Radio România Internațional

Tag: Mariya Gabriel

  • October 31, 2017

    October 31, 2017

    MOTION — The National Liberal Party, the People’s Movement Party and the Save Romania Union in opposition today filed a simple motion in the Senate against Finance Minister Ionut Misa. The opposition criticizes the Government’s fiscal measures, saying they will negatively impact the economy and all social classes. The Government wants to transfer the payment of social security contributions from employers to employees and to introduce the so-called “employment insurance tax” for employers. Liberal leader Ludovic Orban said this new contribution will increase taxation. In another development today, the Senate passed a draft law on adopting the Government’s emergency decree on the spaced-out payment of VAT. The plenary session paid heed to a report of the Senate’s Budget and Finance Committee, which modified the text of the decree, stipulating the measure applies only for insolvent companies or any companies with outstanding VAT-related debts at the end of 2017. The draft law will be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body.



    DIGITIZATION — The future of Europe will be digital or “there won’t be one”, and Romania will hold the upper hand in this context due to its very active network of startups, European Commissioner for Economy and the Digital Society, Mariya Gabriel, said today in Bucharest. According to the EU official, Southeastern Europe will have a great impact on the development of this field. Mariya Gabriel is attending a conference hosted by Bucharest titled “Digital Romania International Forum — Startups in 4.0 Industries”. The forum brings together leaders from the industry, entrepreneurs, investors, European decision-makers, authorities and academia with a view to finding solutions for Romania to contribute and benefit from the digitization of the industry, the economy and society at EU level. According to an analysis of the PwC audit and consultancy group, Romania has a very high development potential in the IT sector, despite ranking last at EU level as regards the degree of digitization.



    UKRAINE — Venice Commission experts are in Kiev for the next couple of days to examine the tensions prompted by the adoption of the new education law in this country. Attending the meeting with ethnic minorities will also be a delegation of Romanian nationals from the region of Cernauti. According to minority representatives, the new education law severely restricts the minorities’ rights to education in their native language. Recently, representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine have referred the matter to the Venice Commission, demanding the new education law be examined to check its compliance with Ukraine’s commitments before the Council of Europe to safeguard the rights of national minorities to education in their own languages. Bucharest has repeatedly criticized the law.



    INVESTIGATION — A United States judge has warranted the house arrest of Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman to Donald Trump. Paul Manafort and his associate have been indicted on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, failure to disclose overseas bank accounts and money laundering. These are the first accusations stemming from the investigation into Russia’s alleged ingressions into Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidential election of 2016, whose purpose was to swing the vote to Trump’s favour. Manafort ran Trump’s campaign in June-August 2016, when he was forced to step down in light of revelations that he secretly lobbied for a pro-Russian party in Ukraine in exchange for millions of dollars. The indictment however makes no reference to Donald Trump’s election campaign nor any other suggestion linked with a secret understanding between Donald Trump’s campaign staff and Russian authorities that might have illegally influenced the result of the vote. Trump denied accusations regarding his purported involvement with Russian officials and has labeled the investigation as “a witch hunt”.



    FOOTBALL — Romania’s football vice-champions FCSB on Thursday are playing Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel at home in the fourth round of the Europa League main group phase. Two weeks ago, Nicolae Dica’s trainees won 2-1 in Israel. FCSB ranks first in the Group G with 9 points in 3 matches, followed by Lugano of Switzerland, Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic and Hapoel Beer Seva of Israel, each with 3 points. FCSB can secure qualification to the next phase with a draw on Thursday. (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • October 30, 2017

    October 30, 2017

    CATALONIA — The Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont might be arrested today for rebellion, allongside other officials who contributed to Catalonia’s declaring its independence from Spain. Hundreds of thousand of Spanish loyalists demonstrated in Barcelona on Sunday in support of Madrid’s decision to impose direct rule on Catalonia. The protest took place after Catalan MPs voted to declare independence from Spain, prompting Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, to sack the separatist Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his government, dissolve the Catalan parliament and call regional elections for December 21. Spain’s control over Catalonia will be tested on Monday when politicians and civil servants return to work amid uncertainty over whether they will accept direct rule imposed by the central government to stop the region’s independence bid, Reuters reports.




    COLECTIV — It’s been two years since the devastating fire at the Colectiv club in Bucharest that killed 64 people. Of them, 27 died on the night of the tragedy while the other 37 died in hospitals in Bucharest and abroad. Hundreds of people participated on Friday evening in a march in Romania’s capital, commemorating the victims. Many people hoped that the ones responsible for this tragedy would be punished, but two years on nobody was found guilty and the flaws in the system are still present.




    ACCIDENT — One miner was killed and another three were injured in an accident that took place at the Uricani mine on the Jiu Valley. The victims were doing some final works on the mine that would soon be shut down. This is the second such accident on the Jiu Valley this month, after the one at the Lupeni mine that killed two miners and injured one. The Lupeni mine will be operational for another five years, according to a memorandum that Romania submitted to the European Commission.




    MINISTRY– The Ministry for the Romanians Abroad is closely monitoring the situation of those over 130 thousand Romanians in Catalonia, in the context of the recent events in this Spanish region, the Ministry says in a release. The Ministry recommends Romanian citizens in the region to get in touch with the Romanian authorities, in case their security is threatened. Also, Romanian authorities are asked to notify the Romanian diplomatic missions of any situation that might affect their work and their relation with local institutions and authorities. The Ministry reiterates the fact that Bucharest is firmly and irevocably rejecting Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence and voices full support for Spain’s sovereignity and territorial integrity in the hope that the situation in the Spanish region will soon return within the limits of the the country’s constitution.




    CONFERENCE – All EU states must collaborate closely to achieve solid cyber security, European commisioner for digital economy and society Mariya Gabriel said on Monday in Bucharest, at the 7th annual international conference dubbed ”The New Global Challenges in Cyber Security”. During his 2-day visit to Romania, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, who is paying a 2-day visit to Bucharest, will hold talks with Romanian authorities on issues such as illegal online content and digital investment.




    TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Simona Halep continues to be world number one for the fourth week in a row. Halep, who has just received the year-end WTA World No. 1 Trophy, has an advance of 40 points as to world no. two, Garbine Muguruza and is 160 points ahead of the third place, Caroline Wozniacki. Another three Romanians who are part of the WTA top 100 maintain their current position – Sorana Cirstea no. 37, Irina Begu No. 44 and Monica Niculescu, nr. 100. Mihaela Buzarnescu went up 17 places and is now no. 72 WTA.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)