Radio România Internațional

Tag: bucharest nine

  • June 11, 2022

    June 11, 2022

    Summit. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Friday met his Latvian
    counterpart Egils Levits on the sidelines of the
    Bucharest Nine summit hosted by the Romanian capital. Talks looked at ways to
    consolidate bilateral cooperation, coordinating actions within the EU and
    various formats of regional cooperation, such as the upcoming meeting of the
    Three Seas Initiative hosted by Latvia on 20th June. Iohannis
    reiterated the importance of this organisation for Romania, with many strategic
    implications, from security to the economy, with emphasis on the transport and
    energy infrastructure. He recalled Romania’s decision to resume from 2023 its
    participation in the NATO air policing mission in the Baltic area, a move
    described by the Latvian president as a contribution to ensuring allied
    security on the NATO eastern flank. Speaking at the Bucharest Nine summit,
    president Iohannis said that NATO’s future strategic concept must reflect the
    new security parameters as accurately and realistically as possible, give
    priority to collective defence, define Russia as a threat and consolidate the Alliance
    at all levels. He also spoke about a strengthened NATO presence on the eastern
    flank, especially the Black Sea, which is most exposed to Russia’s threats.




    Extradition. Former Romanian tourism minister Elena Udrea will be
    extradited from Bulgaria following a ruling by a Sofia court saying there is no
    evidence that her human rights and liberties would be violated on her return to
    Romania as she had claimed. The Bulgarian court ruling also showed there is no
    question mark over the way in which Romanian prosecutors investigated her case,
    which Udrea said was politically motivated. She left the country on 7th
    April before the Supreme Court was about to issue a final sentence convicting
    her to 6 years in prison for bribe taking and abuse of office. She is on trial
    in two other cases.




    Benefits. The Romanian Postal Service has begun the distribution of
    cards for the payment of social vouchers worth around 50 euros, with payment to
    be made after all cards have been distributed, from 20th June, said
    prime minister Nicolae Ciucă on the government’s Facebook page. Three million
    people, including pensioners, persons with disabilities, families with low
    incomes and homeless people will benefit from these vouchers once every two
    months, which they can use to buy food. The total value is some 626 million
    euros and will be granted in four tranches until the end of the year.




    Ukraine. The European Commission president
    Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv to meet president Volodymyr
    Zelensky and discuss Ukraine’s request to join the European Union and the
    country’s rebuilding after the war. On the ground,
    the situation has become dramatic in the Azov Sea port of Mariupol, where over
    20,000 inhabitants were killed and the lack of hygienic conditions and food has
    increased the risk of epidemics, especially dysentery and cholera. The city’s
    mayor called on the United Nations and the Red Cross to create a humanitarian corridor
    to evacuate the civilians. The German health minister, who visited Ukraine on
    Friday, also warned of the risk of a cholera epidemic in the Ukrainian
    territories occupied by Russia. He said Germany would boost medical aid for the
    wounded. The fighting continues in the east, with Ukrainian officials requesting
    more help from the West, including faster deliveries of weapons to halt the
    advance of the better equipped Russian forces.




    Visit.
    French president Emmanuel Macron is travelling to Bucharest on Tuesday to
    express France’s solidarity with its European allies most exposed to the war in
    Ukraine, said the French president’s office. He is expected to visit the French
    troops stationed in Cincu, in the centre. The NATO Battle
    Group Forward Presence was created in May in Romania. The group is led by
    France, which also has an air defence component in Romania. This is the third
    visit to Romania by the French president, and the first since winning his
    second term on 24th April. On Wednesday, he will travel to the
    neighbouring Republic of Moldova to reiterate support for this country affected
    by the war in Ukraine. Macron has tried to maintain a dialogue with Vladimir
    Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, but his position has come
    under repeated criticism from some European partners, who see his engagement
    with Putin as undermining efforts to bring the Russian president to the negotiation
    table.




