July 23, 2015

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 23.07.2015, 12:01

Romania has the highest security
level in its contemporary history thanks to its NATO membership, said Romania’s
foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu in Podgorita. He attended, alongside his
counterparts from Poland, Croatia, Hungary and Montenegro, a seminar on NATO’s
open door policy. The joint visit, an initiative of the Romanian foreign
ministry, comes against the backdrop of NATO’s assessment of the progress made
by Montenegro in the run-up to its accession. The Romanian minister conveyed to
the Montenegrin authorities his country’s support and encouragement to press
ahead with the necessary reforms to join the Alliance. Also, minister Aurescu
highlighted the importance of the continuation of NATO’s enlargement and voiced
Romania’s support for the accession of the other candidate countries, namely
Georgia, Bosnia-Hertegovina and Macedonia.

Hans Klemm, who was appointed by
president Barack Obama as the new US ambassador to Romania, pledged, during a
hearing by the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, to consolidate ties
with Bucharest and support the institutions fighting against corruption.
Romania, which he described as an excellent ally and strategic partner of the
United States, has a key role to play to ensure prosperity in south-eastern
Europe, Klemm also said. He urged Bucharest to invest in Romania’s energy
infrastructure to contribute to Europe’s efforts to diversify its energy
resources. Speaking about Romania’s position vis-à-vis Russia, Klemm said that
Russian propaganda has limited effects in Romania, given the strained
historical relationship between the two states, and that Romania, unlike its
neighbours, is not affected by Moscow’s energy pressures. Romania has not had a
US ambassador for the last two and a half years, with the American embassy in
Bucharest being run in the meantime by a charge d’affaires.

Fresh talks are held today
between the trade union of air traffic controllers and the Romanian Air Traffic
Services Administration. The demands of the former are related to the safety of
air traffic, the reduction of the retirement age to 55 years and the signing of
a new collective employment contract. Trade unionists threaten to go on an
all-out strike unless their requests are met. Last week, the Administration’s
employees held a two-hour warning strike, the first in Romania so far, which
resulted in the disruption of tens of flights.

The leaders of the three
pro-European parties in the Republic of Moldova, namely the Liberal Democratic
Party, the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party, which formed a new ruling
alliance, will today make public their nomination for the position of prime
minister. According to an agreement between the three parties, the prime
minister will be chosen from among the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party, while
the speaker of Parliament will be a member of the Democratic Party. The three
parties, which together hold 55 seats out of Parliament’s 101, agreed in
principle to create a new parliamentary majority following the resignation of
Chiril Gaburici’s cabinet on the 16th of June. Since then, the
government in Chisinau has been led by interim prime minister Natalia Gherman
with the communists’ support in Parliament.

Steaua Bucharest have qualified to the Champions League
third preliminary round despite losing at home 3:2 to the Slovakian side AS
Trencin in the return game of the second preliminary round. In the first leg,
Steaua won 2-nil. In the third round, they face the Serbian side Partizan
Belgrade. Two other Romanian football sides, Astra Giurgiu and FC Botosani, are
today playing their return games as part of the Europa League second
preliminary round. In the first leg, Astra defeated the Scottish side Inverness
1-nil, while FC Botosani lost, 1-nil, to the Polish side Legia Warsaw. The
third Romanian team playing in the Europa League, ASA Targu Mures, go straight
into the third round.