January 11, 2019

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Newsroom, 11.01.2019, 14:27

EU Romania’s
first mandate at the presidency of the EU Council represents a good opportunity
for Bucharest to reiterate its commitment to consolidating the European project
– Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has today said during his meeting with the
president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and with members of
the College of Commissioners. According to Iohannis this mandate will highlight
Romania’s desire to have a successful, result-oriented mandate that will move
the European agenda forward taking into account the complex background of the
following six months. Romania’s presidency of the EU must provide hope as it
takes place at a difficult moment for Europe and for this reason it will unfold
in several different stages, the head of the head of the European Commission
has said. Jean Claude Juncker and the members of the College of Commissioners
who arrived in Bucharest on Thursday are to be received today by the country’s
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and other ministers. Their visit to Bucharest
comes against the backdrop of Romania’s taking over the EU rotating presidency
marked last night through a series of speeches about the importance of this
event and about Romania’s place inside the EU.

VISIT Pope Francis will be paying a visit to Romania over May 31st
and June 2nd, the presidential administration in Bucharest has
announced. According to the same sources, the Pope will be visiting capital
Bucharest, the cities of Iasi, in north-eastern Romania, and Blaj, in the
centre. We recall that in 1999 Pope John Paul ll paid a historic visit to
Romania, being the first visit paid by a Pontiff to a country with an Orthodox
majority after the Schism of 1054. Pope John Paul thanked the Romanian Orthodox
Church for inviting him to pay an unforgettable ecumenical visit to a country,
which he described as a bridge between the West and East and which is, as
tradition has it, ‘The Garden of the Mother of God.

TRANSPORTATION The Transportation
Commission in the European Parliament has given up on passing a number of
measures considered discriminatory by Eastern European transportation entities,
including Romanian ones. They protested yesterday in Brussels against changing
relevant legislation against the background of growing protectionism in Western
European states. In the opinion of easterners, the new proposals would place a
significant cost burden in terms of operations, restricting international road
transportation within the EU. One measure was supposed to ban the weekly rest
period being spent within vehicles, another dictating a mandatory home rest
period every four weeks. One other contested measure was equipping vehicles
with smart speedometers by late 2024.

WEATHER Bad weather wreaked havoc on eleven counties in Romania’s east and
south-west. A yellow weather warning has been issued for seven counties in
Romania where trees have been broken by the heavy snowfalls or the gale-force
wind. Road traffic has been disrupted on various highway sections, but
according to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, no victims have
been reported. 52 hundred firefighters are ready to take part in rescue
operations all over the country. The weather is cold in most of the regions
with moderate snowfalls in the center and the mountains. Temperatures are
ranging between -7 and 3 degrees Celsius with a noon reading in Bucharest of
zero degrees.

EUROPE CARES An initiative entitled ‘Europe Cares’ which is meant to become a
mouthpiece for parents with disabled children in 7 European countries, Romania
included, has been launched today. Through this initiative parents are calling
for inclusionary education for their children. At present the EU’s legislation
does not provide for the education of the disabled children, a fact that
fosters a series of issues such as exclusion or segregation. 70 million
disabled people are living in Europe at present.

(translated by
bill)