June 15, 2019

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 15.06.2019, 14:00

MOLDOVA – President
Klaus Iohannis has hailed the latest developments in neighboring Moldova that
should contribute to overcoming the deadlock and help a peaceful power
transition. On Friday Presidential advisor on matters of foreign policy, Bogdan
Aurescu, talked to Moldovan Parliament Speaker Zinaida Greceanii and to leaders
of the ACUM parliamentary bloc, Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase. Foreign Minister
Teodor Melescanu in turn met his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin and
discussed the peaceful transition of power in Moldova. On Friday, the
Democratic Party in the Republic of Moldova announced that Prime Minister Pavel
Filip resigned. Filip stated that the Democratic Party will keep on working for
the Republic of Moldova, but from a different position. A power duality was set
up in Moldova last week. Last Saturday, the pro-Russia Socialist Party forged
an alliance with the ACUM block and set up a new government, headed by Maia
Sandu. The second day, at the request of the Democratic Party, which until then
had been negotiating with the Socialists the formation of a majority alliance,
the Constitutional Court decided to temporarily suspend Igor Dodon from the
office of president, and the acting PM Pavel Filip was appointed interim president.

EXERCISE – The Saber
Guardian 2019 military exercise continues in Romania until June 24. Its main
goal is to enhance the cohesion, unity and solidarity of the partner and allied
countries, with a view to ensuring defense against any type of aggression, especially
by means of rapid mobilization and response, anywhere in Europe. In order to
render international military training more effective, Saber Guardian is
correlated with a number of other national and multinational exercises, so the
total number of participants stands at some 13,500. Attending are 14 allied and
partner countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Great
Britain, the Republic of Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the US. 7,600 of the participants are Romanian.
Saber Guardian was held every year between 2013 – 2017, and was hosted, in
rotation, by Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. The exercise is included in the
United States Army Europe and designed to improve the integration of multinational
allied and partner combat forces.

ECOFIN – During
its presidency of the Council of the EU, Romania has completed 11 out of the 13
files on the capital markets union, said on Friday the Romanian Finance
Minister Eugen Teodorovici. He chaired in Luxembourg the last meeting of the
Economic and Financial Affairs Council held during the Romanian presidency.
During Romania’s term, six ECOFIN meetings were held, as well as 66 trialogue
meetings with the European Parliament, during which 15 legislative files were closed,
and also 174 working group meetings. The Romanian Presidency has been a
test for the public administration, which has proven it can face any challenge,
at the highest level, said Eugen Teodorovici at the end of the meeting in
Luxembourg.

PENTECOST – Sunday,
50 days after Easter, Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians around the
world, including in Romania, will be celebrating the Pentecost, the descent of
the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the birth of the first Christian
community. The holiday is also known as White Sunday. On this day the 12 apostles
were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in languages they had not
known before. On Pentecost, following Apostle Peter’s address, 3,000 people
were baptized, coming together into the first Christian community, which was
the core of the future Christian Church. Some 23,000 police officers,
firefighters, gendarmes and border police officers are deployed all across the
country to ensure all related public events unfold safely.

THEATER – The 26th
Sibiu International Theater Festival continued on Saturday and will be
unfolding until June 23. One of this year’s special guests, French Ambassador
to Bucharest Michele Ramis, attended a conference on the Romania-France culture
season and the inauguration of a digital platform. This year’s theme is ‘The
Art of Giving’. The festival includes 540 events in 75 locations, with 3,300
artists and guests from 73 countries invited. According to the organizers, the
festival is a celebration of beauty, with events in theater, dance, music,
film, book launches, circus, and art exhibitions. The Sibiu International
Theater Festival is the most complex event of its kind in Romania and even
Europe, and Radio Romania is one of the co-producers.

TOURISM – Foreign
tourists to Romania spent some 275 million euros in the first quarter of this
year, by 35 million euros more than the same period of last year, the National
Statistics Institute reports. Data shows that a foreign tourist spent on
average 630 euros during his stay in Romania, compared to 500 euros last year.
Statistics also reveal that over January-March, some 443,000 tourists visited
Romania, with conferences, classes, fairs and exhibitions being the main reason
of visit for 60% of them, whose spending account for 64% of the aforementioned
sum.

(Translated by V.
Palcu)