The Week in Review, 13-19 July

A look back at the weeks top stories in politics, economy, society, culture and sports.

Roxana Vasile, 19.07.2014, 13:48

The European Commission has a new president

The European People’s Party candidate Jean-Claude Juncker was on Tuesday elected as the new president of the European Commission. Juncker was sworn in in Strasbourg after presenting his political programme before the European Parliament. The main priorities of his term in office includes economic growth and making more jobs available, strengthening the economic and monetary Union and the single market, revitalising the industrial sector, continuing negotiations with the United States on the transatlantic partnership, creating a EU policy on migration and paying special heed to the EU’s external relations.

The next step on Juncker’s agenda is to decide on the new team of commissioners. The leaders of the European Union on Wednesday evening failed to appoint new commissioners in key fields, so a new meeting was set for the end of August. Romania wants to hang on to its agriculture portfolio in the new Commission, and preferably keep Commissioner Dacian Ciolos in his current position.

The EU and the US impose fresh sanctions on Russia

EU leaders meeting in Brussels decided to put on hold all financial operations carried out by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Russia. Accused of fuelling the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, Moscow has been urged to use its influence with the pro-Russian separatist groups to put an end to the movement of arms and militants across the border.

The US has also announced the toughest sanctions on Russia yet, because, as president Barack Obama said, “Russia has failed to take any of the steps the Obama administration was called for to de-escalte the situation in Ukraine”. Sanctions are targeting two important banks in Russia, including that of the natural gas giant Gazprom, as well as two other energy companies, whose access to the US capital market has been restricted. Other sanctions will be imposed on several firearms manufacturers, including the company manufacturing the famous AK-47 known as Kalashnikov.

Ukraine and the Gaza Strip — hotbeds of conflict

The situation in eastern Ukraine became even more strained on Thursday when a Malaysia Airlines jet crashed on Ukrainian territory. All the 298 people were board were killed. The aircraft, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in the Dotetsk region, which is controlled by the pro-Russian separatists and lies only a few tens of km from the border with Russia.

Romania’s president Traian Basescu has called for an immediate investigation into the cause of the accident and for European Union experts to take part in the inquiries alongside the Ukrainian authorities.

The Romanian foreign ministry has also created a crisis group to monitor the Gaza Strip conflict between the Israeli army and local Islamist groups. After the evacuation, early last week, of 84 Romanian nationals and their families living in the region, two mobile consular groups were again deployed on the ground, in Amman and Tel Aviv, to provide consular assistance to the Romanians who are still in the area.

The president and the prime minister disagree over the reduction of social security contributions

A proposed 5% cut in social security contributions paid by employers is beneficial to the business environment unless it attracts new tax and duty rises, said the president of the Foreign Investors Council, Steven van Groningen after talks with president Traian Basescu.

On Monday, the president also held consultations with prime minister Victor Ponta, having earlier said he would oppose the cut in social security contributions unless the government explained how it would cover the reduction and what steps it was considering to prevent upsetting the budget balance. In Traian Basescu’s opinion, the measure would lead to an increase in taxes or the reduction of investments.

Prime minister Ponta argues, however, that this is the best time to take this measure owing to the country’s economic growth and higher budget returns.

Romanian right-wing parties join forces

Talks ended in Bucharest this week between the country’s biggest centre-right parties, the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, as their leaders agreed on the final details of a merger. The aim is to create a bigger party called the National Liberal Party able to compete against the Social Democratic Party, the winner of the European Parliament elections in May. The short-term goal of the new structure is to win the presidential elections in November and its candidate will be announced at the beginning of August.

In another development, the Permanent Council of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior partner in the government, has nominated the party leader Kelemen Hunor as presidential candidate.