- The disaster agency said know how stable its remain-
High seas, clouds and con- A large part of the volca- tential for another tsunami. the emergency period for ing edifice is. q