September 22, 2015 UPDATE

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Roxana Vasile, 22.09.2015, 12:30

Romanian president
Klaus Iohannis will be attending on Wednesday in
Brussels a special formal European Council summit where EU heads of state and
government will be trying to come up with solutions to the present refugee
crisis. The summit has been called by Germany. Also in Brussels on Tuesday
during the EU Justice and Home Affairs summit on migration the EU reached with
a large majority an agreement on the relocation of 120 thousand refugees. The
Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec has posted on Twitter that his country,
Romania, Hungary and Slovakia have cast nay votes on the present agreement.
President Iohannis and Prime Minister Ponta have asked the deputy Prime
Minister and Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea, who also attended the summit, to
voice Romania’s stand according to which the country is supporting the idea of
relocating asylum-seekers but maintains its position on the number of migrants
it can take in, namely 1,785. The arrival of hundreds of thousands refugees
from the Middle East and northern Africa in EU member countries in the past
years has sparked off the gravest migration crisis after WWll as well as heated
debates on how to handle it. Romania opposes the mandatory quotas.

The
Romanian government will submit for Parliament approval a reimbursable
financial-assistance draft of 150 million euros for the Republic of Moldova, an
ex-soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority, Romanian Prime Minister
Victor Ponta announced on Tuesday at the end of a joint session of the two
countries’ governments held in Neptun, south-eastern Romania. According to
Ponta, the money will be paid back in five years with an interest rate of 1.5%.
‘Romania neither wins nor loses’ Prime Minister Ponta says, adding that the
loan can be seen as financial aid to Romania’s closest friend. In turn,
Moldovan Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet has said that Moldova will receive a
first installment of 60 million euros this year. The two officials have also
tackled several mutual-interest issues, such as infrastructure projects in the
field of energy and transportation as well as projects focusing on
sanitary-veterinary inspection, environmental protection and ways of developing
the healthcare system.

Trade
unionists in Romania’s railway system went on a work-in strike for two days,
starting Tuesday. Rail workers are unhappy with the labor conditions, they want
to sign the Collective Labor Agreement by September 30 at the latest and also a
salary raise by at least 10%. Trade unionists also
want meal vouchers for all working hours and vacation vouchers starting January
1st, 2016. A decision whether an all-out strike will be launched on
October 1st is to be made on Wednesday.

WTA second-seeded
Simona Halep of Romania, on Tuesday qualified for the second round of the WTA tournament
in Guangzhou, China,
after having outperformed Petra Martici of Croatia. Halep, the competition’s
main favourite, will be up against Hungarian Timea Babos, the WTA 76th
ranked.