May 14, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 14.05.2015, 12:01
A joint IMF and EC technical mission will pay a visit to Bucharest next week, the Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has announced. The talks with Romanian authorities will focus on the new draft Fiscal Code and the stage of implementation of the measures included in the program agreed upon with the IMF and the European Commission. The current agreement, the third since the economic crisis of 2009, is only valid until this fall. It was signed in September 2013 for a period of 2 years and is worth some 2 billion Euros. Yesterday, the European Commission recommended that Romania should take all the necessary measures to complete the precautionary financial assistance program. The Commission has also urged Bucharest authorities to take measures regarding the labour market, to adopt the national strategy for curbing school-dropping and to carry on the national health strategy.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is paying a 3-day formal visit to Italy. Today, the head of state will visit Milans Universal Expo, whose theme this year reads ‘feeding the planet, energy for life. During the evening he will meet with representatives of the Romanian community in Milan. On Friday, the president will go to the Vatican, where he will hold talks with Pope Francis. The agenda of the visit also includes a tour of the Saint Peter Cathedral, as well as a meeting with Romanian students enrolled in Romes pontifical institutions. This is the second formal visit that President Iohannis is paying to Italy. In late April, Iohannis held talks in Rome with his counterpart Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso and representatives of the Romanian community in Italy.
On Wednesday the European Commission presented the Agenda on migration, which details the measures aimed at settling the crisis in the Mediterranean. The initiative stipulates the development, by the end of this month, of a provisional mechanism through which the EU countries will have to take over 20 thousand refugees, and the creation of a permanent one by the end of the year. According to France Presse, the distribution shall be made in keeping with the following factors: the GDP, the population, the rate of unemployment and the number of refugees already settled in that respective country. Romania will get 3.75% of the total number of immigrants, accounting for 657 people, while France and Germany will get 3 thousand and 2 thousand respectively. For the first time the European Commission proposes the activation of the emergency mechanism stipulated in the EU Treaty, with the aim of providing support for the member countries that are faced with an unexpected migration wave. Such plans had to be developed following the large number of immigrants coming from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, who are crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. This year alone, some 2 thousand immigrants have lost their lives while trying to cross the sea.
The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has participated in the North-Atlantic Council held today on the sidelines of the NATO Foreign Ministers summit in Antalya, Turkey. The meeting of the agenda focused on the latest developments in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of the Alliance. In his speech, the Romanian Minister said that for the security environment around the Alliance to improve, the decisions adopted at the NATO summit hosted by Great Britain in September 2014 must be fully implemented, and, more importantly, the process of adaptation of the Alliance must be completed with a broader strategy. To this end, he suggested a coherent, integrated strategy targeting both the eastern and the southern neighbourhoods. The Romanian Foreign Minister has also stressed the need for a firmer inclusion of the Black Sea area on NATOs strategic map.
The death toll of the magnitude-7.3 earthquake that hit Nepal on Tuesday has reached 114, the CNN reports. 96 people have died and 2,500 were wounded in Nepal, the other victims being reported in India and China. The quake destroyed the buildings whose structure had already been weakened by the tremor measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, which shattered the same region on April 25th, killing over 8 thousand people.
“Heads Up by the French actress and director Emmanuelle Bercot, starring Catherine Deneuve, opened on Wednesday the famous film festival in Cannes. Over 50 films are to be screened until May 24th at the prestigious event, 19 of which are competing for the Palme dOr trophy. The jury includes, among others, the American directors Joel and Ethan Coen, the French actress Sophie Marceau and the Canadian film-maker Xavier Dolan. This year Romania is represented by Corneliu Porumboius ‘Treasure, in the Un certain regard section, and by Andrei Cretulescus ‘Ramona, in the short-reel competition.
Three Romanian tennis players are today playing in the third round of the Rome tournament, with 2.4 million dollars in prize money. The second best tennis player in the world, Simona Halep, will play against the American Venus Williams, number 16 in the WTA classification. 72nd ranked Alexandra Dulgheru will meet the Russian Ekaterina Makarova, number 8 in the world, and Irina Begu, 31st ranked, will play against the athlete from Belarus, Victoria Azarenka, who holds the 29th WTA position. Simona Halep will also compete in the doubles, alongside the Italian Francesca Schiavone. The pair will try to defeat the Russian Ala Kudriavteva and Anastasia Pavliucenkova. In the same round, but in the mens doubles, the pair made up of the Romanian Florin Mergea and the Indian Rohan Bopanna will meet Horia Tecau, also from Romania, and the Dutch Julen Rojer.
