Radio România Internațional

Tag: migration crisis

  • March 30, 2016

    March 30, 2016

    SUMMIT – Romania is in the front ranks of the states fully abiding by their nuclear security commitments, having a clear nuclear programme and a responsible conduct. President Klaus Iohannis made the statement in Bucharest before leaving for Washington hosting the nuclear security summit over March 30th-April 1st. President Iohannis went on to say that Romania reiterated that it was an active and responsible member of the restricted group of states with relevant nuclear facilities, having the whole cycle of nuclear fuel and being firmly committed to promoting the global structure of nuclear security and of fighting nuclear terrorism. On his visit to the USA, president Iohannis will visit the Holocaust Memorial and will have talks with representatives of the Romanian community.



    AmCham – In Bucharest, the American Chamber of Commerce has tabled the second Romanias competitiveness report. The demographic growth, healthcare, infrastructure, brain drain, research, agriculture, education and the coherence of public policies are the priority areas which need an immediate intervention. The areas which have registered a positive evolution since the first Competitiveness Report was made public in 2011 include the fight against corruption, inflation and labour legislation.



    FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION – The Chamber of Deputies of Romanias Parliament is today debating and voting on the request of the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi for deputy Sebastian Ghita to be detained and taken into preventive custody. On Tuesday, the Chambers Legal Commission complied with the detention request, but the arrest request lacked the necessary number of votes to be complied with. A person close to former Social-Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta, Ghita is accused of a number of crimes, including bribe-giving, blackmail, influence peddling and driving a car without a driving license. The deputy has dismissed the accusations saying that they actually target Victor Ponta.



    MIGRATION – The Romanian ship “Stephen the Great on a 90-day international mission in the Mediterranean has saved 252 illegal migrants who were in two inflatable boats off the coasts of Sicily. The migrants will be taken to ports in Sicily or Calabria. Romanian border police officers are participating in the TRITON European border security operation coordinated by the FRONTEX European Agency. In late January, Romanian police officers on a mission in Italy saved 119 migrants who were in a small inflatable boat close to the port of Lampedusa. Over one million migrants have reached Europe over the last year, most of them taking refuge from such conflict areas as Syria, Irak and Africa. The refugee crisis has rendered tense the relations among the EU member states and has put to the test the commitments under the Schengen agreement.



    SYRIA – Opening a conference on the Syrian refugee issue hosted by the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva today, UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon said that the Syrian refugee crisis demanded an exponential increase in global solidarity. Ban Ki-Moon called on all countries to receive nearly half a million Syrian refugees by 2018. 90 countries are attending the conference which aims to share the countries global responsibility for the refugee crisis sparked by the war in Syria. The 5-year conflict has left more than 250,000 dead and nearly 5 million refugees. On Tuesday, the British charity Oxfam made public a report saying that the rich countries had received only 1.39% of the 4.8 million Syrian refugees. The organization called on those countries to receive at least 10% of the refugees, most of them being in Syrias neighbouring countries.



    VOLLEYBALL – The Romanian womens volleyball team CSM Bucharest are today up against the Turkish team Trabzon Idman Ocagi in the Challenge Cup final first leg on home turf. The return match is scheduled in Turkey on April 3rd. In the semifinals, the team CSM Bucharest having an Italian coach beat the Turkish team Bursa BBSK, that own the trophy. Is for the first time that a Romanian womens volleyball team play the final in a European cup.



    TENNIS – Number five seed Simona Halep of Romania has been defeated by number 20 seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarter finals of the Miami tournament in the USA. In the womens doubles, Romanian Monica Niculescu and Russian Margarita Gasparyan have qualified to the semifinals beating American Vania King and Russian Ala Kudriavteva. In the eights finals, Niculescu and Gasparyan had defeated the main favourites Swiss Martina Hingis and Indian Sania Mirza.


    (Translated by A.M. Palcu)

  • March 8, 2016 UPDATE

    March 8, 2016 UPDATE

    ECONOMY– Romania last year reported 3.7% in economic growth as compared to the previous year and an estimated GDP of 158 billion euros, the National Institute for Statistics has announced. All economic sectors have contributed to the GDP growth with the exception of agriculture, forestry and fishing. Several sectors, such as trade, car mending, transport and storage, hotels and restaurants, constructions, IT&C and industry have made a significant contribution to the GDP growth. The National Forecast Committee has revised up its outlook for the GDP to 4.2% this year. A 4.3% economic growth is expected for the next year.



    VISIT-Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, has announced he will plead for the setting up in Bucharest of a museum dedicated to Jews and the Holocaust and that he will have talks on this issue with government representatives. The announcement was made during his official visit to Israel, after he signed in the Guest Book of the “Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. At the end of the talks he held on Tuesday with the Knesset Speaker, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, the Romanian President said the “Holocaust tragedy is a painful page in the history of mankind. We have the moral duty to keep alive the memory of the millions of Jews who fell victim to murderous ideologies and we have the obligation to categorically oppose intolerance, based on ethnic, racial or religious criteria, for this to never repeat again. On Monday, during the official talks with his Israeli counterpart, Reuven Rivlin, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Iohannis underlined that in order to ensure Israels security, there couldnt be any compromise. After Jerusalem, President Johannis will visit the Palestinian territories, where he will have official talks with President Mahmoud Abbas.



