November 12, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 12.11.2014, 20:02
The Rosetta spaceship, of the European Space Agency on Wednesday succeeded in landing a probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in a mission that could reveal the origins of life on Earth. The European Space Agency, the German Space Agency and the French Space Agency are involved in the project. Launched in March 2004, the Rosetta probe has already covered over 6 billion km in space. It has orbited the Earth three times and Mars once to get the speed it needed to reach the comet.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has called on all staff working at polling stations abroad at the presidential runoff on November 16, to do their job to the best of their abilities. The Ministry’s request take place against the backdrop of accusations regarding the way in which the first round of voting was organized abroad on November 2nd, when thousands of Romanians could not cast their vote, blaming the small number of polling stations and staff in the election commissions. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has already taken measures for the smooth running of the election process, without however setting up more polling stations. The Central Election Bureau has repeatedly said that such a decision can only be made by the Foreign Ministry. Leftist Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the rightist mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis will run for president in the second round of voting on Sunday, November 16th.
Romania has drawn almost 13 billion euros from the EU funds for agriculture and rural development, which sets the countrys absorbtion rate at 80.7% of the amounts alloted between 2007 and 2013, reads an Agriculture Ministry release. Romanian Minister of European Funds, Eugen Teodorovici, has said in turn that Romania’s EU funds absorption rate will reach 80% next year, one of the highest in Europe.
Romania has made significant progress in the field of justice, which will be included in the next report drawn up under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, Romanian Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc has said. According to Cazanciuc, January’s report is likely to prove that there is no formal or informal reason to block Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area. Initially set for 2011, the two countries accession has been postponed repeatedly, on grounds of lack of judicial reforms and ineffectiveness in combating organised crime.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Wednesday that the country should prepare for further moves from Russia and the pro-Russian militants, as if the country were preparing for war. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has reported seeing unmarked convoys in the region in recent days. Russian tanks, artillery, air defence systems and combat troops were sighted, NATO’s top military commander, Gen Philip Breedlove said. Fighting reportedly continues despite the conclusion of ceasefire accords in Minsk in September. However, Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict. According to the OSCE, more than 4000 people have died in Ukraine since the onset of the conflict in April.
On Wednesday, the European Commission, on behalf of the EU, paid a loan of 260 million euros to Ukraine as part of the EU Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) facility for the country. This disbursement adds to the 600 million euros disbursed since May under the two ongoing EU MFA programmes. This leaves 750 million euros remaining under the current programmes for Ukraine. The MFA programmes support Ukraine economically and financially in the current critical stage of its development. They are linked to specific conditionality that focuses, amongst others, on public finance management and anti-corruption, trade and taxation, the energy sector and financial sector reforms. At the same time, the Commission is increasing its humanitarian assistance and recovery aid to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable and conflict-affected populations in Ukraine. The EU is providing an additional 3.3 million euros to help the most vulnerable population affected by the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine to meet their basic needs and prepare for the approaching winter. A further 4.5 million euros is being provided to meet the recovery and integration needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities as well as to promote confidence building.
The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer were defeated on Wednesday in their second match in Group A of the Champions’ Tournament in London, by the main favourites, American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan. In their first match on Monday, Tecau and Rojer lost to Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil. The London Tournament rallies the top 8 singles players and the top 8 doubles teams in the world in 2014. Horia Tecau takes part in the Champions’ Tournament for the third time, being for the first time joined by Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer. In 2011 and 2012, Tecau and Swedish Robert Lindstedt were eliminated in the group stage. We recall that this year, three-seeded Romanian Simona Halep lost the final of the WTA Finals in Singapore to world leader Serena Williams.
