September 14, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 14.09.2015, 12:15
At the start of a new school year, Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, wished over 3 million pre-school children and pupils, to enjoy a good year, which should take them closer to their professional and intellectual dreams. He attended the official start of the 2015-2016 school year in the southern Romanian city of Targoviste, where he said education is an issue that should make the object of a national debate and that laying emphasis on a pupil’s education is not a slogan, but a principle. Himself a teacher by profession, Klaus Iohannis underlined that an important element of education is to correlate it with the labour market, the realities and needs of society.
Brussels will be the venue for the first official meeting of EU member states representatives, who will be holding negotiations on the European Commission’s proposal to set compulsory refugee quotas. The increasingly high number of refugees has started to create problems in Germany, which announced it would temporarily reintroduce border controls. The Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia took similar measures. According to the European Commission, an inappropriate response to the refugee inflow might endanger the Schengen free movement area. Deputy prime minister for national security and interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, who represents Romania at the meeting in Brussels, has said Bucharest complies with its initial commitments to receive 1,785 immigrants, in line with its current capacity. He will vote against compulsory quotas imposed by the Commission, according to which Bucharest should take in over 6,000 people. Overall, 10 EU member states are opposed to compulsory quotas.
The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu paid a visit to Ashgabat, Turmekisan, on Monday. Minister Aurescu was received by the country’s president, Gurbanguli Berdamuhamedov and also met with the deputy prime minister and foreign minister Rasid Meredov. High on the meetings’ agenda was the bilateral economic cooperation in the field of energy and transports. The Romanian official’s visit to Turmekistan is aimed at boosting Romania’s foreign policy actions in its eastern neighbourhood and Central Asia.
The EU decided on Monday to extend, by six months, until March 15, 2016, the sanctions against some Russian personalities and leaders of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, for their involvement in the conflict. Kiev, NATO, the EU and Washington are accusing Russia of regularly sending troops and weapons to support the pro-Russian separatists who fight against the Ukrainian army in Donbas. Moscow has constantly denied any involvement in the conflict that killed over 6.800 people in the last 16 months.
Agriculture ministers in the 28 EU countries have asked for the European Commission’s approval to make payments to farmers so that they can continue their activity in the context of a difficult year. Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin hopes that Romanian farmers will get an advance of 50% to 70% of the due amount and that sources for 850 million euros have been found, to be paid by end-October.
The organisers of the anti-government protests in the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, have urged the population to start an all out strike. The participants in the rally adopted a resolution calling for the setting up of a new political movement and of a so-called government of popular confidence, to replace the current cabinet. Some incidents were also reported when a group of young people, who claimed the only solution to overcome the crisis in the Republic of Moldova is to unite with neighbouring Romania, were forced out of the square.
