Romania’s President on a visit to Italy and Brussels
Romania’s
President, Klaus Iohannis has had a busy agenda this week, which included a
four-day state visit to Italy and a trip to Brussels where he attended the
autumn session of the European Council. Also, the Romanian president attended
the 12th Asia-Europe Summit. Early this week, Klaus Iohannis paid
the first state visit to Italy by a Romanian president over the past 45 years. With
an estimated value of trade exchanges of over 15.5 billion Euros in 2018, Italy is Romania’s second largest trade
partner and ranks first among foreign investors in terms of the number of
companies doing business on the Romanian market. Organized in the year when
Romania celebrates 100 years since the Great Union and 10 years since
Romanian-Italian relations were lifted at the level of Consolidated Strategic
Partnership, the visit also covered issues related to the significant Romanian
community, of some 1.2 million people, the largest community living outside the
borders of the country and also the largest foreign community in Italy. During
the official talks with the Italian President and Prime Minister, Iohannis thanked
the Italian authorities for the way in which the Romanians are treated and
integrated in the Peninsula. From Rome, the Romanian president went to
Brussels, where he attended the autumn session of the European Council, and
then the 12th Asia-Europe
Summit. The first day of the EU Summit ended without any significant progress
regarding Brexit. President Iohannis said that, in spite of heated
negotiations, Great Britain’s deal has not been finalized so far. Iohannis has expressed hope that at
least a deal on a well planned withdrawal of the UK can be achieved, so that
other steps could be taken. On the second day, the European leaders discussed
issues regarding migration, internal security and strengthening the monetary
union. The
talks on migration focused on future developments, towards boosting cooperation
with third origin and transit countries. As regards internal security,
president Iohannis has underlined that preventing and fighting terrorism
should remain one of the main concerns of the EU member states.
The Romanian Prime Minister’s tour of Turkey,
United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
This
week, the Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă has taken a tour of Turkey, the United
Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The first leg of the tour was Turkey, where the PM
was received in Ankara by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two officials
agreed that Romania will further support Turkey’s European path. The two
countries expressed readiness to further cooperate to develop economic
relations, maintain security and fight against terrorism. The two officials also signed two bilateral
cooperation agreements in the fields of healthcare and education. The tour
continued in the United Arab Emirates. In
Dubai, during the meeting with the Emirati leader, sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Viorica
Dancila also presented the latest
investment opportunities in Romania and encouraged Emirati companies to take
part either in public tenders for projects financed under the existing operational programmes, or in
projects developed though public-private partnerships. Dancila said Romania
will further pay special heed to the EU’s southern neighborhood, the more so as
the country will hold the rotating presidency of the EU Council, for six
months. In Abu Dhabi, Viorica Dăncilă also
talked about attracting Emirati investments and boosting two-way trade
exchanges. On Wednesday, the heads of the Romanian and Emirati government
adopted a Joint Declaration on establishing a strategic economic partnership between
the Government of Romania and the Government of the United Arab Emirates.
Trade, investment, agriculture, tourism, research and innovation are only some
of the key domains of cooperation between the two countries’ business
environments. The last leg of the tour was Kuwait.
The 2018 Earthquake Drills
The
population should be ready as much as possible in order to know how to react in
case of disaster, the Head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, said during a ceremony marking the
end of a drill simulating a major earthquake in Romania, Earthquake 2018. Raed
Arafat said it was the biggest and most complex such exercise at European level
in the past years, which was an occasion for the Romanian authorities to test
their reaction response and speed, as well as the capacity to intervene and
cooperate in case of a powerful earthquake. Romania is considered to be one of
the most earthquake vulnerable EU countries. In the past two centuries,
Romania was hit by seven earthquake measuring
over 7 degrees on Richter’s scale. During the five-day-simulation, the training
included all structures with responsibilities
in the event of a major earthquake, of 7.5 degrees, followed by tremors,
with multiple victims and which will affect mostly Bucharest. The rescuers were
put to the test, to face limit situations, with thousands of dead and injured
and people left destitute. President Klaus Iohannis decreed the instament of a state of emergency. At its bases, the
Army mounted mobile hospitals, and special camps were laid out on stadiums and
in the satellite localities of Bucharest. State of the art mobile hospitals,
including intensive care units have been brought over from Israel, Italy and Norway,
and ambulances arrived from Austria and Hungary.
Romania’s Under 21 team qualifies for the
final tournament of the European Championships after 20 years
Romania’s
youth football team has qualified for the Under-21 European Championship due
next year, after defeating Liechtenstein
4-0, on home turf, in Ploiesti, on Tuesday, in the last qualifying Group 8
match. With seven wins and three draws out of ten matches, the Romanians ended
the qualification series undefeated, accumulating 24 points and winning a group
also made up of Portugal, Bosnia, Wales and Switzerland. Romania has
thus managed to secure a second qualification
to a European Youth Championship, after that in 1998, when the final tournament
was organised in Bucharest. The U-21 European Championships will be played over
June 16-30, 2019 in Italy and San Marino and will enjoy the participation of 12
teams.