    Schengen. It’s very important to have a realistic prospect of a
    timetable for Romania’s joining the Schengen area, said the country’s interior
    minister Lucian Bode, who attended on Friday the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs
    Council in Luxembourg. He said Romania made considerable efforts and
    significant investments to this end. Referring to Ukraine, he highlighted the
    progress made by the European Commission in the implementation of its 10-point
    plan to ensure stronger European coordination of its response to displacement
    from Ukraine. The Romanian official said it was essential for the Republic of
    Moldova to continue to receive support to be able to cope with the challenges
    it is facing. (CM)

  • June 10, 2022

    June 10, 2022

    Summit. Romania is today hosting a summit of the Bucharest Nine,
    an organisation initiated by the presidents of Romania, Klaus Johannis, and of
    Poland, Andrzej Duda. Attending the meeting are the heads of state of the member
    states on the NATO eastern flank that are part of the organisation: Bulgaria,
    the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. The
    agenda of the talks includes the preparation of the most important decisions of
    the upcoming NATO summit to be held in Madrid at the end of the month, with
    emphasis on the consequences of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine
    and NATO’s response. President Iohannis is expected to highlight the need to
    consolidate NATO’s deterrence and defence posture on the eastern flank in a
    balanced and unitary manner, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. NATO secretary
    general Jens Stoltenberg, who was diagnosed with shingles, will attend the
    summit remotely.




    IMF.
    The International Monetary Fund has improved Romania’s economic growth forecast
    to 3.5%-4.5% for 2022 and 2023, said the head of the mission for Romania Jan Kees Martijn. He said the uncertainty associated with
    this forecast is high, with risks of the war escalating and Russian gas
    deliveries being cut leading to a further rise in energy costs and reducing trade
    exchanges between European partners. The IMF official also said GDP reached the
    level before the crisis in the first quarter of the year after last autumn’s
    Covid wave. According to provisional data published on 7th June by
    the National Institute of Statistics, Romania’s GDP rose by 6.5% in the first
    quarter of the year compared with the same period last year.




    Bridge. Criminal investigations were opened following the collapse of a
    bridge on Siret river, in Neamţ county, in north-eastern Romania as it was being
    crossed by a truck and a van. The two drivers were injured. The bridge was
    reopened for road traffic last November after repair works and investigators are
    looking into what caused the bridge to collapse only six months after
    restoration. The president of the Neamţ county council Ionel Arsene, from the
    Social Democratic Party, in government, said last autumn that the bridge was safe
    for traffic. Official data show, however, that the reopening was not legally
    possible. The development ministry said the investment objective had not been
    finalised pending a final report and a team was sent at the site for an
    independent inquiry. In April, Arsene was convicted to 8 years and 4 months in
    prison for corruption, but he is still in office because the sentence was not final.






    Border. Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă and his Moldovan
    counterpart Natalia Gavriliţa today had talks in Bucharest about ways to
    improve border travel between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. According to
    a statement from the government’s spokesman Dan Cărbunaru, the two officials shared
    views on finding effective solutions, given the high pressure some border checkpoints,
    such as that in Galaţi, in the south-east. The Romanian defence ministry is
    deploying a new ferry to Isaccea, in the south-east, and will open two new
    checkpoints on the northern border.






    Sanctions. Companies in Romania controlled by
    Russian entities targeted by international sanctions will only be able to carry
    on their activity without their accounts being blocked if they are monitored by
    the state. The Romanian government issued an emergency order to this effect on
    Thursday. The aim is to protect Romanians’ jobs while complying with the
    European sanctions against Russia.






    Football.
    Romania’s national football side are preparing for their Saturday match against
    Finland in Bucharest, in Group 3 of League B of the UEFA Nations League.
    Romania have lost their first two group matches, nil-2 to Montenegro and nil-1
    to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Romania will next face Montenegro in Bucharest next
    week and will play their final two matches in September, against Finland away
    and against Bosnia and Herzegovina at
    home. (CM)