April 17, 2015 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 17.04.2015, 12:15
Two major international military exercises take place in Romania, under NATO command, in the current security context in the region. In the south-east of the country Wind Spring 2015 is under way, which brings together over 2200 troops from Romania, the US, UK and the Republic of Moldova. Until April the 30th, they will be practicing operational planning, live fire and complex tactical situation solving. Câmpia Turzii, in the north-west, is also hosting joint military exercises involving over 350 American troops and nearly 300 Romanian military. The commander of the US unit, Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, said this exercise was a response from NATO allies to Russia.
The unemployment rate in Romania last year was 6.8%, down from 7.1%, the previous year, according to data made public by the National Statistics Institute on Friday. The employment rate among active population (15-64 years of age) was 61%. The employment rate in the 20-64 age bracket was 65.7%, which is 4.3% less than the national target laid down in the Europa 2020 Strategy. In 2014, Romania’s active population was 9.2 million people, of which 8.6 million people employed and 629 thousand unemployed.
The Ministry for European Funds on Friday launched the 2014-2020 Operational Programme on Human Capital. The document lays down Romania’s priorities in terms of employment, especially among youth, of social inclusion and education. The goals include improving the access to a high-quality education and professional training system, boosting employment, reducing poverty by improved access to social and healthcare services. The total budget of the programme is around 5 billion euros, of which more than 4 billion euros come from European funds.
The Romanian gymnasts Laura Jurca and Diana Bulimar ranked 7th and 10th respectively in the all around event held on Friday as part of the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships of Montpellier (France). The gold medallist was Swiss Giulia Steingruber, who outperformed Russian Maria Harenkova and British Elissa Downie. Saturday and Sunday will see the other finals. In the women’s competition Romania will be represented by Andreea Munteanu in the beam and floor events and in the men’s competition, in the parallel bars event, by Marius Berbecar and Andrei Muntean. At the end of the championships the president of the European Gymnastics Union Georges Guelzec will hand over the union’s flag to the 2017 host of the championships, Bucharest.
On Friday Germany paid homage to the 150 victims of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps, almost 4 weeks after the tragedy. As many as 1400 people, among whom relatives of the victims, the President Joachim Gauck and the chancellor Angela Merkel participated in the national mourning ceremony. An Airbus A320 of the Germanwings airlines that on March 24th was flying between Barcelona and Düsseldorf was deliberately crashed by the German copilot who had a serious psychological disorder.
