January 13, 2020
Romania monitors the situation in the Gulf, Sibiu -Pitesti highway under discussion
Newsroom, 13.01.2020, 13:56
Iran – Romania is closely monitoring the situation in the Gulf after Iran admitted having downed a Ukrainian plane, and this means monitoring the observance of the Vienna Convention which regulates diplomatic relations and the freedom to assemble in public spaces, shows a post on the official Twitter account of the Romanian Foreign Ministry. On Saturday and Sunday Iran saw street protests against the way in which the authorities communicated about the Ukrainian plane downed near Teheran, after initially the Iranian authorities had claimed it had been an accident. Thousands of Iranian protesters called for the resignation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed Wednesday that they had hit the Ukrainian plane with 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Canadians.
Highway – An important meeting for the future highway linking Sibiu (centre) to Pitesti (south) is scheduled for today at the Transport Ministry in Bucharest. The meeting is meant to provide clarifications in relation to a request by the EC regarding the impact of this major infrastructure project on the environment. Granting European non-reimbursable funds for this project depended on these very clarifications. The meeting is being attended by representatives of the transport, European funds and environment ministries, and of the agencies for protected areas and environment protection. European experts will also participate in the meeting to provide consultancy for preparing infrastructure projects. Of the 5 segments of the highway, a contract for design and construction has been signed for only one segment and works are to star in spring. Two segments are still in the assessment stage, while for the other two segments, actually the most difficult ones given their location in a mountainous area, a tender will be held. At least 11 protected natural sites, located on the route of the highway, need concrete measures for conservation, which Romania has not yet taken, the EC concluded. The total value of the project stands at 1.3 billion Euros of which 85% is to be disbursed by the EC.
School – Pre-school and school children on Monday started the second semester, one the longest semesters in the Romanian school’s recent history. It is by 5 weeks longer than the first semester. The spring holiday is scheduled for April 4th to 21st. The education minister Monica Anisie has announced that this week she will submit for public debate the methodology for the organization of contests for general inspectors and school managers.
Handball – Romania’s national men’s handball team defeated, on Sunday evening, the Italian side in Benevento, 29-24, in their last match in the 3rd preliminary group of the 2021 World Championship. The Romanian handballers had already qualified to the 2nd stage of the preliminaries of the 2021 World Championship, after defeating Kosovo on Saturday and Georgia on Sunday. Romania is ranked 1st in the final classification, with 6 points, being followed by Kosovo with 3 points, Georgia with 2 points and Italy 1 point. Only the first ranked team will go ahead to the next stage. However, in order to go as far as next year’s World Championship to be hosted by Egypt, the Romanian handball team needs to pass two playoff rounds playing against two teams that are participating in the European Handball Champions under way these days in Austria, Norway and Sweden. Romania previously participated in a world handball championship in 2011.
Strasbourg — Strasbourg is hosting today the first meeting of the European Parliament in 2020. Debates will focus on deescalating tensions in Iran and Libya in the context of the latest developments in the Middle East. Also, an important moment of today’s meeting is the presentation of the priorities of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU. The MEPs will also tackle such issues as the application and monitoring of the rights of the European citizens in Great Britain, the situation of the judiciary in Hungary and Poland as well as the European Green Deal. Romania has 32 representatives in the EP out of a total of 751 members.
Deficit — Romania reported the 3rd biggest current account deficit in the EU in the 3rd quarter of 2019. According to data published on Monday by Eurostat, the EU member states with the biggest current account deficit in the assessed period were Great Britain (23.9 billion Euros), France (4.1 billion Euros) and Romania (3.6 billion Euros). In another development, Romania’s national bank announced on Monday that from January to November 2019 the current account of the balance of payments reported a deficit of almost 10 billion Euros, higher by 21% as compared to the one reported in the same period of the previous year. (translation by L. Simion)
