March 7, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 07.03.2024, 20:08
TALKS Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has received in Bucharest the head of the Austrian government Karl Nehammer with whom he talked about Romania’s fully-fledged accession to Schengen. After the talks, Iohannis has written on a social network that this process will continue until the final objective is reached. The European Union must be united, strong and prosperous, and Romania’s entry into Europe’s border-free area will further consolidate the EU security to benefit all citizens. In turn, the Austrian chancellor said the EU borders need funding and that asylum procedures must be rapidly implemented so that people illegally staying in the EU may be repatriated. He has again said the Schengen zone cannot be extended. At the congress in Bucharest, the European People’s Party on Wednesday endorsed a manifesto calling for Romania’s accession to Schengen as soon as possible, after the Austrian delegation of the People’s Party in power had ceased to vote against it. According to the aforementioned manifesto, Romania and Bulgaria’s fully-fledged Schengen accession is needed by lifting as soon as possible not only the maritime and air controls but also at the ground borders.
EPP The incumbent president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is the official candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP) for a new five year term in office. Her candidacy was approved through vote on Thursday, during the party’s congress, which was held for two days in Bucharest. Opinion polls are placing the EPP as the first political force in the upcoming European elections in June. “The European Union is a precious thing, which we must defend and preserve for future generations,” von der Leyen said after nomination. She added that Vladimir Putin shouldn’t win the war, which he started in Ukraine in an attempt to move borders by force. “We stay by Ukraine and support it with all our forces to integrate in Europe,” the head of the European Commission pointed out. In turn, the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis told the participants in the EPP congress that we are presently in a complicated and unstable international context, and that extremism represents one of the numerous challenges the European Union must face. Over two thousand delegates out of 40 countries, including heads of state and government, party presidents and European Commissioners have attended the meeting in Bucharest. Romania also hosted an EPP congress in October 2012.
SUPPORT French president Emmanuel Macron has reiterated France’s full support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking country. On Thursday, Macron held talks in Paris with Moldovan president Maia Sandu with whom he signed two bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of defence and on economic cooperation. The meeting took place a week after the threats made by the separatists from the breakaway region of Transdinester who called for Moscow’s support. Sandu and Macron have made a joint appeal to Russia to withdraw immediately the troops illegally stationed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, in Transdniester. “In spite of threats, pressure and intimidation, Moldova has chosen freedom, independence and Europe and strengthening security is a condition necessary for its economic development. So, under the two agreements signed in Paris, France will give it full support, the French president went on to say. He has announced that a French mission will open in Chisinau in the following months with a view to strengthening relations in fields such as the training and interoperability of the armed forces of the two countries. President Sandu says the meeting takes place against new attempts by Russia to exert more pressure on her country. “The Moldovans have a right to decide their own future, and this is in the European Union,” Sandu went on to say.
ELECTIONS Romania’s government is to analyse a draft emergency order on merging the local elections and the elections for the European Parliament on June 9. According to an INSCOP poll commissioned by News.ro, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, in power in Romania and running on joint lists of candidates, would get 43.7% of the votes. Next in the poll come the nationalist party AUR with little over 20%, and the United Right Alliance, also in Opposition, with 13.7%. As for the local elections, the poll indicates the Social Democrats would get 30.6% of the county and local council seats, the Liberals 25.6%, AUR 17.4%, and the United Right Alliance 9.8%. With respect to merging the two elections, the poll suggests over 57% of citizens are in favour of the idea. More than one-third of the interviewees are in favour of joint candidate lists for the Social Democrats and the Liberals in the European elections and separate lists for the local elections, while 51.3% disagree with the decision. Romania’s presidential elections are scheduled in September, and the general elections are due in December.
(bill)
