September 2, 2014
News and Current Affairs from Romania
Bogdan Matei, 02.09.2014, 12:00
Romanian PM Victor Ponta is on an official visit to China, meeting head of state Xi Jinping and head of the legislative assembly, Zhang Dejiang. According to our correspondent to Beijing, Ponta continues talks with Chinese companies interested in investing in Romania. On Monday, the Romanian official met his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang. The latter said the bilateral relations are exceptional, and said that trade should intensify through joint projects in agriculture, energy and infrastructure.
The new head of the European Commission, Jean Claude Junker, whose term starts on November 1st, is holding hearings starting today with the candidates nominated by each member state for the position of European commissioner. Belgium has yet to nominate a candidate, because it did not manage to put together a government after the 25th of May elections. Two states have made more than one nominations, namely Slovenia, with three nominees, and Romania with two. The Romanian nominees are Dacian Ciolos, proposed to resume his position of commissioner for agriculture, and Corina Cretu, EuroMP and vice-president of the European Parliament, proposed for regional policy commissioner.
All European Union member states are ready to support the Republic of Moldova in its effort to fulfill the terms of its free trade and association agreements with the EU, according to the future head of European diplomacy, Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini. She made this statement at the meeting in Chisinau of the European group dedicated to the Republic of Moldova. The main topic was Moldovan European integration, which seeks solutions for Moldovan farmers affected by the Russian embargo.
In their first meeting for this session, MPs in Bucharest have passed the bill on tax exemptions for mothers and pensioners who have received money unduly because of clerical errors. The moneys already recovered will be returned in installments for a duration of five years, starting on January 1, 2015. Minister of Labor Rovana Plumb said that the sum amounts to around 90 million Euro. Senators have ruled that state employees do not have to return the money they were granted illegally. All these bills are now in the lower chamber of Parliament in order to be made into law.
The tennis pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch player Jean-Julien Roger did not manage to go beyond the eighth finals of the US Open in Flushing Meadows, the year’s last Grand Slam. Tecau and Rojer have been defeated by the Spanish duo David Marrero/ Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2, in less than an hour. We recall that no Romanian player has taken part in the individual male event, while in the women’s tournament, Simona Halep, second on the world stage, has been eliminated in a surprising win by Croatian player Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. The other four Romanian players have also been eliminated from the competition.
