Radio România Internațional

Tag: Polish President Andrzej Duda

  • June 8, 2018 UPDATE

    June 8, 2018 UPDATE


    B9 FORMAT- On Friday in Warsaw, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda participated in the meeting of the Bucharest 9 Format, which includes NATO members from central and Eastern Europe. The participants adopted a joint declaration, about which the Romanian President said it reflects common evaluations and objectives focusing on strengthening Euro-Atlantic security. He also stated that NATOs eastern flank must be further consolidated. Also, the Romanian head of state has said that earmarking 2% of the GDP for defence and investing in modernizing the military capability are investments in a countrys own security and Romania has fulfilled its commitment to ensuring that. In turn, the Polish President Andrzej Duda has stated that the joint declaration will help the decision-making process at the NATO summit due in Brussels next month.



    CORRUPTION – The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest has postponed for June 21st its ruling in the case in which the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea is accused of acts of corruption. Its the second time that the court postpones its verdict. The reason invoked was that part of the defendants in this case filed some written conclusions on June 7th, and the judges need time to study them. Last month, prosecutors of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate requested a sentence of 7 years and 5 months in prison for abuse of office and 2 years and 6 months for forgery. They say that Liviu Dragnea, during his term as president of the Teleorman County Council, ordered the fictitious employment of two Social Democratic party members by the Directorate for Social Work and Child Protection. The two were paid from public money although they allegedly worked exclusively for the Social Democratic Party. Dragnea claims he is innocent and has denied prosecutors accusations. In 2016 Dragnea received a 2-year suspended prison sentence for attempted electoral fraud.



    DEFENCE – The very good cooperation in the field of defence, with focus on the British military contribution in Romania, was high on the agenda of the talks held in Brussels on Friday between the Romanian Defence Minister Mihai Fifor and the British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson. The Romania – Great Britain bilateral meeting was held on the second day of the NATO Defence Ministers summit, at the general headquarters of the Alliance, reads a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry. Minister Fifor appreciated Great Britains active participation in air-policing missions and also its constant presence in the Black Sea, thus proving its commitment to NATOs deterrence and defence posture in the region. In turn, the British secretary of defence stressed that the fact that Romania is a regional stability factor and has a substantial contribution to maintaining security in the Black Sea and Western Balkans regions.



    CEREMONY – General Nicolae Ciuca, the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, will attend on Saturday the ceremony occasioned by the anniversary of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, at the invitation of Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart William Peach, according to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry. This is recognition of the good cooperation between the two armies and an opportunity to promote at military level the interests of the Romanian Army in the relation with the British Army, one of its most important allies, the communiqué also reads.



    G7 – At the opening of the G7 summit hosted by Canada, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk blamed the US President Donald Trump for defying world order, France Presse reports. On Friday, the first day of the two-day summit, Donald Trump urged G7 to reintegrate Russia, which was expelled from the format in 2014, after annexing the Crimean Peninsula. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that she expects difficult discussions at the summit, between Washington and its partners, especially with regard to international trade, climate protection, development and external policies.



    FESTIVAL- Almost 13 million Euros is the budget of this years edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, which started on Friday. Until June 17, the audience will have the opportunity to watch some 524 performances. The 25th edition of the festival has brought to Sibiu 3,300 artists from 73 countries. This is the first year when the festival has two honorary patrons: the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, a former mayor of Sibiu, and Prince Charles, the Heir to the British Crown, who is famous for his passion for the region of Transylvania, in central Romania.



    TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, no.1 in the WTA rankings and first-seed at the Roland Garros, will play in the final against the American Sloane Stephens, no.10 in the WTA classification. In the semifinals, Halep defeated the Spanish Garbine Muguruza, number three in the world, and winner in Paris in 2016, while Sloane Stephens defeated her co-national Madison Keys (no.13 WTA). This is the third Roland Garros final for Simona Halep, after the ones in 2014 and 2017, which she did not manage to win.


