January 24, 2023 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 24.01.2023, 19:42

UNION Romanians on Tuesday celebrated the union of the historical provinces
of Moldavia and Wallachia, a political event, which took place 164 years ago,
in 1859, under the leadership of ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The move was the
first step in the process of creating the Romanian modern state, process
completed back in 1918. Military and religious services were staged by the
Ministry of National Defence jointly with central and local authorities at the
monuments devoted to the union of the Romanian principalities. Wreath laying
ceremonies were held at the monument of the Unknown Soldier. Present at the
event, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said that the successes achieved back
in 1859 are a lesson of responsibility for all those who are building the
European, modern and democratic Romania. He reiterated the appeal to use all
the instruments available to complete all the reforms Romania needs and to
eradicate the malfunctions, which are still affecting this process. Thousands
of people took to the streets of Iasi, in eastern Romania, to participate in a
series of events on this occasion. The country’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca
and the president of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu also participated
in these events. In his public address on this special occasion, Prime Minister
Ciuca said the roots of the European Romania can be found in the union
completed 164 years ago – an authentic example of the unity of the Romanians,
which paved the way for the emancipation and modernization of the state. In his
opinion, the responsibility of the political class and the state institutions
is to honour this act of uniting the Romanian nation. Religious services were
held in Orthodox churches around the country on this occasion.

UKRAINE Several high officials in Ukraine on Tuesday announced their
resignations amid high-level corruption allegations during the war with Russia,
France Press reports. Deputy Defence Minister, Viacheslav Shapovalov, and the
deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko are among the
high officials to have stepped down. Deputy prosecutor General Oleksiy
Symonenko also resigned amid allegations about a holiday he spent with his
family in Spain after Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council had banned
state officials from leaving the country during martial law. Amid all these
allegations, which threaten to dampen the West’s enthusiasm to help the
government in Kyiv, president Zelensky has pledged to launch a staff shake-up
in the central and local administrations including at top level. Ukraine’s
endemic corruption has been overlooked since the beginning of the Russian
invasion, but fighting the scourge is one of the key conditions for the country
to join the European Union.

EU Security,
prosperity, the democratic values and the rule of law are the priorities of the
Swedish presidency of the European Union presented by the country’s Foreign
Minister Tobias Billstrom before the European Parliament on Tuesday. Billstrom
has condemned the unprovoked, brutal and unjustified aggression of Russia
against Ukraine and has mentioned the EU’s Swedish presidency will have as one
of the objectives to carry on the political, military, economic and
humanitarian support for Kyiv in spite of the Moscow’s attempts to cause
division among the Europeans. Billstrom believes that sanctions are an
extremely effective instrument through which the bloc can help Ukraine win the
war. The programme of the EU’s Swedish presidency includes roughly two thousand
formal meetings in Brussels and Luxembourg as well as 150 informal meetings
hosted by Sweden.

G7+ Romania’s Foreign
Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Tuesday participated in the G7+ videoconference
where he stood for an increased assistance for Ukraine in the context of the
present winter challenges. Aurescu said that Romania would continue to support
Ukraine jointly with the partners sharing the same visions and objectives. The
G7+ conference was co-chaired by the US secretary of state Antony Blinken and
the Foreign Minister of Japan Hayashi Yoshimasa. High on the agenda was the
situation of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which suffered massive and
repeated attacks from the Russian Federation as well as the stage and prospects
of the support granted to Ukraine by the international community to handle the
results of these attacks and increase its resilience at society level.
According to Foreign Ministry sources, the head of the Romanian diplomacy mentioned
the success of this format launched in Bucharest in November 2022 on the
sidelines of the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting. Aurescu says that the repeated
large-scale attacks against the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is a blatant
violation of the international humanitarian law and their aim is to break the
resilience of the Ukrainian society, something the international democratic
community cannot allow to happen.

HOLIDAY Students are going back to school on Wednesday after the mini-holiday
celebrating the union of the Romanian principalities. State employees also had
a four-day holiday, which most of them decided to spend on the mountain resorts
of the Prahova Valley. Brasov and Sibiu in central Romania as well as Oradea in
the north-west were the cities, which reported most of the reservations.

(bill)