September 25, 2013
We bring you a roundup of the latest news.
Valentin Țigău, 25.09.2013, 13:42
MPs members of the special committee on Rosia Montana are in the area for talks with locals and representatives of the Canadian company that wants to extract gold from the region. Upon the entrance of the Catalina-Monulesti gallery, the members of the committee met some 300 protesters from Rosia Montana, who stand for opening the mine. The committee is supposed to make a decision on the controversial draft law regarding gold mining there. Passed late last month, the bill, which would allow the Canadian company to extract gold and silver using a cyanide-based technology, triggered large scale protests. Protesters warn that mining in the area would severely damage the environment. On the other hand, supporters of the project say that mining would solve the economic and social issues in the area.
Romania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that the law on stray dogs is constitutional. Shortly afterwards, the law was promulgated by Romania’s President, Traian Basescu. The law was adopted on September 10th 2013 and appealed by several MPs, who said that the new law does not prevent dogs from breeding in the streets and it only traumatises civil society. The law stipulates that dogs will be kept in shelters for 14 days, during which time they can be claimed or adopted. After 14 days, local authorities may decide for the dogs that have not been adopted to be euthanised. The law was passed following the killing of a four-year-old boy by a stray dog, in a park in Bucharest.
Germany has become Romania’s largest trading partner and its third largest investor, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Valeriu Zgonea, said on Wednesday during the talks he had with the new German ambassador to Bucharest, Werner Hans Lauk. The two officials underlined the excellent stage of Romanian-German relations, the dynamics of bilateral meetings and of the high level political dialogue. The president of the Chamber of Deputies also said the bilateral relation with Germany is one of Romania’s most developed and complex ties with a EU member state, the Agerpress news agency quotes a press release issued by the Chamber of Deputies
Romanian diplomat Sorin Ducaru is the new head of the NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division. The division is responsible for security challenges such as cyber crimes. In the past seven years Ducaru was Romania’s permanent representative to NATO. After the news we bring you more on his new mission.
European officials have reached an agreement on the EU Common Agricultural Policy for the coming years. One of the measures concerns the elimination of milk quotas in the EU, starting 2015. The document also contains provisions regarding the money that the EU Member States can get from the European agriculture fund or the level of subsidies for farmers until 2019. The agreement also stipulates the reduction of the Member States’ contribution to the programs co-funded from European funds.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry hails the proposal made by the European Commission regarding the complete liberalisation of wine imports from the Republic of Moldova on the EU market as well as the Agreement on the Free-Trade Zone. According to a communiqué, the initiative has materialised through the direct involvement of EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Ciolos and is a compensatory measure, meant to provide concrete support for Moldova’s agricultural sector, against the backdrop of Russia’s recently imposed restrictions on Moldovan wine imports. The European Commission’s proposal also comes in response to the approaches made so far by Romania, in the effort to bring to the attention of its European partners and community institutions the difficult commercial situation the Republic of Moldova is currently going through.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, has criticised the recent debates on the Roma issue in France. She recalled the fact that the French politicians are in full election campaign for next spring’s municipal elections and stressed that whenever they want to avoid issues such as the budget or debts, they come back to the Rroma issue. In Viviane Reding’s opinion, the matter could have been solved years ago, as the European Union earmarked 5 billion dollars for that, money which has not been used though. In the run-up to the French municipal elections, both right and left wing politicians have given harsh statements regarding the ethnic Rroma in France. The French Interior Minister Manuel Valls himself has said that the only solution is for illegal camps to be demolished and the Rroma expelled.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, the new Iranian president Hassan Rohani gave assurances that his country is no threat to humankind. Rohani has denounced the virulence of the sanctions imposed on Iran and has reasserted his country’s right to run a civilian nuclear program. In another move, in an interview to the CNN, he condemned the crimes that the Nazis committed against the Jews, thus displaying an opposite attitude to that of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had denied the Holocaust.
On Wednesday, Google changed its logo to celebrate the great Romanian folk vocalist Maria Tanase, whose 100th birthday anniversary we celebrate this year. The new logo shows the artist singing, and the first letter of the word google is actually the artist’s face. Maria Tanase had her debut on Radio Bucharest on February 23rd 1938 and sang at the 1939 International Exhibition in New York before the US president Hoover, Andre Gide, Yehudi Menuhim, Constantin Brancusi and George Enescu.
The 21st George Enescu International Festival continued in Bucharest on Wednesday with more outstanding events. At the Romanian Atheneum, the Salzburg Camerata on Wednesday performed works by Enescu, Mozart and Williams. On the stage of the Grand Palace Hall, the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mihail Pletnve, gave a concert including pieces by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. The George Enescu Festival, Romania’s most important cultural event, was set up in 1958, to honour the great Romanian composer.
Writer Mircea Cartarescu, one of Romania’s best known authors abroad, will this Thursday inaugurate this year’s edition of the Bok&Biblotek fair in Goteborg, Sweden, where Romania is a guest of honour. Participating will be a large number of well-established authors. The fair will host an exhibition with the most beautiful Romanian publications in the past two years, as well as workshops on topics that are relevant for the Romanian culture and civilization.
