December 9, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 09.12.2020, 20:23

AGREEMENT An agreement between Romania
and the USA over cooperation on nuclear-energy projects in Cernavoda,
south-eastern Romania was signed in Bucharest on Wednesday by Virgil Popescu,
Minister of Economy and US ambassador Adrian Zuckerman in the presence of
interim Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca. On this occasion, the Prime Minister and
the US ambassador held talks about bilateral cooperation within the Strategic
Partnership in several fields of activity, such as politics, military, energy
and economy. Minister Ciuca reiterated the Romanian authorities’ support for
the Three Seas Initiative, pointing out that the US support for key
interconnection projects within this initiative can be a major support for
post-pandemic economic recovery. Ciuca went on to say that a solid US economic
presence in Romania can be a major encouraging signal for other foreign
investors. The US ambassador highlighted the special character of the bilateral
relation between the two countries as well as Romania’s major role in the region.

HANDBALL The women’s handball side of
Romania on Thursday will be playing Croatia in their first game in group 2 of the
European Championships – EHF EURO 2020 in Denmark. Romania’s two opponents will
be the en titre champions, the Netherlands, whom they are to play on December
14th and Hungary a day later. The group also includes Norway and
Germany. The teams qualified in group one are Russia, France, Denmark, Sweden,
Spain and Montenegro. The first two sides in the main groups will qualify for
the semifinals. The finals is due on December 20th and the winner
will be directly qualified for the European Championship in 2022. Romania ended
on the fourth position in the latest European Championship held two years ago.

EU Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is
participating in the European Council proceedings due in Brussels on Thursday
and Friday. In the context of this meeting Iohannis had a phone conversation
with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, upon the latter’s
request. According to the presidential administration, talks focused on
fighting climate changes as well as the relations between the EU and Turkey.
The president pleaded for the creation of a flexible framework to allow all the
member states, irrespective of their development to effectively meet the
objectives in the field of climate change. Iohannis has underlined that transition
towards a green economy must be equitable and acceptable at social level so
that it may lead to the economic progress of the states and not to deepen the
gaps between them. Referring to the relations between the EU and Turkey, the
Romanian president stood for the continuation of talks between Brussels and
Ankara, adding that Turkey remains a major partner of the EU. At the same time,
against the latest developments in Eastern Mediterranean, president Iohannis
has voiced Romania’s full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus.

NEGOTIATIONS The Social Democrats have mustered 29.32% of the
votes for Senate and 28.90% for the Chambers of Deputies in the Sunday’s
election, while the National Liberal Party has got 25.58% for the Senate and
25.19 % for the chamber of deputies, according to final figures presented by
the Central Election Office on Wednesday. Third comes the USR Plus Alliance
with 15.86% for the Senate and 15.37% for the Chamber of Deputies. The Party
for the Union of Romanians (AUR) has 9.17% of the votes for the Senate and
9.08% for the Chamber of Deputies while UDMR mustered 5.89% for the Senate and
5.74% for the Chamber of Deputies. PMP and Pro Romania failed to clear the 5%
threshold for Parliament seats. Talks for forging the country’s future
government have intensified in Romania. The Liberal Party, currently in
power, the party that grabbed the second highest number of votes on December 6,
claims they can make up a Parliament majority with the Save Romania Union -
PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. Party officials
estimate they can rely on a comfortable majority of 244 MPs, adding to which
will be representatives of national minorities. Finance Minister Florin Citu
has been proposed by the Liberals as the country’s Prime Minister, the party’s
president Ludovic Orban announced on Wednesday. The three center-right parties
must now agree on a governing program and distribute the 16 Ministries among
themselves. On the other hand, the Social-Democratic Party has also expressed
its willingness to govern, considering it grabbed the highest number of votes
in the election. The Social-Democrats said they are entitled to nominate the
Prime Minister, based on the result in the election, and thus will not be
voting for a Liberal Cabinet. The Social-Democrats will be proposing Dr.
Alexandru Rafila, a WHO expert, for the position of Prime Minister. The
Social-Democratic Party is willing to accept two options: either a minority
Government led by the Social-Democratic Party, or a technocratic Government led
by a Social-Democrat Prime Minister. For the first time in the history of
Romania, Parliament will also include the Alliance for the Union of Romanians,
a recently founded far-right party, which grabbed the fourth-highest number of
votes in the parliamentary election.

(bill)