Radio România Internațional

Tag: united nations

  • October 24, 2017 UPDATE

    October 24, 2017 UPDATE

    King Mihai I — King Mihai I of Romania turns 96 on Wednesday, and will have a private birthday celebration at his residence in Switzerland, the website romaniaregală.ro reports. On behalf of Romania’s former sovereign, Princess Margareta, Custodian of the Crown, will grant decorations to Romanian and foreign personalities and collaborators of the Romanian Royal House, in a ceremony in Bucharest. On Wednesday evening, the Romanian Athenaeum will host the 10th annual concert organized by the charity Princess Margareta of Romania. King Mihai I is suffering from two severe forms of cancer and withdrew from public life last spring. In 1947, only 7 years after taking the throne, Mihai I was forced by the communist regime to abdicate and to leave the country. He was only allowed to return to Romania after the anti-communist Revolution, when he regained his Romanian citizenship and some of his estate. King Mihai I lobbied for Romania’s NATO and EU accession, as a special ambassador.




    Romanian Army Day – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is participating on Wednesday in Bucharest in the ceremonies occasioned by the Romanian Army Day. Also on Wednesday, PM Mihai Tudose, Defense Minister Mihai Fifor and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Liviu Dragnea will attend ceremonies held in Carei, northwestern Romania, the last Romanian locality freed 73 years ago from the occupation of the Hungarian troops, allies of Nazi Germany.




    Moldova – Eugen Sturza is, as of Tuesday, Moldova’s new Defense Minister after Parliament Speaker, the pro-Western Adrian Candu, approved his appointment. Moldovas Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that that the countrys president, the pro-Russian Igor Dodon, can be temporarily suspended from his duties for “deliberately refusing to exercise a part of his constitutional attributions.” Pro-European Prime Minister Pavel Filip proposed Eugen Sturza as defense minister twice in September, but Dodon, who wants closer relations with Russia, refused to appoint him.




    Conference — The Romanian capital city Bucharest is hosting on Tuesday and Wednesday the IAA Global Conference, an international technology, marketing and communication forum. The event brings to Bucharest some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and inventors, including Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder alongside Steve Jobs and the inventor of the first personal computer produced by the company. Also addressing the hundreds of participants will be speakers from IBM, the Disney studios, Google and the BBC. This year’s conference is dubbed “Creativity can change the world”.




    Appointment — The Senate’s economic committee and the Chamber of Deputies’ Information Technology Committee green-lighted a report on the appointment of former PM Sorin Grindeanu as head of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM). Grindeanu has pointed out he is not a member of any political party, after being previously expelled from the Social Democratic Party. The report will be submitted to Parliament for approval. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose proposed Grindeanu for this position.




    United Nations – Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said Tuesday, in a message occasioned by the United Nations Day, that Romania has made an important contribution to the promotion of the organization’s values and is firmly supporting democracy and the respect for the fundamental human rights. Romania’s will to contribute responsibly and actively to the UN’s activity is also proven by the country’s candidacy for a non-permanent member seat in the Security Council at the 2019 elections, Melescanu also said.


  • President Iohannis at the United Nations

    President Iohannis at the United Nations

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who delivered a speech on Wednesday at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, said that the United Nations needs consolidation and increased effectiveness, in order to cope with the present challenges. People around the globe are suffering the brutal effects of war, poverty, inequity and injustice, and tensions related to cultural identity and religion are affecting even the traditionally open and tolerant societies. Moreover, terror attacks make people feel unsafe, while increasingly destructive natural hazards are reported each season.



    Under these circumstances, President Iohannis said, achieving and preserving peace requires not only a quick and adequate reaction of the heads of state and government, but also an understanding of the roots and the causes of conflicts and insecurity, which rarely stem from one source alone. Romania, he said, hails the reform of the UN mechanisms for fighting terrorism and the organizations steps towards making the fight against terror a key element of its prevention agenda. As no country can fight this plague alone, Iohannis went on to say, Romania reaffirms its firm commitment to setting up, alongside Spain, an International Court Against Terrorism.



    Talking about the ongoing conflicts in Romanias vicinity, which are a threat to the security of the Black Sea region, Iohannis emphasized the importance of regional cooperation and of confidence building measures. Bucharest expects an enhanced contribution of the UN to the global efforts in the field of international migration.



    Also, according to President Iohannis, by focusing on education and ensuring prosperity for their people, world leaders can prevent instability and crises. Although some believe that the UN has not been very good at managing the multitude of new crises that have emerged, it is clear that there is no better way of finding viable solutions to current world challenges than the multilateral approach. With that in mind, the UN needs some vital instruments in order to be effective, while member states need to commit themselves more to the organization.



