GROWTH In the first quarter of 2019
Hungary, Romania and Poland saw the most significant economic growth in the
European Union as compared to the similar period last year, the European Office
for Statistics has announced. According to the same sources, Hungary reported
the most significant growth, 5.2%, followed by Romania with 5.1 and Poland,
4.6. In the first quarter of 2019 Romania’s economy saw a 5% growth against the
same period last year, says the country’s Statistics Institute in its report
published on Wednesday. The country’s GDP rose by 1.3% in the first quarter of
the year and the government counts on an economic growth of 5.5% this year. Last
week, the European Commission revised Romania’s economic growth this year down
to 3.3% from a previous 3.8%. The IMF forecast also went down to 3.1% from an
earlier 3.4.
GRATITUDE 30 years on from the anti-communist revolution in Romania, the
country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, has announced that 2019 will be declared ‘The
Year of Gratitude’. A ceremony to honor the victims of the communist
dictatorship is due to be held on May 20th, which was the date when thirty
years ago the post-communist country saw its first free elections.
PROTESTS Trade unionists from Romania’s
penitentiary system have today continued the series of protests they kicked off
on Monday, when protest actions were held at the penitentiaries of Rahova close
to Bucharest and Aiud in central Romania. Protesters are calling for the
endorsement of the penitentiary policeman status and the pay of the extra hours
worked. Trade unionists have announced they are going to stage more protests
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until their requirements are met. The
country’s interim justice minister Ana Birchall on Monday and Tuesday held
talks with the protesters in a bid to find a solution to their problems.
MEETING On Tuesday and Wednesday
Bucharest is seeing the seventh meeting of education ministers from Asia and
Europe (ASEM), an event part of the series of meetings and conferences staged
during Romania’s holding the EU rotating presidency. The meeting this year is focusing
on the type of education that connects: inclusion, mobility and excellence in
support of sustainable development objectives’. A major issue on the talks
agenda is the manner in which the ASEM Educational Process is contributing to
sustainable development. ASEM is a cooperation platform between Europe and Asia
launched in 1996 with a view to consolidating dialogue between the two regions.
ASEM currently has 53 partners: 51 countries (28 EU members plus Switzerland
and Norway, 21 Asian countries as well as two international organizations, the
EU and the ASEAN secretariat, which brings together nations from South-East
Asia.
TENNIS The world’s number two tennis player Simona
Halep of Romania will today be playing Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech
Republic in the second round of the WTA tournament in Rome. Also today, in the
same round of the competition, another Romanian, Mihaela Buzarnescu, will be up
against Jelena Goerges of Germany. Yesterday in the competition’s first round Buzarnescu
played Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia who withdrew from the match when the score
was 6-2, 5-4 to Buzarnescu. The Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and
Jean Julien Rojer was outperformed by all-American pair Bob and Mike Bryan, 6-4,
7-6 in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. We recall the Dutch-Romanian
pair on Sunday won the finals of the tournament in Madrid.
(translated by bill)