November 10, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 10.11.2014, 19:48
The former Director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Office, Teodor Melescanu, was sworn in on Monday as Foreign Minister. He replaced Titus Corlatean, who resigned amid allegations regarding the inappropriate organization of the first round of presidential elections on November 2nd, when thousands of Romanian nationals living abroad were unable to cast their ballots. Corlatean has stated he decided to resign in order to avoid breaking the law and referred to a decision issued by the Central Electoral Office, which does not confirm the existence of a legal ground for the setting up of additional polls abroad. The Electoral Office, however, has stated in a communiqué that organizing polling stations abroad is exclusively the Foreign Ministry’s responsibility and there is no legal impediment for setting up new polls abroad. On Sunday, the Romanians living in big European cities, such as London, Dublin, Madrid, Paris and Vienna, protested against the small number of polling stations and staff. Solidarity meetings were also held in Romania. The second round of presidential elections in Romania, due on November 16th, will be opposing the left wing Prime Minister Victor Ponta to Klaus Iohannis, currently the mayor of Sibiu, in central Romania.
Romania will this week will request the reimbursement of over 200 million Euros through the Human Resources Development Operational Programme. By the end of the year Romania will be submit to the European Commission reimbursement applications for another 500 million, so the total amount is estimated to stand at 700 million Euros at the end of 2014. According to the Romanian Ministry of European Funds, authorities in Bucharest were given the green light for the submittal of these applications following the positive results of the European Commission’s audit mission to Romania in early October.
The provisional results of Sunday’s informal referendum on Catalonia’s status show that some 81% of the voters stand for independence. Although the referendum had been declared unconstitutional by the High Court, 2.3 million people went to the polls to cast a symbolic vote. Catalonian leader Artus Mas has termed the result as a total success” and has stated that Catalans’ goal is to vote for independence at a final referendum. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said that the referendum will have no effect and has called the region to reconsider its position.
A national commemoration of the victims who died in the MH17 crash was held in Amsterdam on Monday. We recall that the plane was shot down on July 17th, in an area controlled by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. Out of the 298 people who died then, 196 were Dutch citizens. The Dutch royal couple and Prime Minister Mark Rutte attended the ceremony alongside victims’ relatives and friends. Last Wednesday, Dutch and Malaysian officials agreed to maintain pressure in order to get access to the crash site in Ukraine and bring the guilty to justice. The plane is believed to have been brought down with a surface – to – air missile. The US and Ukraine claim the missile was Russian made.
Albanian and Serbian Prime Ministers, Edi Rama and Aleksandr Vucici respectively on Monday voiced their divergences over the former province of Kosovo, which proclaimed its independence in 2008, though Belgrade opposed it. Currently on a historic visit to the Serbian capital, the first by an Albanian premier in the past 68 years, Edi Rama called on Serbia to recognize the irreversible reality” of the predominantly Albanian speaking province. In response, Aleksandr Vucic denounced a provocation, saying that Kosovo is part of Serbia and has not and will never have anything to do with Albania.
The Romanian — Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer lost on Monday the debut match of the Tournament of Champions’ group A. They were defeated by Austrian Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares. The competition hosted by the British capital has brought together the worlds first 8 best players and 8 best pairs in 2014. This is Horia Tecau’s third participation in the Tournament, but the first alongside the Dutch player Rojer. We recall that this year, at the Tournament of Women Champions in Singapore, Romania Simona Halep, ranked 3rd in the WTA classification, reached as far a sthe final, but was eventually defeated by world leader Serena Williams.
