December 18, 2014 UPDATE
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 18.12.2014, 12:15
Romania’s outgoing president Traian Basescu is attending the European Council summit for the last time, as his term in office is coming to an end. Before leaving for Brussels, he said he would propose a solution for Romania not to lose the European funds it is unable to spend by the end of 2015. Mr Basescu suggests that the states who have not been able to absorb all the funds to which they are entitled could contribute will their unfinished projects to the future programme proposed by the European Commission and thus have a chance to finalise their projects by 2017. He also said he would back harsher sanctions against Moscow. On Thursday, the European Union decided to ban all European investment in and trade exchanges with Crimea to show its opposition against what it described as its “illegal annexation” by Russia earlier this year.
Parliament’s budget and finance committees are debating the state and the social security budget bill for 2015. In the version approved by the government, the budget is based on a deficit level of 1.8% of the GDP, an inflation rate of 2.2% and an economic growth rate of 2.5%. The labour, finance, agriculture transport and economy ministries are allocated the biggest budgets in 2015, while healthcare, culture, administration and home affairs will have the lowest budgets. After being discussed by Parliament’s budget and finance committees, the budget bill will be voted on by the two chambers on the 21st of December.
The National Political Bureau of the National Liberal Party, in opposition, elected MP Alina Gorghiu as interim president. She ran against the party’s vice-president Ludovic Orban. A spokeswoman for Klaus Iohannis’ presidential campaign, she will replace Iohannis, who officially takes office as the country’s president on Sunday. Gorghiu will serve as interim president of the party until the Congress in 2017, when the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic will merge into a single entity with a single leader.
Events have been held in the western Romanian city of Timisoara to pay tribute to the people killed during the anti-communist revolution of 1989. 25 years ago on December 18, despite the declaration of martial law in the city, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in an unprecedented uprising against the regime. The protests in Timisoara, which started on December 16, sparked more demonstrations across the country, leading to the collapse of the Ceausescu regime a few days later. More than 1,000 people were killed and 3,400 wounded in the process. Romania was in fact the only country in the Eastern bloc where the regime change was accompanied by bloodshed and where the ousted communist leaders ended up being executed.
The Romanian foreign ministry has hailed the announcement on the restoration of US-Cuban diplomatic relations more than 50 years after being broken off. The ministry also underlines that in recent years, Bucharest has made steps towards achieving a more dynamic relation with Cuba by actively supporting the start of negotiations on a political and cooperation agreement between the European Union and Cuba. In Washington, the Democrats and Republicans who oppose closer ties with Cuba deplored Barack Obama’s decision to begin normalising relations with Cuba, saying they will resist lifting the trade embargo. The presidents of the US and Cuba on Tuesday decided to normalise ties between their two states, a decision described by the White House as historic. A day earlier, both countries released persons sent to prison for espionage, after 18 months of secret negotiations. Washington imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in 1960 and broke diplomatic ties with Havana the following year.
The Romanian car market grew by around 24% in the first 11 months of the year compared with the same period in 2013, according to a report by the Association of Car Manufacturers and Importers. The local car production dropped between January and November 2014 by 3.5% compared with 2013. As for exports, Dacia Duster is in leading position, followed by Logan and Ford B-Max.
In their last match at the European Handball Championships hosted by Hungary and Croatia, the Romanian women’s handball team won against Poland, 24-19, but finished the competition on the 9th place. In the main group, Romania defeated Spain and lost against Hungary. Earlier in the competition, Romania won against Ukraine, drew against Denmark and lost to Norway.
