February 10, 2015
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România Internațional, 10.02.2015, 12:00
The Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, is paying, Tuesday, an official visit to France at the invitation of his French counterpart Francois Hollande. The Romanian president previously stated that Romania attached a great importance to the consolidation of the strategic partnership with France, with which it has very good relations, both in the cultural and education and research fields. These issues as well as other topical matters such as fighting terrorism and the Ukrainian crisis are high on the agenda of the two officials’ talks. In Paris, Iohannis will also meet with high-ranking French government officials and with members of the Romanian community in France. We recall that in January President Iohannis participated in Paris in the anti-terror rally held in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks perpetrated in France’s capital in early 2015.
The Romanian economy has corrected to a large extent the internal and external imbalances by means of a combination of solid macroeconomic policies, but Romania is still vulnerable to external shocks and the adjustment of balance sheets has not been finalized yet, show the IMF experts in a declaration made public at the end of their mission to Bucharest. PM Ponta explained on Monday that the government did not agree with the international financial partners over increasing the natural gas price and restructuring the coal-fired power producing industries. The PM pointed out that the agreement with the international lenders remained in place and the two issues would be re-discussed in April, when the IMF mission returns to Bucharest. An IMF and EC mission was in Bucharest between January 27th and February 10th to continue talks on the precautionary stand-by agreement worth almost 2 billion euros concluded with Romania which comes to and end in autumn.
MP Elena Udrea, a former minister of development and tourism, is being heard by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Last night the Chamber of Deputies agreed with the prosecutors’ request related to the prosecution and preventive detention of the MP in 2 resounding corruption cases. Udrea is accused, among others, of abuse of office, influence peddling, money laundering and misrepresentation of facts in the assets declaration. Commentators say she will most likely be arrested by the prosecutors. Close to the former president of Romania, Traian Basescu, Udrea was a key figure of his regime between 2004 and 2014. She claims she is the victim of revenge, after she filed a criminal complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Directorate against the current interim director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, general Florian Coldea.
Romania’s Fed Cup team will play against Canada in the World Cup playoffs, following the draw that took place Tuesday in London at the offices of the International Tennis Federation. The World Group playoffs are scheduled for April 18th — 19th. Romania’s team qualified for the playoffs after they defeated the Spanish team 3-2 in the match that took place last week in Galati (eastern Romania). In women’s tennis the Fed Cup is similar to Davis Cup.
The heads of state of the “Normandy format” including Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine are meeting in Minsk to work out a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. On Monday the German chancellor Angela Merkel approached the issue in Washington with president Barack Obama. The US considers providing sophisticated weaponry to the Ukrainian troops to be able to face the pro-Russian rebels, but the European countries, mainly Germany, are opposed to such a measure. The diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the former Soviet republic come against the backdrop of intensified fighting. Over 5,300 people have died in the clashes between the Ukrainian troops and the pro-Russian secessionists in the east of Ukraine.
