Radio România Internațional

Tag: union with Moldova

  • October 21, 2016 UPDATE

    October 21, 2016 UPDATE

    BRUSSELS – The proposal regarding the visa waiver for the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens who want to travel to Canada will take effect if the EU-Canada Trade Agreement is signed, said Friday the European Commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, at the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels. Ottawa announced that the negotiations between EU and Canada on the CETA Agreement (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) have failed due to opposition by the Belgian region Wallonia. Previously, the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, had announced in Brussels that Romania reached an agreement with Canada as regards the visa waiver for the Romanian citizens. The agreement has several stages: as of May 1, 2017 visas will be eliminated for those Romanians who already had a visa for Canada in the past, and as of December 1, 2017 visas will be lifted for all the Romanian citizens. President Iohannis announced Bucharest was no longer opposed to the EU-Canada trade agreement. On the other hand, the EU leaders had talks on the last day of the Brussels summit on the Union’s foreign relations, with a focus on the relations with Russia, on the way in which the countries of origin can limit migration as well as on the strengthening of control on the EU’s external borders. As regards Syria, the Romanian President Iohannis said the member states agreed to get more involved in promoting diplomatic solutions in order to bring peace to that country. On the sidelines of the Council meeting, Iohannis had talks with the British Prime Minister, Theresa May. According to the Romanian official, the British PM guaranteed that she would be personally involved in making sure there would be no additional pressure on the Romanians working in the UK.



    BOSNIA – The Romanian PM Dacian Cioloş and the Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc on Friday paid a visit to Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo the two officials had talks with the commanders of the NATO missions (KFOR and NATO Sarajevo) and of the EU mission (EUFOR) and met with the 40-strong Romanian troops taking part in missions in the Western Balkans. They also laid flowers at the monument erected in honor of sub lieutenant Remus Brânzan, who died during a mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Kosovo the Romanian officials held official talks with the commander of the KFOR NATO mission and met with the 56 Romanian soldiers deployed at the base in Pristina.



    RALLY BUCHAREST – At least 10,000 people are expected to participate, on Saturday, in downtown Bucharest, in a rally promoting the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania, with many of the participants coming from neighbouring Moldova. They believe that, in the current geopolitical context, the union of the two countries is the only solution for the ethnic Romanians, who make up the majority population of Moldova, not to be the victims of a Russian campaign similar to the one against Ukraine and for Moldova to reach the European democracy, lawfulness and prosperity standards. Already a tradition in Bucharest, the pro-Bessarabia rallies started in 2012, with the commemoration of 200 years since this province was first annexed by Tsarist Russia. Today’s Republic of Moldova has been established on part of the territory of Bessarabia, which had re-joined Romania after WWI and was re-annexed by the USSR in 1940.



    TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu (world’s no. 51 ) on Friday qualified to the final of the Luxembourg tournament, with prizes of 250 thousand dollars. She defeated in the semifinals the Dutch Kiki Bertens (22 WTA). In another development, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, on Friday found out her adversaries in the group stage of the Singapore Champions Tournament, which has prizes up for grabs worth 7 million dollars. Halep will play in the Red Group alongside world leader Angelique Kerber of Germany, Madison Keys of the USA, 7th in the WTA ranking and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, ranked 8th in the WTA classification. Playing in the White Group will be Polish Agnieszka Radwanska, (3rd WTA), Karolina Pliskova (the Czech Republic, 5th WTA), the Spanish Garbine Muguruza (6 WTA), and the last player to qualify from among Russian Svetlana Kuzneţova (world’s no. 9 player) and British Johanna Konta (WTA 10th). Halep participates in the Champions Tournament for the 3rd time after in 2014 she played in the final against Serena Williams. In 2015 she did not manage to go past the group stage. The Singapore tournament will take place from October 23 to 30. (translation by L. Simion)

  • Statements regarding the Republic of Moldova

    Statements regarding the Republic of Moldova

    An already customary meeting, the Summer University of the Romanians in the Diaspora held each year in Izvoru Mureşului is a forum of discussion between the representatives of the Romanian communities abroad and the Romanian politicians. On behalf of the unionist platform called ‘Action 2012’, the leader of this association of NGOs, George Simion, has called for the setting up of an Office for the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest, to be subordinated directly to the prime minister, as well as for the organization of a visit to Chisinau of the entire Romanian government.



    A consistent supporter of the rapprochement between Romania and Moldova, the former Romanian president, Traian Băsescu, who is now the leader of the People’s Movement Party, has reiterated his ideas in favor of the union. He said that over the past two years, namely after the end of his presidential terms in office, no progress was reported in this regard. The former president added that Bucharest should give up the old-type diplomacy and go beyond its excessive caution in relation to Moscow.



    Traian Băsescu: “The only political solution in the process of the Republic of Moldova’s efforts to join the EU is its union with Romania. There is no other solution, at least for the coming 20 years”.



    President Băsescu underlined that the union should be the result of a referendum or a vote in Parliament. For the union to be achieved, the president went on to say, the two countries need to take concrete action, establish cultural exchanges, increase the number of scholarships for students and grant the Romanian citizenship to a greater number of Moldovan citizens.



    Many commentators in Bucharest share Traian Băsescu’s hopes but they are not as enthusiastic as he is. Some commented that these statements are a preamble to the legislative elections due in autumn, given that Traian Băsescu has always been popular among the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Others say that there are still many sensitive cases shadowing the relations between the two states.



    Gaining its independence in 1991, the Republic of Moldova was created on part of the eastern Romanian territories annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1940 following an ultimatum. Hundreds of thousands of people then took refuge in Romania, which had been deprived of a part of its territory. Other tens of thousands, real or imaginary enemies of the Soviet regime, were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. They were replaced with settlers from all corners of the Soviet Union.



    For decades on end, the artificial Moldovan- Romanian border was the tightest in the entire Socialist camp and the virulent anti-Romanian propaganda was fueled continuously. Therefore, despite a real rapprochement obtained in the past 25 years, prejudice and suspicion have not disappeared, and the supporters of the union, although more and more numerous, remain a minority among the Moldovan citizens.