March 5, 2014 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news.

România Internațional, 05.03.2014, 19:20

The members of Romania’s new government took the oath of office on Wednesday evening, before President Traian Basescu, after the head of state and the Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta reached an agreement earlier on the day on finalizing the procedures of appointing the new government. PM Ponta said he would submit a political programme to Parliament to update the government program. The new Romanian government, made up of the Social-Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which received Parliament’s vote on Tuesday, cannot work before being Ok-ed by the head of state. President Basescu has said that the new cabinet must adopt a government programme reflecting the present political alliances.

The European Union is ready to give Ukraine 11 billion euros in loans and grants over the coming years to help stabilize its economy, the European Commission announced on Wednesday. The EU package is “designed to assist a committed, inclusive and reforms-oriented government, in rebuilding a stable and prosperous future for Ukraine,” Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. A summit on Ukraine is to be held on Thursday in Brussels. As many as 35 unarmed military observers from 18 member states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been sent on a mission requested by Ukraine, the organisation announced on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Serghei Lavrov had a round of talks in Paris.

The Social-Democrat vice-president of the Senate Cristian Dumitrescu will take over the prerogatives of president of that chamber until the new president is elected by Parliament. Liberal leader Crin Antonescu on Tuesday resigned from the office of president of the Senate. Earlier, he had called on Prime Minister Victor Ponta to jointly resign since the Social-Liberal Union no longer existed. The National Liberal Party, former number 2 in the Social-Liberal Union, left the government because of the differences with the Social-Democratic Party.

The new head of the Romanian Football Federation is Razvan Burleanu. He was elected on Wednesday, after two rounds of voting. His victory comes as a big surprise because he was the least known of the 5 competitors. Burleanu will turn 30 on July the 1st. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Studies, has a PhD in the same field and had jobs at Parliament and the presidency.