September 8, 2015 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 08.09.2015, 12:15

Romania alongside Malta and the Czech Republic had the biggest economic growth rate in the EU in the 2nd quarter of the year, as compared to the same period of 2014, shows Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. Romania’s economy grew by 3.7%, Malta’s by 4.8% and the Czech Republic’s by 4.4%. All the EU states have reported economic growth except for Finland that had a zero growth economy. Between April- June 2015 the GDP rose by 1.9% in the EU and by 1.5% in the euro zone.

The EU countries are trying to solve the differences appeared in dealing with the flow of migrants and to work out a coordinated response to the immigration crisis generated by the wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. The countries in eastern Europe continue to reject the idea of mandatory migrant quotas for each country and ask for the distribution of migrants based on the volunteering principle. Great Britain announced it would receive 20 thousand refugees in the next 2 years. France has committed to receiving 24 thousand but only as part of a distribution plan set up at European level. The French president Francois Hollande announced that France and Germany favor a permanent and compulsory mechanism for receiving migrants. The plan for relocating the immigrants who arrived in Europe will be presented Wednesday in the European Parliament by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker.

300 immigrants might come to Romania as of November, said Tuesday the president of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Laszlo Borbely, a member of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. He added that a consensus was reached over the setting up of a parliamentary committee specializing in migration issues. The statements were made fresh from a debate on the refugee crisis in the Middle East and northern Africa, in which participated the joint committees for European affairs of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies alongside the representatives of the committees for foreign policy, defense and public order and of the special joint committee for Romania’s Schengen accession, of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, of the Interior Ministry and of the Presidency. On Monday President Klaus Iohannis said that Romania could receive 1,785 immigrants. The Romanian president convened a meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense for September 17th when he will present his stand on maintaining certain migrant quotas that a country can afford and not quotas imposed at European level. The Romanian prime minister also said that Romania did not agree with setting up compulsory migrant quotas.

Anti-government protests continued in Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. Hundreds took to the streets on Monday night and organizers announced the protests would continue until the resignation of the incumbent government. About 200 protesters joined a rally in front of the government building calling for the resignation of the executive, of president Nicolae Timofti and the prosecutor general as well as for early parliamentary elections. The meeting comes after Sundays huge rally, which brought together tens of thousands of people who protested against the governments corruption.

The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the second favourite, on Monday qualified for the first time for the quarterfinals of the US Open, the years last Grand Slam tournament after defeating 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki. Halep, the worlds number two will be taking on Viktoria Azarenka of Belarus currently ranking 20th in the world standings. Due to medical issues, Halep had to withdraw from the mixed doubles contest, where she was playing together with her compatriot Horia Tecau. Tecau and his partner Jean-Julien Rojer, the tournaments third favourite pair, on Monday qualified for the quarterfinals of the mens doubles after beating Americans Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky. Tecau and Rojer will be further taking on twelfth-seeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France.

The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu participated Tuesday in the first edition of the Salzburg forum. He presented Romania’s stand on the relationship between the right to self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity, explaining how they are presented in international law and how they can be applied in the context of the current international realities. Minister Aurescu also met with Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The two officials talked about migration and the developments in the Republic of Moldova. The topic of debates in Salzburg was the “rule of law and the laws of war” with focus on human rights, international humanitarian law, the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination and the settling of frozen conflicts. This year’s edition of the forum marks 70 years of UN existence.

The “George Enescu” International Festival continues in Bucharest on Tuesday with a concert by the Chamber Orchestra of the Bremen Philharmonics conducted by Trevor Pinnock, the soloist being the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. The 10th day of the festival will end with the concert of one of the greatest orchestras of the world, the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the famous Romanian conductor Ion Marin. The concert’s soloist is the German pianist Lars Vogt. Until September 20th over 3 thousand Romanian and foreign artists will perform on the stage of the Enescu festival, which is one of the most prestigious events of the kind in Europe. All along the festival concerts have been scheduled in concert halls and outdoors.