August 28, 2013
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România Internațional, 28.08.2013, 00:30
Romania does not change its foreign policy every time its government is changed, but it has to establish economic and political relations with countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America, apart from the already traditional ones with its allies and partners, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Wednesday in Bucharest, at the Annual Mmeeting of the Romanian Diplomacy. Prime Minister Ponta also called on the Romanian ambassadors to be as active as possible at official level as well as in their dialogue with the foreign media when their country is pointed at.
Romania’s President, Traian Basescu is currently on a two-day official visit to Slovakia. He has already had talks in Bratislava with his Slovak counterpart Ivan Gaaparovic. The talks focussed on issues of bilateral and European interest, laying emphasis on the situation of ethnic minorities living in Romania and Slovakia, respectively. President Basescu has said Romania has adopted European standards as regards minorities, which provide for their right to preserve their traditions and culture, to have access to mass-media in their native language and, at the same time, the obligation to be loyal to the Romanian state. President Traian Basescu has underlined that Romania will never accept the theory of “collective rights for minorities” and will never accept that someone from abroad come and tell Romania how it should be organised administratively.
The number of Romanians who migrated abroad in search of a job increased considerably after Romania joined the EU, in 2007. Estimates made at European level and included in the 2013-2020 Draft National Strategy for the Occupancy of Labor Force shows that 2.1 million Romanians are working in other EU member states. The Romanians’ main countries of destination are Italy (890,000 people), Spain (825,000 people) and Germany (110,000 people). The massive migration of the active labor force in a very short period of time created imbalances on the labor market, the aforementioned document writes.
The Romanian Economy Ministry has started talks with the Ukrainian side, for the first time in the past two decades, on ways to get back the money invested by Romania in a project relating to the building of the Ukrainian acid ore enrichment works in Krivoy Rog. Romania should get back approximately one billion dollars from that project. Economy minister Varujan Vosganian paid a visit to Kiev on Tuesday, for talks on this issue with the Ukrainian partners. The building of the works in Krivoy Rog started in 1983, during the times of the former USSR and Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, involving the participation of the then Democratic Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. In 1990, 70 % of the works were completed, but they were brought to a halt.
Roger Waters, a founding member of Pink Floyd, on Wednesday brought to Bucharest the show ”The Wall”, seen as the most spectacular music production of the moment. The touring version of Pink Floyds “The Wall” is one of the most ambitious and complex rock shows ever staged. It is a combination of live music, visual effects and a grandiose stage design.