March 22, 2019
There is a real chance for Britains orderly exit from the EU, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has said
Newsroom, 22.03.2019, 14:00
BREXIT – There is a real chance for Britain’s orderly exit from the EU, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who takes part in the spring European Council in Brussels said on Friday. He also said that, for the Bucharest authorities, the main concern is the Romanian community living in the UK. On Thursday, EU leaders agreed to Brexit being postponed and offered Britain two exit scenarios.
REPORT – Romania’s constant economic growth in the past years is not being felt by large categories of Romanians, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, said Friday in Bucharest. Corina Cretu, who attended the presentation of the country report as part of the European semester, and the conference titled “Investment priorities for Romania 2021-2027”, talked about the need for big investment in healthcare services, transport infrastructure, energy and environment. The report points out to the fact that the economic growth model based on consumption is affecting the country’s capacity to catch up with the developed countries. The document also signals the fact that Romania’s medium and long-term foreign debt risks exceeding 60% of the GDP and that economy is affected by the salary increases which are not correlated with productivity.
VISIT – Romanian PM Viorica Dancila is paying a visit to the US between March 23 and 26, to attend the Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The visit takes place at the invitation of the AIPAC President, Morton Fridman, and of the AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr. According to a release of the Bucharest Government, the visit mirrors the intensified bilateral dialogue and is part of Bucharest’s efforts to consolidate the partnerships Romania has with the US and Israel.
INAUGURATION — Pope Francis inaugurated from the Vatican, through a videocinference, the new centre of the Scholas Occurrentes Foundation, at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration in Bucharest. Scholas Occurrentes is an international organization present in 190 countries that integrates, through its network, almost 450 thousand schools and education networks. It seeks to generate a paradigm shift in education through the integration of communities, education with focus on those with fewer resources through the commitment of all.
MIGRATION – 4.4 million migrants entered the EU countries in 2017, a figure, which includes migration inside the EU, data released by Eurostat show. The statistical office of the European Union registered 2.8 million migrants in the 28 member states from outside the union as well as 1.9 million people who already were in a member state and migrated to another. At the same time, 3.1 million migrants have left a state in the EU. More immigrants than migrants have been registered in 22 EU countries. The number of emigrants exceeded immigrants in six countries, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The largest number of immigrants was reported by Malta (46 per 1,000 inhabitants. Luxembourg reported the largest number of emigrants in 2017 (23 per 1,000 inhabitants).
rescEU – The consolidate civil protection mechanism, rescEU, aimed at strengthening collective response to natural disaster across the EU, has come into force on Thursday, the European Commission reports. To ensure a better protection of citizens, the European Parliament, the EU Council and the Commission reached an agreement in December last year to consolidate the current civil protection mechanism. Under the new mechanism member states will be able to access an additional response capacity in case of disasters, medical emergencies, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. Europe has been affected by scores of disasters in recent years, which left hundreds dead and produced damages in the billions of euros. (Translated by Elena Enache)