November 13, 2016 UPDATE

Romanian foreign minister Lazar Comanescu on Monday will attend the Foreign Affairs Council meeting/ NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has launched a warning to the US President elect Donald Trump saying going alone is not an advantageous option

Corina Cristea, 13.11.2016, 12:20

FOREIGN POLICY – Romanian foreign minister, Lazar Comanescu, on Monday will attend the Foreign Affairs
Council meeting, alongside his EU counterparts. The agenda of the meeting,
hosted by Brussels, covers such issues as the situation in Turkey, the Eastern
Partnership, the developments in the Southern Neighbourhood, with special
emphasis being laid on the Syrian file. The stage of implementing the EU Global
Strategy for Common Foreign and Security Policy will be approached during a
common session of the EU foreign and defence ministers, on the same day. On the
sidelines of the Council, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, on Sunday initiated an informal talk
between the foreign ministers, including Lazar Comanescu, on the trans-Atlantic
relation.

NATO – NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has launched a warning to
the US President elect, Donald Trump, saying going alone is not an
advantageous option, either for Europe or for the US. In an article carried by
the British paper The Observer, NATO Secretary General, Jens
Stoltenberg, said the West is facing one of the biggest security challenges in
the past decades. During his electoral campaign, Donald Trump argued NATO is
anachronistic and suggested that Washington will think twice whether it helps
or not a NATO ally which comes under attack, if the respective ally hasn’t paid
its contribution. News agencies recall that some 70% of NATO’s current spending
is covered by the US, but the American leaders have always admitted to taking a
high interest in maintaining a stable and safe Europe.

COMMEMORATION– French President Francois Hollande
on Sunday unveiled several commemorative plates in memory of the 130 people
killed in the terror attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Paris, a year
ago. President Hollande and
the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, unveiled a commemorative plate while the name
of the victims were read out. On November 13, 2015 Paris was in shock after gunmen opened fire
randomly in the streets and blew themselves up. The largest number of victims,
90, were registered at Bataclan Concert Hall, and the rest of victims died in cafes,
on sidewalks and restaurant terraces in Paris.

ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN – The electoral campaign for the parliamentary elections
scheduled for December 11, started in Romania on Friday. Some 6,500 people are
running, on behalf of parties or as independent candidates, for the 466 seats
in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. This
election, the list system has been reinstated; the last time it was used was in
the 2004 elections. The parties credited with chances of going past the
required threshold to be represented in parliament are: PSD, PNL, USR, ALDE, UDMR and PMP.

FILM – Romanian films Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu and Baccalaureate by Cristian Mungiu have reaped a lot of awards at the Listapad, International Film Festival hosted by the Belarusian capital, Minsk, between November 4 and 11. They included: the film press award (Sieranevada), the Yury Marukhin memorial award for best cinematography (Barbu Balasoiu/ Sieranevada), the special jury award (Baccalaureate), the award for best actress in a supporting role (Lia Bugnar/ Baccalaureate) and the award for best actor in a leading role (Adrian Titieni/ Baccalaureate).

RUGBY – Romania’s national rugby team on Saturday defeated the US, 23-10, in a test match played in Bucharest. The winner grabbed the Pershing Cup. This is a trophy initiated in 2014 and offered ever since by the Romanian Rugby Federation to the winner of the confrontations between Romania and the US, in remembrance of the match played during the Military Olympics of 1919, the Inter-Allied Games, organised by the commander in chief of the US Expeditionary Force in Europe, General John Joseph Pershing, to mark the end of WWI. The next preparatory game of the Romanian national rugby team is scheduled for Saturday, when Romania meets Canada in Bucharest.

WEATHER -
A wave of cold has taken most Romanian regions in its grip. In the following
period of time, the weather will continue to be particularly cold for this time
of the year. The sky will be overcast and precipitations are likely to fall across
the entire territory. Snowfalls and gusty wind are further forecast in the
mountains and in the north. Meteorologists have issued a code yellow alert
against gale-force wind valid for Eastern Romania until Monday noon.
Temperatures will drop below zero, down to minus 10 degrees Celsius in places.
Gale force wind and snow produced havoc on Sunday, in several regions,
particularly in the mountains and in the northeast. Bad weather conditions
disrupted electricity in several counties, with a considerable impact on air
traffic and the sea and river ports’ activity. (Translated by Diana Vijeu)