    In this respect, President Iohannis voiced Romanias willingness to contribute substantially to the activity of the UN Security Council, by taking over a new non-permanent member seat in 2020-2021, should its candidacy end successfully.


    (translated by: Elena Enache)

  • August 29, 2017

    August 29, 2017

    Justice — Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors have rejected most of the proposed changes to the justice system presented by the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, which they see as a form of pressure exerted on their professional activity. The judicial reform plan, which comes 6 months after the left-of-centre government tried to loosen the anticorruption laws, stipulates, among other things, the narrowing of the powers of the National Anticorruption Directorate, which under the new bill would no longer be entitled to investigate judges. The proposed changes concern a variety of areas, from the procedure to appoint chief prosecutors to the set-up of a special unit to prosecute offences committed by magistrates. Also, under the proposed bills, the President would be left out of the procedure of appointing the chief prosecutors. On Sunday evening thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Bucharest and of several other cities in protest at the planned changes to the justice laws. Similar protests have been announced for next Sunday.




    Diplomacy — Bucharest is hosting as of today the Annual Meeting of Romanian Diplomacy. The event that ends on Friday is a good opportunity to present the Foreign Ministry’s activity and to reflect on the future priorities of the Romanian diplomacy, in a regional, European and global context. The meeting includes talks on topical issues such as the future of the EU, Romania’s European agenda and its EU council presidency as well as international security and regional cooperation. The special guests of the meeting are Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó.




    Brexit — The third round of Brexit negotiations is under way in Brussels. Britons are anxious to discuss future commercial accords with the community bloc, while the Europeans insist on prioritising key issues such as citizens rights and the UKs divorce bill. Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, suggested on Monday that Britain’s demands were unclear saying they need UK papers that were clear in order to have constructive negotiations. Britain will present in detail papers on issues ranging from customs arrangements to data sharing during this weeks talks. Government policy papers released last week show Britain would often seek to replicate closely existing arrangements with the EU.




    United Nations – The United States, Japan and South Korea have requested a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea’s firing of a missile over Japan, diplomats said on Monday. Japans warning system kicked in, advising citizens on its northern Hokkaido Island to take precautions, as the missile headed towards land. The missile later broke into three pieces and landed in the sea. The Japanese military made no attempt to shoot down the unidentified missile, but condemned the launch in the strongest terms possible. The Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has asked for further sanctions against North Korea.




    Tennis — Romania’s best tennis player Simona Halep, no. 2 in the world, was defeated by Maria Sharapova, in the first round of the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year. Sharapova is ranked 145th because of her long layoff mandated by the imposed penalty for taking performance enhancing drugs. In August 2014 Simona Halep reached 2nd place in the WTA standings, the highest position ever held by a tennis player from Romania and has been in the top ten ever since.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)



  • June 2, 2017

    June 2, 2017

    DOCUMENT At the UN headquarters in New York, Romania’s Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu has submited the instrument of ratification of the Paris Accord on climate change, a communique issued by the Romanian diplomacy has announced. According to Melescanu, coordinated implementing the strategies on sustinable development and climate change is in line with Romania’s commitment as an EU and NATO member. In turn, Miguel de Serpa Soares, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, has said the ratification by Romania of the Paris agreement over climate change contributes to maintaining the subject on the international agenda. Minister Melescanu is in New York to promote Romania’s candidacy as a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council for a two-year mandate over 2020 and 2021. Since its UN accession in 1955, Romania has had four such mandates.



    DECISION A decision by US president Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accord on climate change has attracted international criticism. A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has called it a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote international security. French president Emmanuel Macron says that he respects Trump’s decision but describes it as a mistake both for the US and the world. The White House leader has invoked the level of contributions and the effects on the economy, adding the accord has negative consequences for the US industry and its workers disadvantaging it against China, India or other emerging powers. The Paris Accord, signed by 195 states, is intended to combat climate changes by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.



    CONGRESS The opposition Save Romania Union (USR), the third largest political group in Romania’s Parliament, has announced its intention to stage a congress for electing a new leader, upon the unexpected resignation on Thursday of its founding president Nicusor Dan. The USR vice-president Elek Levente, the head of the USR branch in Cluj northwestern Romania, has become the group’s interim president. Nicusor Dan stepped down after the USR National Bureau had decided to opose new Constitution amendments over redefining the family as the union between a man and a woman. A project over revising the fundamental law has already been passed by the Chamber of Deputies and if passed by the Senate the Romanians would be called to cast their vote in a referendum. The aforementioned Constitution amendments have been requested by three million Romanians.



