November 5, 2017

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

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Newsroom, 05.11.2017, 14:07

VISIT Over November 10th and 19th, a delegation of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the main opposition party in the Romanian Parliament, will be paying a visit to the USA. Headed by Liberal leader Ludovic Orban, the delegation will be having talks with members of the US Senate and Congress, state department officials, representatives of NGOs, the business environment and the Romanian communities in the USA. Strengthening the special partnership Romania has with the United States is a key priority in the PNL’s foreign policy; in this respect the party will step up the development of bilateral relations in several areas of mutual interest. At the same time the PNL considers as very important the relation with the Romanian Diaspora in the United States, which is a major resource in the process of developing and deepening the relations between the two countries, a PNL communiqué says.

TENNIS The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer has failed to qualify for the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 held in Paris — Bercy, a competition with over 4 million euros in prize money. On Saturday the two conceded defeat to the Croatian-Spanish pair made up of Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers 3-6, 7-6, 11-9. The tournament in Paris was the last verification for the two US Open champions, Tecau and Rojer, before the Barclay ATP World Tour Finals due in London on November 12th.

FISCAL MEASURES The Executive in Bucharest is having talks on Monday over the new fiscal provisions in a session that was initially scheduled for the end of last week, but later postponed because several issues under discussion hadn’t got the green light. The new fiscal provisions announced by the government have attracted a lot of heat from trade unions and employers’ associations alike. Trade unions are gearing up for a general strike as they are disgruntled with a provision according to which social insurance contributions are to be passed from employers to employees, which, in their opinion, will lead to more pay and job cuts. Employers associations have announced they will slash jobs if the new fiscal provisions are implemented, while the National Liberal Party, the main opposition force in Parliament, has threatened to notify the Constitutional Court unless the government gives up its plans. However, the ruling Social Democrats believe the measures will be beneficial both for the employees and the business environment.

TOUR US president Donald Trump on Sunday arrived in Japan, the first leg of an ample Asian tour whose agenda is dominated by the north-Korean nuclear file. The White House leader is expected to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Vietnam. In an address to Japanese and US soldiers at an air base near Tokyo, Trump has hailed the alliance with Japan. After Tokyo and Seoul, the American president will be visiting China and attending the APEC summit in Vietnam and the ASEAN summit in the Philippines. According to Radio Romania correspondent in Washington, this has been the longest diplomatic tour of a White House leader in the past 25 years.

DIASPORA 35 Start-up Diaspora programmes, through which the authorities in Bucharest want to encourage the Romanians who left the country to come back and open a business in their native country, have been approved and are to be implemented, Andrea Pastarnac, the Minister for the Romanians Abroad, has announced. In an interview to Radio Romania, the minister has said the operational Diaspora Start-up programme will be promoted within the communities of Romanians living abroad and that the dialogue with experts from the field ministries will continue for a better understanding between those representing the entrepreneurship schemes and the organisations of the Romanians involved.