Radio România Internațional

Tag: Danube Strategy

  • June 28, 2019

    June 28, 2019

    EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS – The National Executive
    Committee of the Social Democratic Party, the main party of the ruling coalition in
    Bucharest today convenes to validate the candidacies submitted for the
    leadership of the party, as well as to set the agenda of this coming Saturday’s
    extraordinary Congress. Running for the presidency are six social democrat
    candidates. The press has rated the Social Democratic Party’s interim
    president, the current incumbent head of the government Viorica Dancila as
    favorite. The position became vacant a month ago, when the coalition’s former
    strongman, Liviu Dragnea, was indicted and imprisoned on charges of corruption.




    TOP-LEVEL MOLDOVAN VISIT TO ROMANIA – Romania has supported the Republic
    of Moldova politically but also financially, through all its projects, the
    Republic’s new Prime Minister Maia Sandu told an interview to Radio Romania
    Chisinau, ahead of the visit Sandu will pay to Bucharest next week. Maia Sandu
    went on to say talks with the Romanian authorities would mainly focus on the
    development of energy or infrastructure projects, for which Chisinau heavily
    relies on help from Romania. Maia Sandu also stated neighboring Romania was the
    Republic of Moldova’s main supporter in the Republic’s European integration endeavor.
    Sandu was this month sworn in as head of the pro-European government in
    Chisinau. Maia Sandu decided her first official foreign visit would be in
    Bucharest on July 2. Previously, however, Maia Sandu announced she would first
    travel to Brussels.




    EU
    ACCESSION CONFERENCE CHAIRED BY ROMANIA – Romania’s Minister Delegate for European
    Affairs, George Ciamba, as a representative of Romania’s presidency of the
    Council of the European Union in Brussels has chaired the 10th
    Intergovernmental Accession Conference with Serbia. Attending the conference
    were the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn
    and the Serbian European Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimovic. Financial
    services is the new negotiations chapter opened with Serbia, in this country’s
    bid to gain accession to the EU. According to a press release, meeting this
    target towards the end of Romania’s Presidency of the Council of the European
    Union ties in with the objective which in Romania’s six-month term was pursued
    and promoted, generating positive, merit-based results for candidates, capable
    of encouraging and motivating future progress in key areas of the reform
    process. Minister Ciamba hailed the fact that Romania’s presidency of the
    Council of the EU, with respect to the West Balkans chapter, ended through an
    intergovernmental Conference with Romania’s neighboring state Serbia, one of
    the most advanced candidates to that effect.




    DANUBE STRATEGY CONFERENCE – The 8th Annual Forum of
    the of the European Union’s Strategy for the Danube Region, EUSDR, gets
    underway in Bucharest today, According to the Romanian Foreign Affairs
    Ministry, the Forum is the most important event of Romania’s acting presidency
    of EUSDR, and the last large-scale event held under the aegis of Romania’s
    Presidency of the Council of the EU which draws to a close on Sunday, June 30.
    Re-launching the Strategy of the Danube is the eventual aim of Romania’s
    presidency at EUSDR, while the revision of the action plan is a major step forward
    to that end, a Foreign Affairs Ministry press release writes. To that effect, Romania
    stepped up talks to include agriculture and aquaculture in the region’s areas
    of interest.




    BRACING FOOTBALL RECORD BY ROMANIA – Romania’s Under-21 football
    team in Bologna on Thursday night sustained a 2-4 defeat by Germany, in the
    semifinal of the Under-21 European Football Championship jointly hosted by Italy
    and San Marino. In the other semifinal, Spain outclassed France, 4-1. Romania’s
    under-21 football team have had an en excellent run in the aforementioned
    tournament. Having qualified for the semifinals, Romania secured their ticket
    for the 2020 edition of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.




    TOP-LEVEL US-RUSSIAN MEETING – US President Donald Trump and Russian
    president Vladimir Putin have openly reiterated their friendly relations,
    according to Reuters and Agence France Presse, after the two heads of state
    held a meeting ahead of the G-20 summit hosted by the Japanese town of Osaka.
    President Trump apparently downplayed the scandal triggered by Russia allegedly
    having a hand in the US presidential election in 2016. However, during the
    event, President Trump was vocal in asking President Putin to stay out of the
    election process. An appreciable number of Americans eagerly awaited the event
    in Japan, against the backdrop of the Congress-initiated inquests continuing,
    targeting alleged links between Donald trump’s election campaign and Russia.








