December 1, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 01.12.2014, 19:11
On December 1st, Romanians celebrated the National Day of Romania. In Bucharest, the main event was the traditional military parade, which this year was given by 2 thousand 7 hundred soldiers, 280 pieces of armament and 40 military aircraft. The Romanian soldiers were joined by soldiers from the US, France, Poland and Turkey, members of NATO alongside Romania, as well as fellow soldiers from the neighboring Republic of Moldova. December 1st became Romania’s national day after the anti-Communist revolution of 1989, marking the union of 1918, at the end of the first world war, when the Romanian unitary state was set up, by incorporating all the provinces with predominantly Romanian speaking populations that back then were part of the neighboring multi-national empires.
A joint IMF and EC delegation is expected to Bucharest on Tuesday, to analyse, together with Romanian officials, Romania’s 2015 draft budget. According to the Minister Delegate for Budget, Darius Valcov, the draft will reach Parliament after negotiations with Romania’s international creditors, around the date of December 10th, to be approved before the end of the parliamentary session. Darius Valcov has also stated that the project does not provide for tax and fee raises, quite the opposite. The government envisages fiscal relaxation measures, such as a lower VAT, and a stronger focus on European investments.
The three pro-European parties members of the ruling coalition in the Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, namely the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party, have announced they’ve started negotiations for the formation of a parliamentary majority and a new government. Together, they got 45% of the votes cast on Sunday. The Socialist and the Communist parties together got approximately 40% of the votes. According to the report drawn up by international observers, who monitored the election, it was a democratic ballot, with no major irregularities. After the validation of the results, parliament will elect the next president of the Republic of Moldova.
The current president of Romania Traian Basescu, the president elect, Klauss Iohannis and prime minister Victor Ponta have hailed the victory scored by the pro-European parties at Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova. President Traian Basescu hopes that the modernization of the neighboring country will speed up, just like its efforts to join the EU. The president has also reiterated that Romania will keep on being a partner to Moldova. The President Elect, Klaus Iohannis, believes that the Moldovan citizens have shown they want a reformist government, committed to carrying on Moldova’s European modernization process. Prime Minister Victor Ponta has stated that the results of Sunday’s elections is the best news Romania could get from its neighbour.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday paid his first official visit to the Republic of Moldova. His agenda included meetings with the president of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and his counterpart Natalia Gherman. According to a release issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the talks focused on bilateral relations and Chisinau’s European integration efforts, following Sunday’s legislative elections. On the occasion, the Romanian Foreign Minister stressed the progress made in the cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, especially in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, health and culture.
Starting Monday, the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is the new president of the European Council. His main priorities are the economic strengthening of the Union, the conclusion of the trade agreement with the US and settling the tense relation with Russia. A former journalist, writer and declared anti-communist, Donald Tusk is the first east European to take such a top position, news agencies report.
At the summit in Dakar, the new secretary general of the International Organization of La Francophonie, the Canadian Michaelle Jean, pleaded for an economic franchophonie. Her predecessor, the Senegalese Abdou Diouf, had promoted the political dimension. Michaelle Jean said that after Diouf’s successes such as consolidating democracy in the member states, electoral assistance or crisis prevention actions, she would pay particular attention to the economic development of the member states, as most of them are poor African countries. The Organization, which also includes Romania, has 57 members and 23 observer states, which total some 900 million inhabitants, of which 274 million are French speaking. Another three observers joined the organization at the Dakar summit, namely Mexico, Costa Rica and Kosovo.
Pope Francis has called on all Muslim religious and political leaders, as well as intellectuals, to clearly and firmly condemn Islamist terrorism. During a press conference held on the plane flying him back to Rome from the historic visit to Turkey, the Pope said that he had requested that unequivocal condemnation also during the meeting on Friday with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On the last day of his visit to Turkey, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew made an appeal to starting the rapprochement between the catholic and orthodox churches, separated for a thousand years, and signed a joint declaration saying that they will never accept a Middle East without Christians. They also voiced worries over the situation of the Christians in the Middle East, threatened by Jihadists, and also over the conflict in Ukraine and called for the observance of international law.
