Radio România Internațional

Tag: Defence Minister

  • September 10, 2017 UPDATE

    September 10, 2017 UPDATE

    ACADEMIC YEAR RESUMES — Some 2.3 million high-school students and elementary pupils are on Monday starting a new school year. The 2017-2018 academic year comprises 35 school weeks and will end on May 25 and June 8, for 12th and 8th graders respectively. One of the main changes compared to the previous year is that teachers are forbidden of using extra-curricular material in class. Any new material has to be reviewed by the Education Ministry, once the methodology is agreed upon by a committee made up of ministry officials, trade union representatives, parents and students. Additionally, 5th graders will start the new school year without handbooks, which will be replaced by a controversial collection of materials, which they will use in class for the first two months of the first semester. There are still schools that haven’t received the health and fire safety permits.



    DEFENCE — The name of Romania’s new Defense Minister will be made public on Tuesday, after the meeting of the Social-Democratic Party, party leader Liviu Dragnea said on Sunday. Dragnea said the Social-Democrats will consult with their junior ruling partners, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. Liberal leader Ludovic Orban expressed reluctance over the nomination of a new Defense Minister, accusing the Government of trying to find a way out of allotting 2% of the country’s GDP to defense spending, as Romania committed to doing before its North-Atlantic partners. Outgoing Minister Adrian Tutuianu resigned last Tuesday after Prime Minister Mihai Tudose criticized the poor communication over the salaries in the military. Previously the Defense Ministry had announced that employees will this month receive only their regular pay, without their meal allowances and their social security contributions and income taxes being wired to the state budget. The Ministry’s announcement was denied both by the Prime Minister and the Finance Ministry, which argued there were no difficulties in covering the salary entitlements of Defense Ministry employees. Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu serves as interim Defense Minister.



    IRMA — A crisis desk has been set up at the Romanian Foreign Ministry to oversee diplomatic interventions in the area hit by hurricane Irma, so as to assist all Romanian citizens affected. According to a press release made public on Sunday, the Ministry is taking action to cross-check official information released by the local authorities with info provided by Romanian citizens on site, to verify and confirm, using any means possible, their current state of health and whereabouts. Jointly with embassies in Paris, the Hague, London, Washington, Ciudad de Mexico, Havana, Lisbon, Warsaw and Ankara, the crisis desk is trying to identify the most efficient measures to assist Romanians affected by the hurricane. The Ministry recalls that all Romanian citizens can request consular aid at Romania’s diplomatic offices.



    ACCIDENT — Five Romanians died and three were injured in a car accident near Vienna. They were travelling in a bus with Romanian license plates. According to a Foreign Ministry release, the injured were taken to a nearby hospital to receive emergency medical care, while a mobile team of Romania’s Embassy in Austria is providing consular aid.



    COMMEMORATION — Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel was commemorated in Sighetul Marmatiei, northern Romania. The events also included a seminar devoted to Wiesel and a silent march. Deported in 1944 by Hungarian occupation troops to German concentration camps, Wiesel lived in France after the war, and subsequently settled in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986 for promoting the memory of Holocaust victims. Wiesel visited Romania twice, and the National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Bucharest bears his name. Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2, 2016. (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • May 19, 2016 UPDATE

    May 19, 2016 UPDATE

    PRESIDENCY – The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis told a press conference on Thursday that the Supreme Defence Council, due to convene on May 27, would discuss the public healthcare issue. The head of state explained this decision was made following the most recent public scandal, involving diluted disinfectants, which revealed the extent of the damages caused by the carelessness and corruption in the public healthcare system. Iohannis also mentioned that healthcare was included in the National Defence Strategy. In another development, the President announced on Thursday having signed into law a legislative package on public procurement, which was recently endorsed by Parliament. Iohannis also said he would send back to the Government the Ph.D. bill, because he intended to put an end to the scourge of plagiarism, and the text endorsed by Parliament fails to define a proper legislative framework to encourage excellence.



    DIPLOMACY – While on an official visit to London, the Romanian Defence Minister, Mihnea Motoc, had a meeting on Thursday with the British Secretary for Defence, Michael Fallon. The talks focused on strengthening the bilateral military cooperation as well as cooperation in preparing the agenda for the forthcoming NATO Summit due in July. The two officials emphasised the critical role of the strategic partnership between the UK and Romania in the current security context. The Romanian Defence Minister also highlighted the strategic important of the Black Sea, as an integral part of Euro-Atlantic security, and the need for a stronger NATO presence along the eastern flank of the Alliance.



    CULTURE – The Government of Romania and the Culture Ministry Thursday officially launched the support campaign for the national subscription for purchasing Constantin Brancusis famous work “Wisdom of the Earth. The campaign will run until September 30. The work, currently in a private collection, costs 11 million euros, of which the Government announced it would pay 5 million euros, with the balance to be raised through this public campaign. The “Wisdom of the Earth, dating back to 1907, alongside works like “The Kiss and “Prayer, is representative of Brancusis most creative years.



    PLANE CRASH – A terror attack is a more likely explanation than technical failure in the case of the airliner that went missing on Thursday in the Mediterranean, says the Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister, Sherif Fatih. Previously the President of France had confirmed that the EgyptAir plane had crashed into the sea. The aircraft, which was flying from Paris to Cairo, carried 66 passengers and crew, mostly Egyptians and French people. A spokesperson for the Greek Army announced that pieces of debris were spotted in the search area around 370 km from the Greek island of Crete. Originally the presumed crash area was off the Karpathos Island, east of Crete. According to the Greek authorities, the aircraft lost contact with the radar little after leaving the Greek airspace and entering Egypts.



    TENNIS – Two more Romanians, Sorana Cîrstea (99 WTA) and Andreea Mitu (114 WTA) have reached the main draw of the Roland Garros tournament, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, totalling 32 million dollars in prize money. Cîrstea defeated Jana Cepelova (Slovakia, 134 WTA) and Mitu outplayed Chinas Jia – Jing Lu (208 WTA). Marius Copil, 190th ranked in ATP rankings, will play Roberto Carballes Baena (115 ATP), while Adrian Ungur, 204th ranked in
    ATP standings, defeated Frances Tiafoe of the United States, 188 ATP. Simona Halep, Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu and Alexandra Dulgheru have already secured qualification to the main draw.