    EUROPEAN
    FILM FESTIVAL – A new edition of the European Film Festival got underway in the
    central Romanian town of Sibiu on June 28 and will draw to a close on June 30. Among this year’s novelties are seven recent
    productions as well as a classic of the 1990s. As Happy as Lazarus a film by
    Alice Rohrwacher will open the festival. The film scooped the Best Screenplay
    award at the 2018 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. A France-Belgium co-production,
    Emmanuel Finkiel’s romantic drama Pain will also be screened at the festival in
    Sibiu. Also screened in Sibiu will be
    Power Games by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Women in War, a comedy by Benedikt
    Erlingsson, Yesterday by Balint Kenyeres, Sophie’s Son, a film by Elina Psykou
    and Julia, a film by Elena Martin. Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan’s 1989
    production My Left Foot is the classic to be screened at the European Film Festival
    in Sibiu. Featuring Daniel-Day Lewis, the film is based on the true story of
    Irish writer Christy Brown, who suffered from cerebral palsy since early
    childhood. Previous editions of the European Film festival were this year
    hosted by the capital city Bucharest,
    Ramnicu Valcea in the south, Targu Mures in the center as well as by Republic
    of Moldova’s capital city Chisinau. We recall the Republic of Moldova is a
    former Soviet republic, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population.







  • October 30, 2015

    October 30, 2015

    The former president of Romania, Traian Basescu, may be prosecuted in a case involving the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005, a Bucharest court decided today, citing abuse of office and conflict of interests among the charges. The case was opened after the former leader of Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, filed a complaint to the General Prosecutors Office in 2009, accusing Traian Basescu and his former Interior Minister, the current co-president of the National Liberal Party, Vasile Blaga, of having appropriated some of the 4 million US dollars paid by the Romanian state as ransom for the three journalists. Prosecutors mentioned that the probe into Vasile Blaga was closed in 2010, and prosecution was ruled out. Traian Basescu finds the accusations ridiculous and views the case as an offence to Romania.



    Nine central and eastern-European countries will take part in Bucharest on November 4 in a high-level meeting, attended by the deputy NATO Secretary General, Alexander Vershbow. He has recently said that there are risks when Russia gets involved in operations close to NATO territory. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who will be hosting the summit, announced that the participants will release a joint message regarding the adjustment of NATO to the current security context.



    The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu is taking part today, in Ulm (Germany) in the fourth Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, organised by the European Commission. On this occasion, Minister Aurescu will have bilateral meetings with German officials. The EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a major European political project launched by Romania jointly with Austria, and the Forum is its central annual event. The project brings together Danube riparian countries, of which 9 EU members and 5 non-members.



    Romania might reach an absorption rate of over 90% by the end of the 2007-2014 National Rural Development Programme, which means that more than 9 billion euros from national and European funds will have been attracted into the sector, said George Turtoi, secretary of state with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This programme is the instrument under which non-reimbursable funds are allotted for private and public investments that ensure the development of villages in Romania. The total funds earmarked under this programme were 9.67 billion euro, which should have been contracted by the end of 2013, but can still be paid until the end of 2015, Agerpres reports.



    The mayor of the north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi, Gheorghe Nichita, and a well-known businessman are to find out today whether they will be placed under custody pending trial for 30 days. The two are subject to investigation in a case involving the award of an EU-funded contract amounting to 15 million euros.



    The European Union announced it was closely monitoring the political developments in the Republic of Moldova, after the Parliament in Chisinau Thursday dismissed the Cabinet headed by Valeriu Streletz through a no-confidence motion. In a press release issued by the office of the EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, Brussels urges the politicians in Chisinau to form a new and stable government as soon as possible, considering that the Republic of Moldova is experiencing a difficult period in all respects – economic, political and social. The new Cabinet will have to carry on efforts to fight corruption, to solve the banking crisis and to negotiate a new agreement with the IMF, which is vital to ensuring macroeconomic stability, reads the press statement.



    Talks are held in Vienna today between the foreign powers that back the rival parties in the Syrian civil war. According to the BBC, the goal is the bridge the differences between the US and its allies, which support the rebels, and the key supporters of the Syrian regime, Russia and Iran. This is for the first time that Iran takes part in such talks. Recently, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, urged the participants in the Vienna talks to prove “flexibility. The war, which has been going on for four years, started out as a rebellion against the President Bashar al-Assad, and has so far killed 250,000 people, forcing half of the countrys population, nearly 11 million people, to leave their homes.