August 17, 2017 UPDATE

România Internațional, 17.08.2017, 20:14

BARCELONA ATTACK – The
Spanish police have announced multiple casualties in Thursday’s terrorist
attack in Barcelona. A van mounted a pavement on Las Ramblas and struck several
people. The area is extremely popular with tourists. The Romanian Consulate in Barcelona
is trying to find out whether there were Romanian citizens among the victims.
Also, a crisis team has been set up at the Romanian Embassy in Madrid.

SUMMER UNIVERSITY– Attending on Thursday the Summer University in Izvorul
Muresului, central Romania, Romanians living in historical communities around
the country’s borders drew attention to their extremely serious situation.
According to their representatives at the meeting, people living in these
communities are subject to a continuous and aggressive process of assimilation
and without support from the Romanian state they will no longer be able to
preserve their national identity. Also on Thursday, the participants decided to
set up the Federation of Romanian Organisations in the Historical Communities
in Central and South-Eastern Europe, headquartered in Bucharest and with
external representation with the European institutions. The Secretary of the
Federation and President of the ‘Rasaritul Romanesc’ Association in Chisinau
Vlad Cubreacov has stated that this body will be a dialogue partner to both the
Romanian authorities and authorities from other European countries where there
are Romanian communities, on matters relating to their language, cultural and
religious rights.

PROETNICA– The 15th’Proetnica’
Intercultural Festival started on Thursday in the Romanian town of Sighisoara.
For four days, the festival is playing host to 700 participants, representing
20 ethnic minorities. The festival’s agenda includes conference on minority
protection, the situation of the Rroma in Europe, interfaith dialogue and
multiculturalism. The event is also hosting an arts and crafts fair, a fine
arts exhibition, film screenings and workshops. The programme includes some 50
shows in which ethnic minorities in Romania are presenting their traditional
costumes, music and dances.

LONDON– The number of EU citizens working in the UK
is at a record level, partially because of a significant increase in the number
of Romanians and Bulgarians finding jobs there, reads the Financial
Times. According to official data, around 2.37 million EU workers were in the
UK in April-June this year, 126,000 more compared to the same period of 2016.
The number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers went up over 25% in the last 12
months, reaching 337,000. Around one third of citizens from the ten Central and
East European countries working in Great Britain work in home care,
construction and food sales.

START UP NATION– The Romanian Ministry for the Business Environment has
announced the first 20 winners of the funds granted under the governmental
programme Start Up Nation, aimed at creating new jobs in Romania. In all, they
will get some 890,000 Euro and are supposed to create 155 new jobs. Also,
small and medium-sized enterprises can register until 29 August to take part in
the ‘Trade and Services ‘ programme, under which they can get state funding up
to 55.000 Euro to extend their activities. Another micro-industrialisation
programme is to be launched next week, with an allocated budget of some 17
million Euros this year.

INFLATION– The annual rate of inflation in the EU was stable in
July as compared to June, standing at 1.5%. According to data published
by Eurostat, the lowest annual rates were recorded in Ireland (minus -0.2%),
Cyprus (minus 0.1%), Bulgaria and Finland (0.6%), France (0.8%) and Romania
(0.9%). As compared to June 2017, the annual inflation rate has dropped in four
member states, has grown in 16 countries and has remained stable in eight
countries. The Romanian National Bank issued a revision of its forecast for the
end of this year, from 1.6 to 1.9%. The National Bank expects a rate of
inflation of 3.2% for the end of 2018.

NATO– Some 135 soldiers and 4 fighters of the Royal Canadian
Air Force will be deployed to Constanta, in south eastern Romania, to take part
in NATO air police activities. According to a communiqué issued by the Canadian
Embassy in Bucharest, the activities will be carried out
over September – December. The mission is part of the NATO OperationReassuranceand represents Canada’s contribution
to the NATO assurance and deterrence measures. These measures aim to reinforce
NATO’s collective defence and its commitment to protecting the member
countries’ populations and territories.

TENNIS– The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, ranking 2nd in
the WTA classification, on Thursday qualified for the quarter finals of the WTA
tournament in Cincinnati, the US, with 2.5 million dollars in prize money.
Halep defeated the Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, no. 16 WTA. In 2015, Halep
lost the final in Cincinnati to Serena Williams, and last year she was defeated
in the semi-finals by Angelique Kerber of Germany. Also in Cincinnati this
year, in the doubles, the pair mad up of Monica Niculescu (Romania) and
Su-Wei Hsieh (Taiwan), has qualified for the quarter finals, winning
against the French-Russian team Kristina Mladenovic- Anastasia Pavliuchenkova.