June 7, 2016

President Iohannis on visit to Luxembourg; EC launches new action plan; 11 dead in Istanbul car bomb

Newsroom, 07.06.2016, 00:00

Local elections – The leftist Social Democratic Party won over 37% of the vote for city halls, local and county councils, according to the figures released with 97% of the vote count completed. Next come the National Liberal Party, with over 32%, and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the Peoples Movement Party. Bucharest has for the first time in history a woman as mayor general, the Social-Democratic Senator Gabriela Vranceanu-Firea. The Social Democrats jointly with the National Union for the Progress of Romania also won the 6 Bucharest district mayor seats, and over 41% of the votes for the Bucharest General Council. Second-ranking in the vote for the General Council was the Save Bucharest Union, an NGO recently turned into a party. Nation-wide, the Social Democrats have council majority in 14 out of the 41 counties, and in 11 other counties they will join forces with ALDE to make up the majority. The Liberals claim that in spite of the failure in Bucharest, at national level they had the best score since 1990. The local elections were a major test ahead of the parliamentary election due this autumn.

Presidency – The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, currently on the second day of his official visit to Luxembourg, has meetings today with Grand Duke Henri, with PM Xavier Bettel and other senior officials. Yesterday, Klaus Iohannis pleaded for strengthening the bilateral cooperation between Romania and Luxembourg, and mentioned that in 2007 Luxembourg and Sibiu were European capitals of culture, and the long-term effect of that programme for Sibiu, the Presidents home town, is still very visible in areas like economy, infrastructure, tourism and society. The preparations for the NATO Summit due in July in Warsaw, as well as the challenges facing the European Union are also on the agenda of the talks in Luxemburg.

Protests – Several thousand Romanian farmers are today protesting in front of the Parliament Palace over delays in the payment of farming subsidies and the postponement of key laws for the sector. The Romanian producers demand the regulation of taxation, claiming they are subject to abuse from tax authorities. They also want that sales of farming land to foreign citizens be immediately stopped and clear by-laws on important laws such as the ones on foodstuff labelling, hunting and the sale of Romanian products in supermarkets.

Economy – Romania reported the highest economic growth rate of the 28 EU member states in the first quarter of the year, according to an estimate released on Tuesday by the European Statistics Office, Eurostat. Romanias GDP went up 1.6% in Q1 compared to the previous 3 months, whereas the rate across the Union was 0.5%, similar to the one in the previous quarter. The highest growth rates after Romania were reported in Cyprus, Spain, Lithuania, Austria, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Germany.

Migration – The European Commission is launching in Strasbourg today a new action plan on migration, which will focus on a new form of cooperation with the African countries that migrants leave. Under the plan, the EU is to provide African and Middle Eastern countries with 8 billion euro in aid, which might be raised to 60 billion euro through contributions from Member States and the private sector. Another key point of the EC plan is the readmission of economic migrants to their home countries. The migration crisis remains a major issue for a large part of Europe. The Visegrad Group countries (the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary) also approach the issue at the highest level, during a meeting these days in Prague.

Car bomb – Seven policemen and 4 civilians were killed and 36 other wounded today in a car bomb attack downtown Istanbul, the governor of this Turkish city announced. A car bomb targeting a police vehicle went off near the old part of the city, a major attraction for tourists. The attack has not been claimed yet, but authorities suspect Kurdish militants were behind it, the BBC says. Reuters mentions that this year violence has escalated in Turkey, with attacks perpetrated by the Kurdish separatists and the Islamic State group killing hundreds of people.

Police cooperation – 20 Romanian police troops are taking part in a new international mission in France. Until August 26, they will provide support and assistance to the French police in investigating cases that involve Romanian citizens. This is the third mission of this kind for the Romanian police. In France, during the same period, nine gendarmes will help maintain public order for the Romanian supporters attending the European Football Championship held between June 10 and July 10. The tournament starts on Friday in Paris with a match pitting France against Romania. In 2010, the Romanian and French Interior Ministries signed a partnership that allows for the deployment of Romanian officers to French police and gendarme units in order to efficiently fight crime in that country.

Military exercise – Poland is hosting as of today a large scale military exercise, the largest in that country in 25 years. Troops from 19 NATO countries and 4 partner states are taking part, including a unit from Romania. The exercise, dubbed “Anaconda 16, takes place a month ahead of the NATO Summit in Warsaw. The ground training is designed to test NATOs ability to cope with conventional and unconventional threats and to reinforce the position of the Alliances eastern flank. Meanwhile, in Cincu, in central Romania, American, British and Romanian troops take part until June 18 in the multi-national exercise SARMIS-16. The 1,200 servicemen from the Romanian Ground Forces and Romanian Air Forces aircraft will be joined by 150 British and 200 US troops.