Tag: NATO summit Warsaw

  • July 8, 2016

    July 8, 2016

    Romania will plead at the NATO summit starting today in Warsaw for NATO’s increased attention to the Black Sea area and for ensuring a balanced allied military presence on the entire eastern flank. The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will also point to the importance of fully complying with the commitments made at the previous summit held in Great Britain. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent, the allies will make important decisions regarding the security of the Alliance and will decide on the deployment of 4 battalions in the northern part of the eastern flank and of a multinational brigade in Romania. NATO will also take additional measures for cyber security, civilian training and defense against ballistic missiles coming from outside the Euro-Atlantic area. At the summit, a common NATO-EU declaration will be signed that will contribute to the structuring of the strategic partnership between the two organizations.



    The latest data on migration within the European Union are being presented Friday in Brussels. The data were collected and included in a report of the European Asylum Support Office, an agency of the EU that has been operational since 2011. According to the report, most of the asylum seekers are people from Syria, the Western Balkan countries and Afghanistan. The main countries that received applications for international protection were Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Austria and Italy. Other issues in the report refer to the relocation program, which supports Italy and Greece in the first place. The report includes data which shows that the number of applications for unaccompanied minors increased 4 times as well as data on the operational support granted to Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Cyprus.



    Three Romanian military ships are taking part in the BREEZE 16 multinational drill, unfolding between July 11- 17 in Bulgaria’s territorial waters and in the Black Sea international waters, the Romanian Navy Chief of Staff announced. The ships are “Queen Marie” frigate with a 240-strong military crew, “Sub-Lieutenant Alexandru AXENTE” Maritime Dragon, a ship fighting sea mines and the “Lastun” missile carrier ship with a 60-strong military crew. The Romanian military ships are part of the joint forces made available to NATO by Romania, and the participation of the Romanian marines in the NATO drills contribute to the consolidation of interoperability between ship crews and the partners’ similar military structures.



    In Romania, more than 3 million employees (65% of the total of 4.7 million) have monthly salaries below 440 euros, which means their salaries are below the current level of the average salary, show data centralized by the Ziarul Financiar daily. As many as 1.3 million employees (27% of the total number of employees) have wages ranging from 443 to 885 euros per month. Only 7% of the local employees have monthly wages of more than 885 euros. They work as experts in such fields as banking, IT, air transport, oil extraction and the tobacco industry. The net average salary in Romania reached 456 euros this May, which is 14% more than in the same month of 2015, show data published in Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics. A Romanian employee earns 5 times less, on an average, than an EU employee.



    Five Dallas police officers have been killed and several wounded by gunmen during protests against the recent shooting of two black men by police in the states of Minnesota (North) and Louisiana (South). The victims did not oppose resistance in either of the cases. Both incidents were followed by protests of the black community and by explanations provided by the law enforcement authorities, which however did not persuade the public opinion. President Barack Obama had previously said that internal bias had to be rooted out from the justice system.


    (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)

  • July 4, 2016 UPDATE

    July 4, 2016 UPDATE

    Romania needs a new country project that should establish its place within the EU on medium and long term – said Monday the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis fresh from a second round of talks in Bucharest with the PM Dacian Cioloş, the governor of the national bank, Mugur Isărescu, and the leaders of the parliamentary parties. According to President Iohannis, all the leaders of the parliamentary parties invited at the talks agreed to draft this project, which can become functional if and only if it had political consensus. This was the second round of talks initiated by the Romanian President. The first took place on June 24, one day after the Brexit referendum.



    The Government of Romania is working on a strategy for the development of the country, PM Dacian Cioloş announced on Monday. Attending the Forum of Local Public Administration, held in Bucharest, he said he would like this strategy, entitled “Polycentric Romania 2035”, to be a framework for regional development. Cioloş added that clearer legislation is needed in terms of the resources allotted to local authorities, given that squander, incompetence and corruption make the spending of these funds rather inefficient. De-centralizing certain fields, like agriculture, tourism, youth and sports and encouraging inter-community associations are among the priorities of the Government, Cioloş said.



    The Romanian Defense minister, Mihnea Motoc, on Monday met in Belgium with General Curtis Scaparrotti, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. The talks focused on recent developments regarding regional and international security. In the run up to the NATO summit to be held in Warsaw on July 8th and 9th, minister Motoc pointed to the need for a consistent, coherent and proportional approach for the entire eastern flank of the Alliance, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The issue of strengthening the military presence in the East, started by NATO in 2014, will be one of the central topics of the upcoming summit, which will be followed by a new NATO-Russia meeting meant to improve dialogue and avoid military incidents. The announcement was made Monday by NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. The latest NATO-Russia Council took place on April 20.



    Nigel Farage, the leader of the Eurosceptic and anti-immigration UK Independence Party announced on Monday that he was standing down as leader of this party. He has said he has never been and has never wanted to be a professional politician, his purpose in politics being to take Great Britain out of the EU. It is not the first time Farage gives up the UKIP leadership. He resigned in 2009 and 2015, but later he changed his mind. Aged 52, Nigel Farage has been a member of UKIP since the setting up of the party in 1993 and an MP since 1999. Following his resignation, the Brexit camp losses another big supporter. Last week the former London mayor, Boris Johnson, withdrew from race to become Britain’s PM, after David Cameron’s resignation.



    The best ranking Romanian woman tennis player Simona Halep (5 WTA) on Monday qualified for the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament. She defeated in three sets 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 the American Madison Keys, world’s no. 9 player. In the quarterfinals, Simona Halep will play against the German Angelique Kerber, (4 WTA). Also on Monday the pair made up of Romanian Florin Mergea and Indian Rohan Bopanna was eliminated in the eighth finals of the men’s doubles by the pair Henri Kontinen (Finland)/John Peers (Australia).


    (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)