The Week in Review, July 8 – 14

Click here, for a review of the headline grabbing events over the past week.

Mihai Pelin, 13.07.2013, 14:39

French Prime Minister Jean Marc Ayrault visits Romania

Romania wishes to relaunch its partnership with France, said Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta after talks with his French counterpart Jean Marc Ayrault in Bucharest. Bilateral economic cooperation is remarkable, the French official also said. He reiterated his country’s support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. The topic of the Roma minority was another important subject on the agenda of talks between the French prime minister and the Romanian prime minister and president Traian Basescu. While Prime Minister Ponta said the main responsibility for the integration of the Roma lies with Romania, Jean Marc Ayrault promised France’s support for Bucharest to be able to provide decent living conditions to the Roma communities in Romania. The French official and his Romanian counterpart also visited the technical headquarters of the Dacia Renault plant in Titu, in southern Romania. The French company Renault is the biggest investor in Romania, accounting for 3% of the country’s GDP.

Romanias Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean travels to Moscow and Seoul

Recently characterised by a period of stagnation in the absence of top-level political dialogue, bilateral relations between Romania and Russia appear to be improving following the visit by Romania’s foreign minister Titus Corlatean to Moscow. His visit took place 10 years after the signing of a Romanian-Russian political treaty and is the first after Romania’s entry into NATO and the European Union. Russia views Romania as an important partner in south-eastern Europe, said foreign minister Sergey Lavrov after talks with his Romanian counterpart. The two officials also tackled the issue of the Russian gas. Romania wishes to eliminate intermediaries for its imports of gas from Russia so that gas prices could drop. A number of intergovernmental agreements were also signed in Moscow in the fields of culture, media, education and tourism and the creation of a Romanian Cultural Institute in Moscow and a Russian Cultural Centre in Bucharest. After Moscow, Titus Corlatean travelled to South Korea. The aim of his visit was to develop bilateral relations in the political, economic and cultural areas. He had talks in Seoul with South Korea’s prime minister Chung Hong-won, in particular about maintaining political dialogue and intensifying bilateral cooperation.

Moldovan and Romanian Prime Ministers holds talks in Bucharest

The prime minister of the Republic of Moldova, Iurie Leanca, paid a surprise visit to Bucharest, his first foreign visit after resuming office. He had talks with his counterpart Victor Ponta about the stage of bilateral relations and projects on energy interconnection and transport. The head of the government in Bucharest has reiterated Romania’s firm support for Chisinau’s European goals. The Republic of Moldova and the European Union have completed talks on an association agreement, including a free-trade area about to be signed in Vilnius in November. The visit to Bucharest by the Moldovan prime minister previews the upcoming talks between president Traian Basescu and senior Moldovan officials on the 17th of July in Chisinau.

The law amending the statue of MPs has come into force

The law amending the statue of MPs came into force on Thursday, after being signed into law by president Traian Basescu. As part of the most important amendments introduced by the new law, the Prosecutor’s Office no longer has to justify its requests for detaining, holding in temporary arrest and searching MPs, thus eliminating a provision under which MPs would have enjoyed a higher level of parliamentary immunity. The new law also restricts foreign trips and reduces the budget allocated to MPs for accommodation. There are also changes referring to the use and justification of expenses for the running of MPs’ offices. MPs now have to account for 50% of their allocated sum, as compared to a previous 46%.

The results of the Baccalaureate exam are made public

55% of the 187,000 high school graduates who entered the baccalaureate exam this year have passed the tests, compared to 43% last year. Incidents were reported at a number of schools across the country, including attempts at cheating. At the Dimitrie Bolintineanu High School in Bucharest, for example, the school’s head was arrested and over 100 children were heard by prosecutors.

The annual inflation rate meets the National Bank forecast

The annual inflation rate for the first 6 months of the year stood at 5.37%, according to the National Institute for Statistics. Consumer goods prices were relatively stable in June compared to May, as food prices dropped. At 1%, services costs saw the highest increase, followed by non-food products, while food products were cheaper by 0.7%. According to the National Bank of Romania, the inflation rate is expected to drop towards 3.2% at the end of 2013 and later reach a minimum of 2.4% in the first quarter of 2014.

Romanias football champions Steaua win the Super Cup title

Romania’s football champion Steaua Bucharest have won the Super Cup title, having defeated the Cup winner, Petrolul Ploiesti, 3-nil. In the European competitions, Steaua will play in the Champions League second preliminary round, while another Romanian team, Astra Giurgiu, will make their European debut in the Europa League second preliminary round. Pandurii Targu Jiu and Petrolul Ploiesti will also compete in the Europa League.