August 26, 2015

A roundup of domestic and international news.

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Newsroom, 26.08.2015, 12:00

The European Commission has called on all EU countries to implement the community’s asylum policy and assist the refugees coming from African countries in search of a better life, or risk being sanctioned. As many as 32 infringement procedures have already been applied for several important EU states. The European Commission is financing reception centres in countries like Italy, Hungary and Greece. Romania is also prepared for a possible wave of immigrants.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta will travel to the neighbouring Republic of Moldova on Thursday, August 27, to attend ceremonies devoted to the Independence Day of this state. Victor Ponta will meet with his Moldovan counterpart, the pro-Western Valeriu Strelet and with the Parliament Speaker Adrian Candu. Set up on the eastern Romanian territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the Republic of Moldova declared its independence in August 1991, following the failure of the neo-Bolshevik putsch in Moscow.

European shares have recovered slightly on Wednesday, after a serious fall due to persistent concerns over China’s economy, with bank and mining stocks underperforming. Chinas main stock exchange fell 7.6% on Tuesday – after losing 8.5% on what state media have called Chinas “Black Monday”. It was the worst fall since 2007 and caused sharp drops in markets in the US and Europe. Against this background, oil prices dipped below 40 dollars a barrel for the first time in 6 and a half years.

Trade unionists with the Romanian Administration of Air Traffic Services (ROMATSA) are today resuming negotiations with the Transport Ministry on their salary level and working conditions. Trade unionists threaten to call an all-out strike for an indefinite period starting September 1st. They have repeatedly called for the ROMATSA general manager, Ion Aurel Stanciu, to resign, but the latter has recently been appointed State Secretary with the Transport Ministry following PM Victor Ponta’s decision. According to ROMATSA, which currently has around 1,500 employees Romania’s air space is crossed by around 2,500-3,000 aircraft a day.

NATO is today holding an airborne training exercise in the county of Galati, in eastern Romania, as part of Swift Response 2015 exercise. The goal of this exercise is to test the ability of the coalition forces to respond quickly and effectively to potential crisis situations on the European continent. The exercise is taking place in Germany, Romania, Bulgaria and Italyn and includes more than 4800 soldiers from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. This is the largest such combined airborne training on the continent since the end of the Cold War.

The health insurance card will become compulsory in Romania as of September 1st. Starting this date, in order for Romanian citizens aged over 18 to benefit from medical care, be it a check-up, a blood test or a simple medical prescription, they must use the health card. Emergency services, however, will be provided irrespective of whether the health card is presented or not. Almost 15 million health cards have been issued so far, with another 600 thousand to be issued by year-end. People who have not activated their health card yet, can do so at any time, even after September 1st.