    TIFF Over 200 feature films and short reels will be screened as of today in Cluj Napoca, northwestern Romania, in the 16th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival — TIFF 2017. Over 12 hundred Romanian and foreign invitees are attending the screening, concerts, workshops, debates and launches during the country’s most important cinema event, which has Radio Romania as its partner. Romanian actress Tora Vasilescu is to be awarded a prize for excellence during the festival, which is also to be attended by French film star Alain Delon, at his first visit to Romania.



    TALKS We are having a constructive dialogue at European Commission level for a better preparation of Romania’s taking over the EU Council Presidency in 2019, the Romanian Minister for European Affairs, Ana Birchall says. The Romanian minister has held talks on the issue with Jean-Eric Paquet, deputy Secretary General of the European Commission. ‘Assuring the EU presidency represents one of our priorities. We have been EU members for 10 years now and I believe we have the maturity of turning a big challenge into an opportunity. Talks with European Commission officials are vital for ensuring a successful mandate at the helm of the EU Council in the first half of 2019’, Minister Birchall also says.



    TENNIS The world’s fourth tennis player Simona Halep of Romania will be playing Russian Daria Kasatkina, no. 28 WTA, in the third round of the Grand Slam tournament of Roland Garros. Halep clinched a two-set win against Tatjana Maria of Germany in the second round. Another Romanian in the competition, Sorana Cirstea has conceded defeat to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain. In the doubles, Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer will be playing in the round of 16 the winners of the game pitching Tunisian-Italian pair Jaziri/Seppi against Croatian-Spanish pair Dodig/Granollers.




  • April 6, 2017

    April 6, 2017

    CONFERENCE – The Romanian Presidency and the Venice Commission, with support from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly are holding on Thursday and Friday in Bucharest an international conference called ‘Interaction Between a Political Majority and the Opposition in a Democracy’. The event offers the approximately 100 participants a platform for debate of the most difficult aspects of that interaction. At the same time, it plans to identify means by which this interaction can become more effective, to the benefit of European democracies and their citizens. At the end of the conference, the Venice Commission will issue a report on the main directions they recommend for a majority to interact with the opposition.



    WAGES – The draft law on unitary salaries for state employees in Romania is being presented today to the leadership of the Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition in Romania, and will be introduced in Parliament on behalf of that formation. Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea said that this would accelerate the procedure of passing it, so that some wage raises could come into effect on July 1st. According to the bill, income is set to rise over the next five years, calculated based on the minimum wage. Stay tuned for more after the news.



    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Irina Begu, 33rd seeded, qualified to the eighth finals in Charleston, the US, with 700,000 dollars in prize money. She has dealt a crushing 3 set defeat to Slovakian player Kristina Kucova, 81st seeded. In the eighth finals, Begu will play against Samantha Stosur, 6th favorite in the tour.



    BRATISLAVA – Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu goes on Thursday and Friday on an official visit to Bratislava, invited by his counterpart, Miroslav Lajčák. He is also set to meet President Andrej Kiska, as well as the head of the Slovakia-Romania Friendship Group in Parliament. The foreign minister will be emphasizing the importance of consolidating political and diplomatic dialog, as well as high level contact at the level of parliaments, in an attempt to maximize economic exchange. The agenda will also include issues of common interest, such as the future of Europe, the Brexit, energy security, as well as the migration crisis.



    WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump receives today Chinese President Xi Jinping, who starts his official visit to Washington. The main topics will be trade relations and the North Korean nuclear program. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to Washington, while there are no expectation for the first meeting of the two leaders to settle the complicated differences between the two countries, experts say that it could help establish a working relationship. In his presidential campaign, Donald Trump threatened to point the finger at China as a currency manipulator, and to set a 45% tariff on Chinese goods. Experts expect President Xi Jinping to placate President Trump in an attempt to present a positive picture of the bilateral relation between the two countries.



    UNITED NATIONS – US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned that, unless the UN takes measures, Washington is ready to take military action in Syria. In an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday, the US, the UK and France condemned the chemical attack launched by the al-Assad regime on Tuesday in the northwest of Syria, which left dozens dead. The opinion was shared by Russia, which said that a complex and objective analysis was needed. The regime in Damascus denied involvement. Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mikdad said that the Syrian armed forces have no such weapons. This chemical attack is the second worst since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, which started in 2011 and has left over 320,000 dead.


  • 21 September, 2016

    21 September, 2016

    UN General Assembly Romanian prime minister Dacian
    Ciolos is today having talks in New York with the Swiss president Johann
    Schneider-Ammann, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and members of the
    Romanian community in New York. Ciolos travelled to the US on Tuesday to attend
    the latest session of the United Nations General Assembly. On his first day in
    New York, he held a number of bilateral talks and met his Canadian counterpart
    Justin Trudeau to discuss the liberalisation of visas for Romanian citizens,
    among others. In the evening, at a later summit on refugees hosted by US
    president Barack Obama, Dacian Ciolos said Romania fully acknowledges the
    common responsibility to manage the large flow of refugees and recalled that
    his country provided humanitarian aid to the states affected.




