February 16, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 16.02.2015, 12:15
The European Commission believes it’s important for Romania to have a long term strategy for rural areas, said in Bucharest on Monday the EU Commissioner for Regional Policies, Romanian Corina Cretu. Attending the General Assembly of Communes’ Association in Romania, she called on the local officials to come up with projects for the communities they represent, in domains such as economic development, education and health. Also, Corina Cretu announced that she would pay another visit to Romania next month, accompanied by the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan.
The Romanian Presidential Administration has announced that President Klaus Iohannis will receive in Bucharest on Tuesday the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. We recall that last Thursday, the Romanian head of state met with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Porosenko on the sidelines of the European Council meeting. In Brussels Iohannis said that Romania understood the growing threat posed by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and was involved in its political settling. Porosenko thanked the Romanian President for the support and invited him to Kiev. Klaus Iohannis accepted the invitation.
On Monday, as part of his formal visit to Slovakia, the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu held talks in Bratislava with President Andrej Kiska, Prime Minister Robert Fico and his counterpart Miroslav Lajcak. The talks focused, among other things, on boosting political, diplomatic, economic and cultural cooperation between Romania and Slovakia. Romania’s joining the Schengen agreement, the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Republic of Moldova, Romania’s neighbour with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, were also high on the agenda of talks between the Romanian and Slovak officials. As regards Ukraine, which is also Romania’s neighbour Aurescu stressed that the most significant test for the Minsk accord was security on the field, the implementation of the provisions being the first step towards a political and diplomatic settling of the conflict. Talking about the Republic of Moldova, the Romanian minister reasserted the need for a pro-European government in Chisinau, able to carry on the reform process and bring the country closer to the EU. Also, minister Aurescu highlighted the positive part played by the Slovak minority in Romania in strengthening bilateral ties, and Lajcak appreciated the Romanian model of interculturalism.
A few hours after being sentenced by the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest to 5 years in prison for abuse of office, the former Youth and Sports Minister Monica Iacob Ridzi presented herself at the police headquarters in Cluj, central Romania. On Monday, the supreme court rejected the appeal made by the former minister and maintained the ruling made in the first instance, in January last year. During her term as minister, Monica Iacob Ridzi approved payments to companies that organised events celebrating the Youth Day on May 2nd, 2009, but many of the services contracted were never provided. According to the media, Iacob Ridzi, back then a minister in the cabinet formed by the pro-presidential Liberal Democratic Party, turned the Youth Day events into a disguised election campaign for Elena Basescu, the daughter of President Traian Basescu, who was running for a seat in the European Parliament, which she eventually got.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted on Monday that the situation in eastern Ukraine was fragile and the way to a comprehensive peace agreement would be extremely difficult. In a press conference in Berlin, Merkel stated that the most delicate situation was in Debaltzevo, a strategic town where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are under siege by pro-Russian separatists, despite the coming into force of the agreement signed in Minsk on Thursday. Also on Monday, the EU called for a complete cease fire in the east of Ukraine and urged the parties to fully implement the provisions of the Minsk agreement. The Ukrainian army and the separatist rebels have accused each other of breaking that very fragile agreement, which came into force on Saturday night. The parties involved have warned that under these circumstance the next step, namely pulling out heavy armament from the front line, will not be possible.
