February 18, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 18.02.2014, 21:42
The political bureau of the National Liberal Party approved on Tuesday a resolution that reconfirms the mandate of party president Crin Antonescu to negotiate within the Social Liberal Union the structure of the Government. The liberal leader said that his Party maintained the proposals regarding the ministers of the Interior, the Economy, Finance and Health, positions held by liberals in the government headed by Victor Ponta. In another move, Crin Antonescu called on his ruling partners to dismantle the Social Democratic Union, which gathered the other three parties in the ruling coalition, namely the Social Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the National Union for the Progress of Romania. Also , the liberals said they want the reduction of the contribution to the health insurance fund and the exemption of the tax on reinvested profits, as well as the restructuring, in the coming months, of the government, by reducing the number of ministers. The meeting of the National Libearl Party was held against the background of the two co-presidents of the Social Liberal Union, Crin Antonescu and Victor Ponta, failing to reach an agreement regarding the new structure of the government.
The Romanian State Secretary with the Ministry of the Interior, Bogdan Tohaneanu, is attending in Berlin the European Police Congress. The agenda of the event includes topics such as police cooperation within the EU, international judicial collaboration, standardization and interoperability in the field of communications and IT. Also, the participants will discuss international prosecution and concrete solutions to boost cross-border cooperation in cases of money laundering, cyber crime and child abuse.
With 22.7%, Romania is among the EU countries that are least dependant on energy imports. According to Eurostat, Romania comes third in the Union in terms of energy imports, after Estonia and Denmark. Denmark is the only net exporter of energy in the EU, in 2012. Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus, on the other hand, are highly dependant on imports. Energy consumption has dropped as of 2006 in 24 member states, Romania included.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has on Tuesday announced that it hasn’t received any official confirmation regarding the presence of any Romanian citizens aboard the Ethiopian Airlines jetliner hijacked on Monday. The ministry’s specification comes after an Ethiopian official said there were many foreign citizens aboard the plane, Romanians included. The aircraft was hijacked by the co-pilot, who had locked himself in the cockpit and headed for Geneva, where he used a rope to lower himself out of a window, and then asked for political asylum.
The NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton on Tuesday voiced their deep concern for the escalation of violence in Kiev, where 7 civilians and two policemen were killed. The called on all the parties involved to abstain from any act of violence and to immediately resume dialogue. After weeks of peace, violent clashes started again in the Ukrainian capital between pro-European protesters and the police. On Wednesday, President Viktor Ianukovici will meet with the opposition leaders. Ukraine has been faced with this serious political crisis since November last year, when the Kiev administration refused to sign an association agreement with the EU, preferring instead a rapprochement with Russia.
