Romanian politics

As of Tuesday, the PRO Romania party becomes a member of the European Democratic Party, "a kind of smaller party, but with pro-European beliefs - social-democrat and liberal", the Pro Romania head Victor Ponta said on Sunday, at the end of the party's Permanent Delegation's sitting. "We cannot go either to the EPP, or to the sovereigntists, or to the extremists," Victor Ponta stressed.

Romania's Social Democrat-led government survived a no-confidence motion on Wednesday - but faced more turbulence outside parliament, where thousands of anti-corruption protesters gathered to demand Prime Minister Viorica Dancila's resignation.

The main ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) believes that the recent statements made by President of Romania Klaus Iohannis in reference to the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) regarding the resolution of the conflict between the Justice Minister and the President, undermine the CCR's authority, adding that the Court's decisions are mandatory, not be debat

Romania's former prime minister, Victor Ponta, is returning to the front lines of the country's political scene after being acquitted of corruption charges at the beginning of May. His new faction, Pro Romania, has also started recruiting prominent Social Democrat MPs, much to the concern of the ruling party leadership.

Romania's Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted former Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta of corruption in one of the country's most high-profile graft trials and after postponing a ruling five times. The ruling can be appealed.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is in no way implicated in the court file under which Romania's former Prime Minister Victor Ponta is being investigated, but Blair's name has been mentioned publicly by co-defendant Sebastian Ghita, chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi said Friday.

The National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) has started a criminal prosecution of Senator, MP Vasile Blaga, co-Chair of the National Liberal Party, at the time of the acts a secretary-general of a ruling party, for influence peddling, a release by the DNA reads.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday will call for a major re-write of the country's complex laws in an address to the country's parliament.

A document that BIRN has obtained quotes the President as saying: "This has to be the moment for a new beginning. Parliament must be at the heart of simplifying and rationalising legislation, which now is too complex.

Romania's Parliament on Tuesday rejected a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Victor Ponta filed by the opposition over a corruption scandal.

The motion, which was filed by the National Liberal Party (PNL), was backed by 207 MPs while eight voted against it. It needed at least 275 votes to pass. It was the second no-confidence vote against Ponta in four months.

Opposition lawmakers in Romania have failed in their bid to topple the government of Victor Ponta after a no-confidence vote mustered only 207 votes, well short of the 275 needed.

Most parliamentarians from Ponta's ruling Social Democratic Party, PSD, and its two junior allies did not vote.