  • December 21, 2017

    December 21, 2017

    DECEMBER 1989 – 28 years since the December 1989 anti-Communist
    Revolution, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has conveyed a message today,
    saying that in 1989, Romanians called for the fall of Communism, an urge that
    can still be heard today. This should be a warning to politicians, who have
    proven lately they are not willing to leave the past and its bad habits behind.
    Upholding the ideals of the anti-Communist Revolution means defending the rule
    of law, freedom and democracy and respect for citizens, wrote the president on
    a social network, stressing that the investigation of the Revolution Case File
    must be completed and the crimes and abuses perpetrated in 1989 must be
    punished. After four days of protests, which started in Timisoara on December
    16th 1989, during which dozens of dead and wounded were reported,
    the army joined the population and revolutionaries developed the first
    democratic platform. Started as a protest staged by citizens of Timisoara
    against an abusive measure taken by local officials, the revolution spread
    rapidly across the country, culminating on December 22nd with the
    presidential couple’s attempt to flee. More than 1,000 people died and some
    3,400 were wounded between the 16th and the 25th of
    December 1989. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the
    regime was changed violently and its communist leaders were executed by firing
    squad.






    JUSTICE
    LAWS – The Romanian Senate, the decision making body in this matter, has today
    adopted the bill modifying the Law on the organisation and functioning of the
    Superior Council of Magistracy. This was the last in the justice law package
    that the Senators had to rule on, after the adoption of the ones on judicial
    organisation and the status of magistrates. The changes that the ruling
    coalition, formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals
    and Democrats, has brought to these laws have been vehemently criticized by the
    right-wing opposition and a large part of civil society. Moreover, hundreds of
    magistrates have protested in Bucharest and in other cities across the country
    against the way in which these changes have been brought, saying the process
    has lacked transparency.






    BUDGET
    BILL – The Romanian Parliament continues to debate today the 2018 state budget
    bill, which establishes the amounts allocated to ministries and the main credit
    authorizing bodies. The budgets of some of the most important institutions have
    been maintained as they were in the draft proposed by the government, as the
    amendments filed by the opposition were not voted by the majority. The budget
    was built on an estimated 5.5% economic growth rate, an average exchange rate
    of 4.55 lei for one Euro and a monthly salary of 565 Euro, as well as an
    estimated budget deficit standing at 2.97%
    of the GDP. The priority fields in 2018 are health, education and
    infrastructure. The right-wing parliamentary opposition has criticized
    Government’s measures, saying the structure of the budget is dangerous and will
    trigger an increase in the public debt.








    POLISH LAWS – The Polish president
    Andrzej Duda has promulgated two controversial laws, which give the government
    more power over the judiciary, right after the European Commission decided to
    activate art.7 of the EU Treaty, saying that the laws represent a high risk of
    violation of the rule of law. Brussels’s decision may leave Poland without the
    right to vote in the European Council. The first-vice-president of the European
    Commission Frans Timmermans has stated that it was the only option and Poland has
    three months to implement the recommendations issued by the Commission, and
    then the EU leaders would have to decide on penalty measures. France and
    Germany have announced they support the Commission’s decision, but Hungary has
    announced it might use its veto power to block what they termed an abusive
    sanction against a democratically elected government.




    CATALONIA – Five and a half million
    Catalans are called to the polls today to elect the members of the regional
    parliament. Currently, the region of Catalonia, one of the richest in Spain, is
    governed by the central government in Madrid, after the regional executive
    headed by Carles Puigdemont held on October 1st an illegal referendum that
    subsequently led to a unilateral declaration of independence. Today’s favorites
    are the Republican Left of Catalonia, whose leader, Oriol Junqueras, is in
    prison, for having organized the referendum, and Ciudadanos, a liberal party
    which supports Spain’s unity, whose main candidate is Ines Arrimadas. The
    candidate of the coalition Together for Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, who is
    currently in Belgium, is wanted by the Spanish judiciary for rebellion and
    embezzlement. If he gets to Spain, he will be arrested right away.