June 2, 2015
Click here for a roundup of Romanian and international news
România Internațional, 02.06.2015, 12:00
The Romanian PM, Victor Ponta, is presenting before the Chamber of Deputies the economic situation for the first quarter of 2015 as part of the “Prime Minister Hour”. The PM has recently declared that Romania holds the first place in the EU in terms of economic growth, reporting a budgetary surplus in the first four months of the year. He has also said that private investors’ trust has now reached the highest level since 2011. The “PM Hour” was introduced last month in the Chamber of Deputies Regulations, providing for the PM to come before the Chamber of Deputies on the first Monday of each month for a debate on a certain topic established by the parliamentary groups.
The Romanian defense minister, Mircea Dusa, has today started a 2-day visit to the Hague. According to a Foreign Ministry communiqué, the Romanian foreign minister will talk with his Dutch counterpart, Antoinette Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, about bilateral military cooperation and the security of the Black Sea area. High on the agenda of talks are also the preparation of the European Council on defense scheduled to take place at the end of this month.
The Heir to the British Crown, Prince Charles, is on a private visit to Romania to launch, Tuesday, his own foundation called the Prince of Wales Foundation. According to the British Embassy to Bucharest the foundation is a charity meant to support the preservation of Romania’s national heritage, agriculture and sustainable development in Romania. For several years now Prince Charles has spent part of his holidays in Romania where he holds several properties. One of them, a Saxon house in the village of Viscri, Brasov county, will be restored and turned into a Training Center, equipped with a conference hall and providing accommodation to the thousands of visitors who go there each year. The foundation will provide courses for the locals and also for students and apprentices from abroad to learn such crafts as restoring old houses. Prince Charles has a passion for the Saxon medieval architecture in central Romania namely the strongholds, the fortified churches and houses built by the German settlers who went to Transylvania in the Middle Ages.
The Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) continues in Cluj (in the north west of Romania). This year 12 films will enter the competition for the festival’s Trophy. The films are Mexican, Iranian or Argentinean productions. On Tuesday, besides the films included in the competition, the organizers will screen Escortata, a film launched by Oscar winner Michael Curtiz and filmed in Cluj 100 years ago. Tuesday will also see the screening of Corneliu Porumboiu’s film “The Treasure”, winner of this year’s “Un certain regard” prize in Cannes. By June 7th over 200 productions from 60 countries are participating in the 14th edition of the TIFF.
The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi has today denounced in Paris the “failure” of the international community to fight the Islamic State and the lack of support for his country which has been faced for over a year with the Jihadists’ attacks, France Press and Reuters report. The Iraqi prime minister made this declaration at a meeting of an anti-Jihadist international coalition. He underlined that his country did not have enough support in terms of weapons and ammunition, saying that the previous governments had concluded most of the contracts with Russia, which is now under American sanctions. The participants in the meeting want to change the strategy of the anti — Jihadist coalition which at present consists of air-strikes and training of the Iraqi soldiers and the Syrian moderate rebels for ground fighting. Despite the almost 4,000 air strikes by the coalition in the past 10 months the Jihadists continued to gain ground in Iraq and Syria, coming close to the border with Turkey.
