August 30, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 30.08.2016, 12:19

ITALY QUAKE On Tuesday, Romania’s PM Dacian Ciolos and
Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru attended the funeral held for a second group of
victims of the quake that hit Italy last week and claimed 292 lives. The
ceremonies in Amatrice, where 10 Romanians died, were also attended by the
Romanian orthodox bishop in Italy, Siluan. Also on Tuesday, the two officials
visited the Romanian citizens hospitalised in Rieti. The Romanian Government
has taken special measures to support those who have suffered because of the
quake.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Slovakia supports Romania’s joining Schengen because it meets all the required criteria, said in
Bucharest on Tuesday the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav
Lajcak, in a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Lazar
Comanescu. The Slovak minister termed the relations between Romania and
Slovakia as excellent and stated the two countries shared the same values
within NATO and the EU. He recalled the support granted by the Romanian army to
his country in the fight against Fascism in WWII. Miroslav Lajcak, whose country is currently holding the six-month
presidency of the Council of the European Union, attended the annual meeting of the Romanian
Diplomats. The agenda of the meeting, which lasts until September 1st,
includes topics such as security developments, the future of the EU, Brexit
negotiations, terrorism, migration, economic development. Also, the
participants are discussing the preparations for Romania’s first turn as EU Council president in the first half of
2019 and means to strengthen the role that Romanian missions should play in
boosting economic ties, trade exchanges and investments.

CEREMONY Romanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc
and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian attended on Tuesday in Bucharest
a ceremony held in memory of the French soldiers who died in Romania during
World War I. On this occasion, Minister Motoc said that the French official’s
visit was proof of the strong ties between the two peoples. In turn, the French
official said that the relations between Romania and France were strong and
unique and had passed the test of time. On Monday Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed
with Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos means of strengthening NATO’s eastern border,
Black Sea security and combating terrorism. The two officials reiterated their
countries’ commitment to developing the bilateral Strategic Partnership after
the signing of a new roadmap in Paris
in June.

PROTEST Some two thousand books donated by Bucharesters on Tuesday will be sent to the United States Embassy in Chisinau in protest of the recent statements by the American Ambassador to Moldova, James Pettit, on Romania’s relations with the Republic of Moldova. On Saturday, when Moldova celebrated 25 years of independence from the USSR, the US official said in an interview for the public TV station that Moldova was not Romania, Moldova had its own history and its own challenges, and that getting united with Romania, as a way to join the EU or for any other reason, was not a practical choice and not a choice that would make things better in Moldova. Hailed by the pro-Moscow leftist factions in Moldova, Pettit’s statements have been harshly criticized by the pro-European leaders in Chisinau and by Romanian politicians. Established on a part of the eastern Romanian territories annexed by the USSR in 1940, following an ultimatum, the Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence from Moscow on August 27, 1991.

APPLE
The European
Commission has decided that Apple must pay a 13 billion Euro fine for
concluding some preferential fiscal agreements with the Irish state, thus
benefiting from an illegal aid. The European Commission has established that
the Irish state has granted Apple undue tax benefits. For more than 20 years, this
selective treatment allowed Apple to pay extremely low corporate tax rates,
down to 0.005% in 2014.

FOOTBALL Romania’s
national football squad will play on Sunday, in Cluj-Napoca, north-western
Romania, against Montenegro, the first match of the 2018 World
Cup preliminaries. Romania is playing in the same group E as Denmark, Poland,
Armenia and Kazakhstan. The match against Montenegro marks the German Cristoph Daum’s debut at the helm of the Romanian
national squad. He replaced 66-year old coach Anghel Iordanescu after Romania’s failure to make it
past the European Championship group stages. They finished bottom in Group A
after losing to hosts France and Albania, and drawing with Switzerland.