Radio România Internațional

Tag: border checks

  • June 4, 2024 UPDATE

    June 4, 2024 UPDATE

    RESERVES – The currency reserves of the Central Bank exceeded 65 bln EUR at the end of May, the National Bank of Romania reports. Gold reserves stood at 7,200 bln EUR. Romania’s currency and gold reserves totaled over 72,200 bln EUR at the end of last month.

     

     

    ELECTION – Romanians in Italy will be able to vote in the largest number of polling stations opened abroad for the European Parliament elections slated for Sunday. Iulian Ivan, the Foreign Ministry representative for the elections abroad, says polling stations were set up depending on the number of citizens in each country. 150 stations will be available in Italy, 147 in Spain and 104 in Great Britain. No stations were organized in certain countries and cities, such as Afghanistan, Mali, Sudan, Libya, Rostov-on-Don in Russia or Odesa in Ukraine, either because no military staff are present in the area, or because the diplomatic mission on the ground was closed or relocated. Polling stations will open at 7 AM on election day and close at 10 PM, with the possibility of extending voting hours until midnight. Voters at home will also take part in the local election. We recall presidential elections are slated for September and parliamentary elections for December.

     

     

    CHECKS – Random border checks will be carried out on Italy’s land, maritime and air borders over June 5-18, ahead of the G7 Summit scheduled to take place in this country, Romania’s Foreign Ministry announced. Border checks will be intensified close to the summit to be hosted by Apulia Region over June 13-15, Radio Romania’s Rome correspondent reports. Romanian citizens in Italy can request consular assistance by calling the numbers of the Romanian Embassy in Rome. Emergency requests can also be submitted to the special numbers of the consular offices in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Bari and Catania.

     

     

    MEETING – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, on Tuesday met Montenegro’s Foreign Minister, Filip Ivanovic in Bucharest. The head of state reiterated Romania’s relentless support for the EU integration efforts of Montenegro and the Western Balkans, an area of strategic importance for Euro-Atlantic space and European security and stability, the Presidency reports. President Iohannis also reiterated Romania’s readiness to provide bilateral expertise in the field of European integration.

     

     

    PROTEST – Romanian farmers taking part in Tuesday’s protest in Brussels have called for an overhaul of the Green Deal, saying the terms of the current Common Agricultural Policy endanger farmers’ activity and food safety. Farmers from 9 EU Member States took part in the protest action, also demanding the lifting of the free trade agreement with Latin America, a deal the EU is yet to sign. Should the document be ratified, cheap agricultural products that don’t observe single market regulations will reach EU markets, resulting in unfair competition for community products. According to Radio Romania’s Brussels correspondent, this will put EU farmers further at a loss following facilities provided to Ukrainian products and grain across community space.

     

     

    TENNIS – The pair made up of Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine on Tuesday advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles at the French Open after ousting Leylah Fernandez of Canada and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, 6-1, 6-4. In the next round, Ruse and Kostyuk will take on the all-Russian pair Mira Andreeva / Vera Zvonareva. Also in the round of 16, Monica Niculescu of Romania and Cristina Bucșa of Spain were knocked out by Emma Navarro of the USA and Diana Schnaider of Russia at the end of three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. (VP)

  • Schengen, a spaced-out accession

    Schengen, a spaced-out accession

    So long as Schengen is out of bounds, Romanians and Bulgarians will continue to consider themselves second-tier European citizens, the media and politicians in Bucharest and Sofia have warned for years. The issue has become increasingly pressing ahead of the European Parliament elections due next year in June, and the frustration generated by this undeserved exclusion fuels the approval rating of Euro-skeptic or outright anti-European parties in both countries. Having joined the community bloc in 2007, Romania and Bulgaria have been denied Schengen accession for nearly a decade, whereas Croatia, a country that acceded to the EU in 2013, was last year admitted into the visa-free travel area. Over 400 million people can travel inside the Schengen Area without going through border checks. Of all the EU member states, only Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Ireland are not part of Schengen, which also includes four non-EU countries: Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Iceland and Norway. Candidates require the unanimous vote of all Schengen members, and so far, Netherlands has blocked Bulgarias bid, while Austria has opposed Romanias candidacy.




