December 2, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 02.12.2014, 16:00
An IMF delegation is in Bucharest for talks with Romanian authorities regarding the state budget for next year. Romania has committed itself to maintaining a budget deficit of maximum 1.4% of the GDP next year. However, the Romanian government will try to convince the IMF delegation to approve a derogation, in order to avoid raising taxes. According to the Finance Ministry, the budget deficit should increase by 0.3% in order for Romania to be able to keep the promises it made at the latest NATO summit regarding defence expenses. Also, an addition to the deficit would be necessary for the amounts needed to co-fund European projects.
Leaders of the pro-European parties in the Republic of Moldova’s Parliament have started talks on the formation of a new government. Following Sunday’s legislative elections, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party, members of the current government coalition, together got 55 of the 101 MP seats. The other 46 seats are shared between socialists and the pro-Russia communists. In Chisinau, analysts, quoted by Radio Romania correspondents, say that a pro-European coalition will definitely be established. However, they say that authorities will have to carry through the reforms already started, because otherwise they might not get any seats next time. More on this after the news.
In Lugansk, Ukrainian soldiers and separatists decided yesterday to cease fire on the front line starting December 5th, and to withdraw heavy artillery starting December 6th, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reports. The conflict in eastern Ukraine started in April, when Kiev launched a military operation against the pro-Russian rebels who took over the administrative buildings in Donetk and Lugansk. Kiev and the West accuse Russia of having provided the separatists with military support, though Moscow has firmly denied the allegation. A fragile truce was announced in Eastern Ukraine in early September, in Minsk, between Kiev and the separatists, but that truce has been repeatedly broken. According to the latest UN toll, 4 thousand 3 hundred people have died since the start of the conflict.
The new Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, is attending in Brussels the two day summit of the NATO foreign ministers. The agenda of talks includes topics such as security in the eastern neighborhood, the stage of implementation of the decisions made at the NATO summit in Great Britain, as well as the short-term reassurance measures for the eastern allies, including Romania. The measures established under the action plan regarding NATO’s rapid reaction capability, among which the scope of military presence on the territories of the countries that make up the eastern flank, will also be analyzed. The ministers will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan, including the Resolute Support mission, which starts on January 2015 and in which Romania is taking part with 650 soldiers. On the sidelines of the summit, the Romanian Foreign Minister will hold a meeting with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Russia’s dropping the South Stream project confirms the need to diversify the European Union’s sources of supplies, reads a communiqué issued by the European Commission today. The reaction follows Russian giant Gazprom’s decision to abandon the project for the building of the pipeline that should have supplied southern Europe with Russian gas, detouring Ukraine. The idea of a new transport route was launched by Slovakia, which suggested the building of a pipeline to reduce the region’s dependency on the Russian gas.
1 thousand 4 hundred domestic and international flights have been cancelled and over 150 thousand passengers have been affected by the Lufthansa pilots’ strike, which is due to end today. The protest, the tenth since the beginning of the year, was triggered by the fact that the German pilots are not happy with the new retirement conditions decided by the leadership of the company. They want to continue to benefit from the possibility to choose early retirement at the age of 55 and to keep 60% of the salary. In late October, Lufthansa announced losses of 170 million Euros because of the many strikes staged by its staff. Pilots’ trade unions have announced more strikes before and after Christmas.
