15 November 2018

A look at some of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 15.11.2018, 13:43

Strike. Negotiations between the Bucharest metro trade unions and the
management are due to continue, following a warning strike this morning. The metro
employees threaten to go on a general strike beginning on the 19th
of November. They demand a 42% salary increase, but were only offered an 18%
increase by the management. According to the transport minister Lucian Sova,
the salaries of metro employees have grown every year in the last four years, the
last time by 21% last year. 700,000 people use the Bucharest metro every day.

EU presidency. Romania is ready to
take over and successfully carry out its term as holder of the EU Council
presidency in the first part of next year, prime minister Viorica Dancila has
again given assurances. The events schedule has been finalised and all working
mechanisms have been created. We have the capacity to show our European
partners that Romania is a balanced and responsible member state, determined to
contribute to the future of the European Union, regardless of the purely
political considerations at one time or another, the Romanian prime minister
also said. Tuesday’s vote in the European Parliament is one such example and I
assure you that it will not make us stray from our objectives, said Dancila. She
added that she was disappointed with the conclusions of the Cooperation and
Verification Mechanism report, given that Romania has proved to be a loyal and
fair partner of the European Union. We recall that European Parliament’s resolution
and the aforementioned report are critical of the changes to the justice laws
made by the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats.

Romania-Brexit. The foreign ministry in Bucharest welcomes the fact that
Brussels’ and London’s negotiators have arrived at a final version of the text
of UK’s EU withdrawal agreement. This marks an important moment in the
negotiation process and paves the way for defining a close and strong future
relationship between the EU and London, which is Romania’s strategic objective,
given the bilateral strategic partnership and the close security cooperation,
which is important to maintain in the context of the developments in the
eastern neighbourhood, where Romania and Great Britain share a common
objective, reads a press release from the Romanian foreign ministry. The
withdrawal agreement will guarantee the protection of the rights of all
Romanian citizens who settle in Great Britain before 31st December 2020. They will
be able to continue to work, live and study in Britain after obtaining a
settled status, the ministry also says.

Brexit deal. The
British government has seen a number of resignation over the Brexit agreement,
including Brexit minister Dominic Raab. On Wednesday, British prime minister
Theresa May secured her cabinet’s approval of the agreement, but conflicting
views still exist within her cabinet. She will also have to convince an equally
divided Parliament to back the agreement.

Fund. An emergency order on the creation of the Sovereign Investment Fund
is on today’s Bucharest government agenda. The Fund is aimed at expanding or building
profitable businesses in priority areas for the Romanian state either on its
own or together with other investors or investment funds. Included in the governing
platform for the 2017-2020 period and based on the experience of states such as
France, Norway, Poland and Italy, the Sovereign Fund will mainly be comprised
of profitable state companies and will have a value of over 10 billion euros.

Military. Some 1,800 Romanian and
foreign military backed by 250 pieces of technical equipment are taking part in
the Scorpions Fury multinational exercise under way at the shooting range in
Cincu, central Romania until the 16th of November. The aim is to evaluate
the capacity of the Headquarters Multinational Brigade South East in Craiova, in the south, to ensure
the command and control of a NATO collective defence operation. The military
carry out both computer-assisted command exercises and field training and
tactical combat shooting exercises. Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian, Italian and
Portuguese as well as Romanian military are taking part.

Fair. The 25th Gaudeamus
International Educational Book Fair organised by Radio Romania continues until
Sunday. Today’s events include a debate entitled Do we still need literary
clubs? and the launch of the book The History of Romania for Children in 100
Images. 900 different events are held by the over 300 participating
publishers.

Football. Romania’s Under 21 football side today
face Belgium in Cluj in a friendly match. Both sides have qualified for the European
Under-21 Championship to be hosted by Italy and San Marino in June next year.
12 sides will be taking part. This is the second time Romania have qualified for
this tournament after 1998, when it was hosted by Bucharest. On Saturday,
Romania’s senior side face Lithuania at home in a League C Group 4 match of the
UEFA Nations League. In their final match in this newly created competition,
Romania play against Montenegro on Tuesday. With one win and three draws,
Romania have amassed six points. Serbia top the group with 8 points, followed
by Montenegro with 7.