February 12, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 12.02.2016, 12:15
Romania continues to support the consolidation of the EU’s external borders and a more efficient management of the wave of immigrants, said Friday, in Munich, the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis. After his meeting with the PM of the state of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, President Iohannis said that the Black Sea region had to be considered strategic, also for NATO. Klaus Iohannis made these statements ahead of his participation in the 52nd Conference for Security. On Saturday Iohannis will be main speaker at the conference, in the panel devoted to the future of NATO. The topics to be discussed at the conference include NATO’s stand on the Russian Federation, the refugee crisis, the future of NATO, terrorism, the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Africa and climate change.
The Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos will pay a visit to Brussels on Monday and Tuesday where he will meet with European high officials, among whom the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schultz, it was announced Friday in Bucharest. According to a government communiqué, the Romanian PM will present the priorities of his cabinet, their vision of economic development and the administrative reform program. Talks will also focus on the phenomenon of migration, the Energy Union and energy security, the progress made by Romania as part of the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification, highlighted in the latest EC report on justice, as well as Romania’s prospects of accession to the Schengen area. The delegation that will accompany PM Ciolos to Brussels will also include the foreign minister, Lazar Comanescu, the communiqué shows.
The healthcare authorities in Romania are on the alert after more than 20 children under 3 were taken to hospital in Bucharest and the county of Arges, in the south, due to a serious digestive infection. According to the Healthcare Ministry, which for the moment rules out an epidemics, the causes of the infection are not known. A baby girl 11 months old died, last week, because of an infection with E-coli. In another move, the National Centre for Monitoring and Control of Communicable Diseases announced that swine flu killed 8 people in Romania, in the first week of February. So far 9 people infected with the AH1N1 virus have died in Romania.
Last year Romania reported an economic growth rate of 3.7% as compared to 2014, above the estimated 3.5% announced by the European Commission. According to data made public on Friday by the National Statistics Institute, Romania’s GDP went up in the last quarter of 2014 by 1.1% as compared to the third quarter. Recently, the European Commission has upgraded its economic growth forecast for Romania in 2015, to 3.6% of the country’s GDP. The Commission believes Romania’s economic growth might reach 4.2%, only to balance out at 3.7% in 2017.
In Romania direct foreign investments exceeded, in 2015, 3 billion euros, which is by 25.3% more than in 2014, shows a central bank communiqué. In another development, the National Bank of Romania announced that last year the current account deficit rose by 156% as compared to 2014, exceeding 1.7 billion euros, against an increase in the primary income balance and in the asset balance. Also Romania’s total foreign debt dropped, in 2015, by more than 3.8 billion euros.
Romania will grant humanitarian aid to the Republic of Moldova in the context of the economic and social crisis facing this ex-Soviet country, the Moldovan PM Pavel Filip announced on Friday. According to him the aid from Romania will consist in foodstuffs for the socially vulnerable category of people, and fuel oil to supplement reserves in case gas supplies are disconnected. This was announced after the Moldovan PM visited Bucharest in late January, when he met with his Romanian counterpart, Dacian Ciolos. ly to balance out at 3.7% in 2017.
In 2016 Romania is represented again at the famous Berlin Film Festival, which reached the 66th edition. On Saturday, on the second day of the Berlinale, Adrian Sitaru’s independent feature film “Illegitimate” will be presented in the Forum section, while in the Generation 14plus, Roxana Stroe will present the short “A night on Tokoriki”. Actress Iulia Ciochină and scriptwriter Ruxandra Ghitescu will be present in the Berlinale Talents section. 18 feature films will compete for the grand prize, the Golden Bear, that will be awarded by a jury presided this year by the American actress Meryl Streep, winner of 3 Oscar awards. Last year the Silver Bear award for best director went to Radu Jude for his feature film Aferim!
The “Dimitrie Gusti” National Village Museum is hosting until February 29 the exhibition “Discover Africa”. The exhibition is an incursion into the African traditions of craftsmanship and gastronomy specific to the 12 participant countries. The event is organized by the National Village Museum and the Group of African Diplomatic and Consular Missions accredited to Romania.
(translation by Lacramioara Simion)
