21 September, 2016

Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos attends United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

Newsroom, 21.09.2016, 13:37

UN General Assembly Romanian prime minister Dacian
Ciolos is today having talks in New York with the Swiss president Johann
Schneider-Ammann, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and members of the
Romanian community in New York. Ciolos travelled to the US on Tuesday to attend
the latest session of the United Nations General Assembly. On his first day in
New York, he held a number of bilateral talks and met his Canadian counterpart
Justin Trudeau to discuss the liberalisation of visas for Romanian citizens,
among others. In the evening, at a later summit on refugees hosted by US
president Barack Obama, Dacian Ciolos said Romania fully acknowledges the
common responsibility to manage the large flow of refugees and recalled that
his country provided humanitarian aid to the states affected.

La Francophonie Romania’s foreign minister Lazar Comanescu
on Tuesday attended the Ministerial meeting of francophone countries held on
the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. In his address, Comanescu said La
Francophonie must consolidate its position within the global governance by
strengthening its partnerships with other international organisations such as
the United Nations. He also stressed the role of the International Organisation
of La Francophonie (OIF) in the
application of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Minister Comanescu
also announced that Romania wishes to host, in Bucharest, the 2018 Francophone
Regional Economic Forum. Talks focused, among others, on migration flows and
ways to manage climate change.

Refugees The Committee
for European Affairs in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday gave a
negative opinion on the proposal of the European Commission to impose a penalty
of 250,000 euros for each refugee a country refuses to take in based on the
quotas established in Brussels. The head of the committee, Ana Birchall, said
the proposal is unacceptable, it does not address the root cause of the problem
and that it may generate a profound crisis in the community space. She recalled
that Romania is the second biggest contributor to Frontex actions, the European
agency at the forefront of combating migration, and has actively taken part in
the actions carried out by Interpol, Europol and the European Asylum Support
Office.

Illegal border crossing
Six adult and two children migrants were found on Tuesday in Dolj county as
they were trying to cross the border into Romania illegally, the Romanian
Border Police has said. Six of the migrants are of Iraqi origin and two of
Syrian origin. Their plan was to reach Austria, and they had crossed the Danube
by boat from Bulgaria into Romania after paying 2,000 dollars to a guide. In
recent weeks, Romania has tightened security on its southern and western
borders as a number of small groups of migrants have been found trying to enter
the country illegally.

Fundraising A little
over 900,000 euros has been raised so far as part of a public fundraising
campaign to purchase a work by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi called
The Wisdom of the Earth. Culture minister Corina Suteu said 200,000 people have
donated to the campaign and that solutions are being considered to extend the
end of the month deadline by which donations can be made. Six months ago, the
private owners of the sculpture agreed to sell the work to the Romanian state
for 11 million euros. The government said it would provide 5 million euros and
cover the rest through public fundraising. Made in 1907, The Wisdom of the
Earth dates back to one of Brancusi’s most celebrated periods, together with
The Kiss and Prayer.

Tennis Three Romanian tennis
players, Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu and Patricia
Tig, have reached the last 16 of the tournament in Seoul, South Korea, worth
250,000 dollars in prize money. Seeded first in Seoul, Begu, who is the
defending champion, on Thursday faces Jana
Cepelova of Slovakia. Also on Thursday, Niculescu (world no. 55) and Tig (world
no. 135) play against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, respectively. If they
both win their matches, Niculescu and Tig will play each other in the following
round. (Translated by: C. Mateescu)