January 10, 2014

Five Romanian players are ready to take on their opponents in the inaugural round of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament Australian Open, due to start in Melbourne on Monday with the main single draws. 11th seeded Simona Halep will be up against an opponent coming straight from the qualifying rounds while 21st seeded Sorana Carstea takes on Marina Erakovici. Monica Niculescu, ranking 60th in the WTA standings will be playing Israeli Shahar Peer, 77th seed, while Alexandra Cadantu has the most difficult game against Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

Leyla Cheamil, 10.01.2014, 15:51

The European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding has condemned the populist myths about immigrants in Britain, describing a supposed invasion of foreigners coming to the UK and stealing jobs, the social security and health money as untrue. According to the Guardian, Reding said that politicians seem to have fueled fears about migrants from Eastern Europe in order to distract people from the problems Britain is facing. Using data of the British economy, Reding has pointed out the country’s GDP rose 3-4% thanks to these European workers. The last restricitions on the European labout market for Romanian and Bulgarian workers were lifted on January the 1st, seven years after the two countries’ accession to the bloc. The liberalisation of the European labour force has triggered a wave of concern in the EU’s industrialised countries, known as a choice destination among foreign workers.

As of today, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State is paying a two-day visit to Bucharest, part of a European tour, which will also take her to other US allies in NATO, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania and France. The US official will hold talks with Romania’s president Traian Basescu, high-ranking officials and representatives of civil society. High on the talks agenda are bilateral relations, regional problems and efforts to consolidate the rule of law in Romania.

As of July the 1st employers in Romania will pay social security contributions smaller by 5%, Finance Minister Liberal Daniel Chitoiu has announced. According to Chitoiu, such a measure has become possible thanks to an improved tax-collecting system. In another move the Liberals, part of the ruling coalition, would like to eliminate taxes on reinvested profit, if the government’s economic calculation allows for this. We’ll revert to the topic after the news.

Romania’s national handball side on Saturday will be playing Slovakia in an away match counting towards the second preliminary round for the World Cup 2015 in Qatar. In order to remain on top and qualify for the play-offs the Romanians must not lose the game at a difference no higher than eight goals. On Wednesday in Bucharest, Romania outperformed Italy 34-29 and is currently ranking first in the group’s ranking, with 10 points, followed by Slovakia with 8 points, Italy with two points and Cyprus without any points and no wins.

Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa has today said that only a 200 strong Romanian contingent will remain in Afghanistan as instructors in October this year. At present Romania has 1000 military deployed to that country, most of whom are operating in the south of the country, which is considered a Taliban stronghold. NATO is to end its mission in this country at the end of the year.

The United States has voiced concern about the corruption scandal currently affecting the Turkish government. The Department of State has conveyed a message to the government in Ankara that Washington supports the Turkish people’s desire for a fair and transparent legal system. For the past three weeks, Turkey has been plagued by an unprecedented corruption scandal involving scores of people in connection with the Islamic-conservative government and which is directly threatening the position of Prime Minister Erdogan, three months before the municipal election. The scandal, which led to the detention of almost 20 business people and politicians close to the government, has caused the resignation of three ministers and forced Erdogan to make a large-scale government reshuffle. The latest corruption row has raised concern in the European Union as well.

Standard and Poor’s on Friday confirmed the triple A rating with stable outlooks for Germany’s long term debt, an S&P communiqué shows. Germany’s rating is backed by its modern, diversified and extremely competitive market, which pundits believe will lead to an average growth rate of 1.5% between 2014 and 2016. Only 10 countries in the world, of which 7 in Europe, such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Finland are enjoying the triple A rating from the world’s three biggest rating agencies, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.