    La Francophonie Romania’s foreign minister Lazar Comanescu
    on Tuesday attended the Ministerial meeting of francophone countries held on
    the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. In his address, Comanescu said La
    Francophonie must consolidate its position within the global governance by
    strengthening its partnerships with other international organisations such as
    the United Nations. He also stressed the role of the International Organisation
    of La Francophonie (OIF) in the
    application of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Minister Comanescu
    also announced that Romania wishes to host, in Bucharest, the 2018 Francophone
    Regional Economic Forum. Talks focused, among others, on migration flows and
    ways to manage climate change.




    Refugees The Committee
    for European Affairs in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday gave a
    negative opinion on the proposal of the European Commission to impose a penalty
    of 250,000 euros for each refugee a country refuses to take in based on the
    quotas established in Brussels. The head of the committee, Ana Birchall, said
    the proposal is unacceptable, it does not address the root cause of the problem
    and that it may generate a profound crisis in the community space. She recalled
    that Romania is the second biggest contributor to Frontex actions, the European
    agency at the forefront of combating migration, and has actively taken part in
    the actions carried out by Interpol, Europol and the European Asylum Support
    Office.




    Illegal border crossing
    Six adult and two children migrants were found on Tuesday in Dolj county as
    they were trying to cross the border into Romania illegally, the Romanian
    Border Police has said. Six of the migrants are of Iraqi origin and two of
    Syrian origin. Their plan was to reach Austria, and they had crossed the Danube
    by boat from Bulgaria into Romania after paying 2,000 dollars to a guide. In
    recent weeks, Romania has tightened security on its southern and western
    borders as a number of small groups of migrants have been found trying to enter
    the country illegally.


    Fundraising A little
    over 900,000 euros has been raised so far as part of a public fundraising
    campaign to purchase a work by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi called
    The Wisdom of the Earth. Culture minister Corina Suteu said 200,000 people have
    donated to the campaign and that solutions are being considered to extend the
    end of the month deadline by which donations can be made. Six months ago, the
    private owners of the sculpture agreed to sell the work to the Romanian state
    for 11 million euros. The government said it would provide 5 million euros and
    cover the rest through public fundraising. Made in 1907, The Wisdom of the
    Earth dates back to one of Brancusi’s most celebrated periods, together with
    The Kiss and Prayer.




    Tennis Three Romanian tennis
    players, Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu and Patricia
    Tig, have reached the last 16 of the tournament in Seoul, South Korea, worth
    250,000 dollars in prize money. Seeded first in Seoul, Begu, who is the
    defending champion, on Thursday faces Jana
    Cepelova of Slovakia. Also on Thursday, Niculescu (world no. 55) and Tig (world
    no. 135) play against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, respectively. If they
    both win their matches, Niculescu and Tig will play each other in the following
    round. (Translated by: C. Mateescu)

  • Historic climate change deal signed in Paris

    Historic climate change deal signed in Paris

    Six years after the failure of the summit in Copenhagen, a historic accord has been reached on keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, beyond which scientists say the world will see the most severe effects of climate change, including heat waves, droughts and flooding. The deal was agreed on at the UN talks in Paris. Aimed at thoroughly changing, in the upcoming decades, the unsustainable economy based on the consumption of the current fossil fuels and at limiting climate change, an accord has been finally reached Paris after years of negotiations.



    These negotiations have been held against divergent interests of the advanced and developing countries and of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, who presented the draft accord before the representatives of the 200 states that took part in the conference on Saturday, said, quote, “our responsibility to history is immense.”



    Besides setting the goal of limiting global warming to the level of 2 degrees Celsius, an accompanying, non-binding agreement requires developed countries to continue a goal of mobilising 100 billion dollars for developing countries each year after 2020, with the commitments to be revised every 5 years alongside a global assessment of the progress to made in reaching the set goals. Among the provisions of the new accord is also increasing the capability of developing states to adjust to climate change.



    Political leaders worldwide and representatives of the IMF, World Bank and the International Energy Agency hailed the signing of the historic accord in Paris. The European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker has said that the world is now united against climate change, while according to British PM David Cameron “this generation has taken vital steps to ensure that our children and grandchildren will see that we did our duty in securing the future of our planet.”



    The Romanian Environment Minister, Cristina Pasca, told Radio Romania that the EU has been actively involved in the climate change negotiations in Paris. According to UN experts, the damage caused by global warming exceeds 125 billion dollars every year, with 4 billion people highly vulnerable to it and around 500 millions living in high-risk areas.



    (Translated by Elena Enache)