    DIPLOMACY – Romanian Prime
    Minister Dacian Ciolos held talks in Brussels on Tuesday with NATO Secretary
    General, Jens Stoltenberg, on NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe, the Black Sea
    area and on the EU-NATO strategic relationship. Dacian Ciolos has underlined
    that the Romanian government has pledged to increase the defence budget, which
    will stand at 2% of the GDP in 2017. Jens Stoltenberg said Romania is a very
    appreciated NATO member, which actively contributes to the alliance’s missions in
    Afghanistan and Kosovo and to Black Sea security. The NATO Secretary General
    has also said Romania is the host of NATO active equipment and of a large part
    of the anti-missile defence system, placed in Deveselu. The meetings with the President
    of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and with representatives of the Romanian
    communities in Belgium brought to an end the visit paid by PM Dacian Ciolos to
    Belgium. Also in Brussels, Dacian Ciolos on Monday attended the EU-Turkey
    Summit on the joint plan regarding the refugee crisis. After the meeting, the
    Romanian prime minister hailed Turkey’s proposals on managing the flow of
    migrants and said their implementation would deter illegal migration to the EU.



    MILITARY EXERCISES-Almost 120 multinational exercises have been planned in Romania and abroad this year, a Romanian Defence Ministry communiqué reads. On Monday, the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in Constanta County, south-eastern Romania, saw the opening ceremony of a joint drill involving the air forces of Romania and Canada. Until April 10, close to 200 Romanian soldiers from the countrys air forces backed by MIG-21 fighters and Puma gunships will be training together with their Canadian colleagues backed by F 18 Hornet fighters. The drills are aimed at improving interoperability and cooperation inside the North-Atlantic Alliance.



    WOMENS DAY– The International Womens Day is usually celebrated in Romania by most of the population, shows a survey conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy. For almost two thirds of the Romanians, March 8 is a day of celebration, 85% of Romanian women say they have received flowers, jewels or perfumes on that day. On this occasion Romanians are mainly making presents to their wives, mothers and girlfriends, acknowledging their qualities of being hardworking, beautiful and sympathetic.



    TENNIS– The world famous Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova announced on Monday night that she had tested positive for a recently banned drug called Meldonium, at the Australian Open. The Russian athlete admitted to having been taking the drug for 10 years before being banned on January 1st. Sharapova admitted to her mistake and to badly disappointing her fans, adding that she didnt want her career to end in such a way. Suffering from injuries at present, when shes ranking 7th in the world standings, Sharapova shot to international fame back in 2004, after winning the Wimbledon tournament at the age of 17. She has also reaped other Grand Slam titles ever since, such as the Australian Open, US Open and Roland Garros. Her prize closet includes no less than 35 titles in womens competitions. She won Fed Cup with the Russian side in 2008 and reaped a silver medal in the single contest of the London Olympics in 2012.

    (Translated by Daniel Bilt and Diana Vijeu)

  • Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    Far from being appealing to the refugees fleeing the Middle East and Northern Africa, Romania still bears certain responsibilities in this matter. Our country is to take in some 300 refugees who are already on European soil, 160 in Italy and 135 in Greece. The announcement came from the head of the General Inspectorate for Immigration Viorel Vasile.



    Viorel Vasile: “Last year the EU decided that Romania should contribute to the relocation of refugees from Italy and Greece. Weve submitted letters of intent and carried out checks and we are now waiting to receive these refugees. It all depends on our colleagues from the two countries.



    Also worth mentioning is the fact that the accommodation capacity of Romanias six asylum centres has been supplemented. The centres are now only 11% full, indicative of the refugees low interest in coming to Romania. Another obvious explanation is that Romania is inferior to other member states from northern Europe, not only economically, but also in terms of development. Over 40% of the asylum applications registered in 2015 were filed by Syrian refugees, most of whom were relatives or friends of Syrian citizens already settled in Romania. Still, the number of Syrian asylum seekers, nearly 500, is insignificant compared to the 105 thousand foreign nationals living in Romania.



    The refugee crisis was also on the agenda of Thursdays meeting of the European Council, indicating the communitys concern in the matter. European Council president Donald Tusk said Brussels wants to strike a deal with Turkey to tackle the migration issue within the EU legislation. In this respect a special meeting with Turkey might take place early next month to address this issue.



    On the other hand, Europes faulty management of the refugee crisis has been harshly criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The UN official told the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that as far as cooperation, solidarity and the registration and distribution of refugees are concerned, Europe has utterly failed.

  • Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    Romania and the Refugee Crisis

    Far from being appealing to the refugees fleeing the Middle East and Northern Africa, Romania still bears certain responsibilities in this matter. Our country is to take in some 300 refugees who are already on European soil, 160 in Italy and 135 in Greece. The announcement came from the head of the General Inspectorate for Immigration Viorel Vasile.



    Viorel Vasile: “Last year the EU decided that Romania should contribute to the relocation of refugees from Italy and Greece. Weve submitted letters of intent and carried out checks and we are now waiting to receive these refugees. It all depends on our colleagues from the two countries.



    Also worth mentioning is the fact that the accommodation capacity of Romanias six asylum centres has been supplemented. The centres are now only 11% full, indicative of the refugees low interest in coming to Romania. Another obvious explanation is that Romania is inferior to other member states from northern Europe, not only economically, but also in terms of development. Over 40% of the asylum applications registered in 2015 were filed by Syrian refugees, most of whom were relatives or friends of Syrian citizens already settled in Romania. Still, the number of Syrian asylum seekers, nearly 500, is insignificant compared to the 105 thousand foreign nationals living in Romania.



    The refugee crisis was also on the agenda of Thursdays meeting of the European Council, indicating the communitys concern in the matter. European Council president Donald Tusk said Brussels wants to strike a deal with Turkey to tackle the migration issue within the EU legislation. In this respect a special meeting with Turkey might take place early next month to address this issue.



    On the other hand, Europes faulty management of the refugee crisis has been harshly criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The UN official told the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that as far as cooperation, solidarity and the registration and distribution of refugees are concerned, Europe has utterly failed.