January 16, 2020

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 16.01.2020, 13:55

DIPLOMACY -President Klaus Iohannis today met
with ambassadors accredited to Bucharest. On this occasion the President
ensured ambassadors he would continue to make efforts in 2020 as well in order
for Romania to remain a vector of stability and a promoter of democracy. As
regards relations with Chisinau, Romania will resume full cooperation with its
neighbor when it sees the Government taking concrete actions to consolidate the
country’s European track. Klaus Iohannis said Romania will preserve only those
projects directly supporting Moldovan citizens, with an impact at local level,
as well as projects of strategic inter-connection. The President presented the
main foreign policy guidelines for 2020, with a focus on consolidating and
expanding the Strategic Partnership with the United States and increasing the
role and effectiveness of Romania in the European Union and NATO.

GOVERNMENT -
The Liberal Government today will adopt an emergency decree postponing the
implementation of the law doubling children’s allowances for July 1, when the
first budget adjustment will be operated. The announcement was made on Wednesday
by Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, who explained that although the law
was ratified by the President, his Cabinet wants to apply it, although no funds
were made available for this increase, considering the bill was voted after the
budget for 2020 was adopted. Ludovic Orban said children’s allowances will be
increased with the first budget adjustment depending on the evolution of the
economy. Also today the Government will decide the way in which it will promote
the change in the election law, switching to the two-round system for local
elections. The Government can choose whether to take responsibility before Parliament
or adopt the new law by emergency decree. The Social-Democratic Party in
opposition said it would file a no-confidence motion if the Cabinet changes the
election law months before the local elections are due, which goes against
European recommendations. The Liberals claim, however, that the modification
will improve the legislation, boosting mayors legitimacy and representation.

COMMAND -
Romania has today taken over the command of a NATO naval warfare unit and will
coordinate battleships from five countries. Missions will be staged in the
Black and Mediterranean seas. The Standing NATO Mine Counter Major Group 2
command will bring together battleships from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Spain
and Turkey. The group will act to ensure immediate response capacity at NATO
level, as well as increasing inter-operability between NATO ships and promoting
the image of NATO.

ACEA – The European
Automobiles Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has today announced that new car registrations
increased by 1.2% in 2019 compared to 2018. The biggest increase was reported
in Lithuania, where new car registrations reported a growth of over 43%,
followed by Romania, with 23%. According to ACEA, some 161 thousand cars were
registered in 2019 in Romania. Dacia accounted for nearly 4% of the European
car market in 2019.

IRAN – Three
countries that signed the nuclear agreement with Iran, France, Germany and
Great Britain, have triggered a formal dispute mechanism over Iran’s breaches
of the 2015 deal that stipulated its commitment to limit its production of enriched
uranium. Iran has 60 days to come back into full compliance, after which date
additional sanctions on this country could be taken. In turn, Teheran warned it
could launch missiles stored in underground facilities, targeting military
bases of the United States and its allies in the region.

TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, seeded 2nd in the
Adelaide tournament in Australia, was knocked out earlier today in the
quarterfinals of the competition by Belarus’s Arina Sabalenka, 6-4, 6-2. The
first edition of this tournament totals some 848 thousand dollars in prize
money. This was Halep’s last game ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand
Slam tournament of the year, due to kick off on January 20. Another two
Romanians will feature in the main draw, Sorana Cirstea (74 WTA) and Irina Begu
(105 WTA). Ana Bogdan (96 WTA) will play Ann Li of the US in the final
preliminary round to accede to the Australian Open’s main draw. Bogdan is
seeded first in the preliminary phase.

(Translated
by V. Palcu)