October 31, 2014
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Corina Cristea, 31.10.2014, 12:00
ELECTIONS — Today marks the last day of the campaign in the run-up to Sunday’s presidential elections. A total of 14 candidates have enrolled in the race for Cotroceni. Over 18 million citizens are expected to hit the polls on Sunday, with the second ballot scheduled to take place on November 16, provided no candidate obtains half plus one of the total number of votes. Some 18,550 voting polls will be opened in the country and 294 abroad. The latest presidential elections were held on December 6, 2009. Under the Constitution, the president is elected over a period of 5 years.
AGREEMENT — European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has hailed the agreement singed on Thursday evening in Brussels, between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union with respect to Russian gas exports. The document was signed by Ukrainian and Russian Energy Ministers Yuri Prodan and Aleksandr Novak respectively, and by European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, as a mediating third party. The agreement provides for the full payment of Ukraine’s outstanding debt to Russia, which Kiev pledged to cover in full by the end of the year, as well as for the full delivery of gas supplies by March 2015. Russia has put all gas exports to Ukraine on hold several months ago, due to Ukraine’s outstanding debt. Russian gas exports account for nearly a third of the EU’s natural gas supplies, half of which is being transported via pipelines transiting Ukrainian territory.
PUBLIC RADIO DAY — The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation celebrates today 86 years since the first broadcast was aired on the public radio. Radio Romania’s orchestras and choirs are today holding an anniversary concert under the baton of Tiberiu Soare and featuring pianist Horia Mihail. The concert will open wth a Romanian piece — “Moldavian Landscapes”, written by Mihail Jora and will continue with selections from the symphonic repertoire, pieces by Edvard Grieg and Ludwig van Beethoven. The series of manifestations marking the anniversary of the public radio will continue on Saturday, when several thousands of visitors will be able to visit the headquarters of Radio Romania. The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation has three national and nine regional stations, including an international station broadcasting in ten foreign languages, in Romanian and Aromanian.
BLACK SEA DAY — Every year on October 31st Europe celebrates the International Black Sea Day. On this day in 1996 Environment Ministers from all six riparian states — Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine — signed an anti-pollution plan. This year in Romania NGOs, together with the “Grigore Antipa” National Institute for Research and Marine Development in Constanta, as well as experts from the Museum Complex of Natural Sciences are holding seminars, conferences, exhibitions and debates devoted to the Black Sea, in an attempt to step up efforts to protect this ecosystem.
EUROSTAT — The Eurozone’s inflation rate has slightly increased in October, to 0.4% as compared to 0.3% in September, the lowest level reported in the last five years, the Eurostat reports. The rise in inflation is the result of hikes in prices for services, foodstuffs, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. In addition, the Eurostat also announced that unemployment in the Eurozone is still standing at 11.5%, after it stood at 10.1% at EU level in September. Romania was the country with the highest inflation rate in the EU in September 2014, 1.8% against an EU average of 0.4% in the EU and 0.3% in the Eurozone.
TENNIS — The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands has qualified to the doubles semi-finals of the Paris Masters tournament, totalling 3 million euros in prize money. Eighth-seeds Tecau and Rojer outperformed Eric Butorac of the US and Raven Klaasen of South Africa in the quarterfinals, 5-7, 6-1, 10-6. In the following round Tecau and Rojer will play Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States. Tecau and Rojer were awarded 41,750 euros and 360 WTA points for acceding to the semi-finals.
PROTESTS — Hungary will renounce its plans to introduce a fee on Internet file transfers, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced. The Government-baked project has sparked large-scale protests in Romanian’s neighbour country. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday in what has become the biggest mass-protest ever held since Orban came to power in 2010. The aforementioned fee was harshly criticized by the European Commission.
