March 6, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 06.03.2014, 13:44
Romania must attend the discussions, if a negotiation format for the Russian — Ukrainian tensions is created, the Romanian President Traian Basescu has today stated. He has argued that there are over 400 thousand ethnic Romanians in Ukraine, Romania has 640 km of common border line with Ukraine, is not dependent on Russian gas imports and is the closest EU Member to Crimea. Traian Basescu is attending in Brussels an extraordinary summit of the European Council, preceded by talks with the head of the Kiev government, Arseni Iateniuk. Yesterday, Brussels announced it would freeze the accounts of 18 Ukrainian officials from Viktor Ianukovici’s regime, and the European Commission presented an economic aid plan for Ukraine worth some 11 billion Euros for the next two years. NATO has decided to boost cooperation with Ukraine and to reexamine the one with Russia. In Paris, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov, have agreed to carry on talks to ease the tensions generated by the crisis in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the local Crimean government, dominated by pro-Russians, have asked for Crimea’s anexation to Rusia, and a referendum to validate the move on March 16th.
The political program of the new government in Bucharest is due to reach Parliament today. Next week, the cabinet will file a motion of confidence to validate the document. On Wednesday, the nominated ministers, who represent four political parties — the Social Democratic Union, the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the Conservative Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians — were sworn in, so now Romania has a stable government, after several weeks of political tension. We have more on this after the news.
The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has said in an interview to Agerpres news agency that Romania deserves to be part of Schengen and any postponement of its accession is caused by some of the member countries’ domestic problems. Schulz has stated that the Romanian state has fully observed the accession requirements, has put a lot of effort into this endeavor and the results are visible. He has also stressed that any attempt at linking separate issues, such as the free movement of EU workers and Schengen accession must not be accepted. Schulz has promised he will fight for all member countries and EU citizens to benefit from equal treatment.
According to forecasts of the main macro-economic indicators, published by the National Forecast Commission, the rate of inflation in Romania stands at 3.4% in 2014, and will drop down to 2.2% in 2017. In the coming four years, the increase in consumption prices will stand around the multi-annual inflation rate set by the National Bank of Romania, namely 2.5%, plus/minus one percentage point. For the same timeframe, the Commission forecast an exchange rate of 4.4 lei per one Euro. The National Bank of Romania estimates for this year a 3.5% inflation rate.
President Traian Basescu approved the memorandum on the stand-by agreement signed by Romania and the IMF last autumn. The head of state wanted for the document to contain no reference to the introduction of an additional excise duty on fuel or the grating of banking facilities for natural persons. The agreement is worth some 2 billion Euros and covers a period of two years. The money is to be used only in case of necessity. Adding to that are another two billion from the European Commission. Financial experts have recommended Romania to absorb as many EU funds as possible and to find solutions to boost consumption.
Four Romanian women tennis players are participating in the Indian Wells tournament in the US, with 6 million dollars in prize money. Sixth seeded Simona Halep, currently ranked 7th in the world, and Sorana Carstea, ranked 25th, have qualified straight to the second round. In the first round, Monica Niculescu and Alexandra Cadantu will play against Marina Erakovici from New Zealand and Coco Vandeweghe from the US respectively. In another move, this week Simona Halep has been nominated by the International Tennis Federation for the 2014 Fed Cup heart Awards. The nomination was the result of Halep’s major contribution to Romania’s qualification for the Fed Cup World Group, which is the women’s counterpart of Davis Cup. In the play-off ties, scheduled for April 19 and 20 in Bucharest, Romania will meet Serbia.
