November 30, 2016
Romanians celebrate St. Andrew's Day.
Newsroom, 30.11.2016, 13:59
ST. ANDREW’S DAY — Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic believers from all over the world, Romania included, are today celebrating St. Apostle Andrew. He is the first of Jesus Christ’s apostles who preached Christianity in the south of Romania. This way Saint Andrew is also considered the patron of the country. Saint Andrew preached in Dobrudgea and in today’s Ukrainian territory, in Great Scythia, and then in Byzantium. He then went to Greece and preached the Gospel, going up to Patras town where he died a martyr’s death. He was crucified on an X-shaped cross. Over 700 thousand Romanians named after St. Andrew celebrate their name day today.
NATIONAL DAY — Celebrations marking Romania’s National Day have started today in Alba Iulia, in central Romania, with the ceremony of hoisting the flag in front of the Coronation Cathedral, one of the city’s landmarks. Also in Alba Iulia, the congress of Romanian spiritualuty, now at its 20th edition, continues, in the presence of foreign guests from 18 countries. The National Day will be celebrated across the country and abroad, including in theatres of operation, with parades, religious ceremonies, exhibitions of combat military technology and weapons and cultural events. The date of 1st of December 1918 remains a symbol for the union of all Romanians. Declared an official holiday after the anti-communist revolution of 1989, 1st of December marks the completion, at the end of World War I, of the creation of the Romanian nation state, following the union of all provinces with majority Romanian populations, that had been part of multinational empires.
SECURITY — The security of the European Union and that of the Western Balkans are inseparable, so solutions can only emerge from a close cooperation among the countries in this region and the EU, Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu said on Monday in Warsaw, where he attended the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Visegrad Group and the Western Balkans. The meeting was also attended by the High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, Federica Mogherini, and by Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Romania, and Slovenia. The V4 Ministers reiterated, among other things, their continued interest in and support for the Western Balkan countries on their EU path.
PLANE CRASH – Brazil has declared three days of mourning after a plane carrying the Chapecoense football team crashed in Colombia, killing 71 players, journalists and crew members. Chapecoense were travelling to play the biggest game in the clubs history, the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana against Colombian side Atletico Nacional. The plane, a British Aerospace 146 that took off from Bolivia, was given priority to land but did not reach the airport, according to sources from the Columbian aviation authority. The plane lost contact with ground controllers at around midnight. The cause of the crash is yet to be established.
UNEMPLOYMENT — The unemployment rate in Romania stood at 5.8% in October, according to the National Statistics Institute. The number of jobless people stood at 522 thousand in October, at the same level with September. On the other hand, the unemployment rate among men was by 1.8% higher than in the case of women. Also, the number of unemployed people aged between 25 and 74 accounted for 76% of the total number of people without a job, in the month of October 2016.
DEBT — Romania has to pay over 1.26 billion euros in 2017 to the EU and the World Bank of the stand-by loan taken out in 2009, according to the Romanian Finance Ministry. Over 1.25 billion euros are to be paid back to the EU and only 9 million euros to the World Bank. This year Romania has paid 113 million euros to the EU and the World Bank, covering interests rate and commissions. Romania has to pay, until 2023, over 4.77 billion euros worth of debt to the two international bodies.
LUFTHANSA – The strike of the Lufthansa pilots continues, with the air carrier cancelling around 1,700 flights over the past two days due to a fresh strike by pilots. Last week Lufthansa cancelled nearly 2,800 flights during a four-day walkout from Wednesday. Union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) wants an average annual pay rise of 3.7 percent for 5,400 pilots over a five-year period backdated to 2012. This is the he 14th walkout in a dispute that has cost the carrier hundreds of millions of euros since early 2014. For the second consecutive day, flights to and from Munich and Frankfurt have been cancelled on Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International Airport.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