    On Monday, Austrias Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced measures Romania needs to implement before Austria can greenlight the Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria, by opening its air borders. More progress is needed in the field of the EUs external land borders, by tripling the number of border police employees. The Commission must also earmark funds to secure the border infrastructure on the Bulgaria-Turkish and Romanian-Serbian borders. Minister Karner also wants Romania and Bulgaria to receive asylum seekers, particularly Afghans and Syrians, who might cross into Romania in route to Austria. Bulgarias Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov has described Austrias conditions as unacceptable, saying his government refuses to accommodate migrants from Austria. A more toned-down reaction came from Romanias Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who welcomed the announcement describing it as a personal success. The opposition however regards Karners announcement as a smokescreen given that Schengens land borders will remain closed to the thousands of lorries waiting for days before crossing, while the state incurs millions of EUR in losses. Romanias Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu called for patience, saying that the Dutch Parliament must also give its consent to lift the veto on Bulgarias Schengen accession before planning the next phases. (VP)


  • January 5, 2016

    January 5, 2016

    Although temperatures are slightly increasing, the weather remains very cold for this time of the year in Romania. Snowfalls are still reported in the south-east and north-west. The highs range between minus 8 and 5 degrees Celsius, with a minus 6 degree reading in Bucharest at noon. Over the past few days, 3 people died because of the biting cold, and 42 others have been rescued by the authorities. Road, railway and air transport is disrupted by the snow and wind.



    Bulgaria, Romanias southern neighbour, announced a code yellow alert against snow, black ice and strong wind, valid today in several parts of the country, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. Romanian citizens who travel or intend to travel to Bulgaria are urged to have their vehicles properly equipped and to check the latest news in this respect. The Foreign Ministry previously warned Romanian tourists that a similar alert was in place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.



    The importance of guaranteeing the freedom of the press is vital to any democratic country, particularly in a EU member state, said the Liberal Deputy Ionuţ Stroe, the head of Romanias delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In a statement to Radio Romania, he described as disquieting the fact that a law drafted by the new Conservative power in Poland, under which the directors of the public radio and television stations are to be appointed by the finance minister, was passed by the Parliament in Warsaw without public debate. On Monday, 4 international media freedom watchdogs filed a complaint in this respect with the Council of Europe. They criticise the law as threatening the independence of public media. The authors of the protest urge the Polish Conservative party “Law and Justice to immediately scrap this law, which is pending for promulgation by President Andrzej Duda, from the same party.



    Copenhagen announced temporary controls on its German border, shortly after Sweden had taken similar measures at its border with Denmark. The Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that unless the EU manages to protect its borders, several countries will have to tighten security checks. He explained that, following the restrictions imposed by Sweden, Denmark might be faced with a large number of illegal immigrants. In turn, the Swedish authorities claim that they are trying to reduce the number of refugees reaching their country. Last year, 160,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, the largest number in Europe after Germany. Denmark and Sweden are the last states to introduce border checks in the Schengen zone. In September 2015, Germany introduced controls on its Austrian border, and last week Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the visa-free area, announced that travelers without a visa would be denied access to the country.



    The leaders of the Moldovan pro-Western Liberal and Democratic parties, announced they would hold new talks in order to form a new parliamentary majority and a new government. The announcement comes after on Monday the prime minister designate, Ion Sturza, failed to get the votes of a sufficient number of MPs in the Moldovan Parliament, more than half of whose members were absent from the session. The Parliament Speaker, Adrian Candu, said that the vote is failed according to the Constitutional Court rules, and the head of state Nicolae Timofti is now to nominate a new candidate for the PM seat. Should the new attempt fail as well, Timofti must dissolve the Parliament and announce early elections. The previous cabinet, headed by the Liberal-Democrat Valeriu Streleţ, was dismissed on October 29, following a no-confidence motion tabled by the pro-Russian Communists and Socialists, but backed by the Democratic Party as well.



    The UN Security Council strongly criticized the attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, and Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was stormed and set alight by violent protesters, disgruntled with the execution of Shia Muslim cleric Nimr Baaqer al-Nimr by Riyadh. As tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalate, Russia expressed willingness to host negotiations between the two foreign ministers. In turn, the EU and USA call for calm following the row between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.



    The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 2 in the world, has withdrawn from the Brisbane tournament in Australia, having nearly 900,000 US dollars in prize money, and so did the current trophy holder, no. 4 WTA Maria Sharapova of Russia. Simona said that, in spite of the problem with her left leg, she would take part in the Sydney tournament next week. Two other Romanian players, Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Ţig, have qualified in the doubles quarter-finals of the Shenzhen tournament in China, which has 500,000 US dollars in prize money. In the first round, they defeated Zarina Dias / Ling Zhang (Kazakhstan/China), 6-2, 6-4.