Radio România Internațional

Tag: World Group

  • April 22, UPDATE

    April 22, UPDATE

    FINANCES – Romania will keep its deficit below 3%, as undertaken before international financial institutions, and the measures taken in 2018 will secure sustainable economic growth both for this year and in the future, the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said at a meeting with Poul Thomsen, director of IMFs European Department. According to a news release issued on Sunday by the Ministry for Public Finances, on April 20-21 Eugen Teodorovici took part in the spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. The Romanian official also had a meeting with Cyrill Muller, World Bank vice-president for Europe and Central Asia. The Finance Minister proposed to the WB leaders a new approach on loan granting, which would make spending more flexible, depending on the stage of preparation and implementation of projects. According to the Ministry, the agenda of the Romanian delegation also included meetings with representatives of investment banks, rating agencies and officials of international financial institutions.



    CONFERENCE – The Speaker of the Senate of Romania, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, and of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, will take part on Monday and Tuesday in the Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments, held in Tallinn, Estonia. Taking part will be over 40 speakers of national parliaments, as well as the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. The main topics on the agenda are the future of the European Union and the EU security and defence.



    HUMAN RIGHTS – Corruption remains widespread in Romania, and bribe-giving is still common practice in the public sector, reads the 2017 Country Report on Human rights issued by the US State Department. Laws were not always implemented efficiently, and officials, judges included, sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Immunity from criminal prosecution held by existing and former cabinet members who were also members of parliament sometimes blocked investigations, the report also reads. The same document notes that some Romanian politicians own or control media organisations, influencing their editorial policy. As regards prisons, the report mentions that they remained overcrowded and in breach of international standards, although the authorities took some steps to address the situation. In Romania, the US State Department says, some cases of police abuse were reported in 2017 as well, most of them going unpunished. So were cases of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and discrimination against the Roma, people with disabilities and sexual minorities. Child abuse and neglect cases were also reported.



    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Government of Romania intends to notify the Constitutional Court with respect to President Klaus Iohannis decision not to dismiss the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi. A meeting in this respect will be held on Monday by PM Viorica Dancila and the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, the one who requested the dismissal. According to him, the President gave no judicial or managerial arguments to substantiate his decision, which was exclusively political in nature. The head of state said the dismissal request was ungrounded, which was also the official opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy.



    TENNIS – Romanias womens tennis team defeated Switzerland in the playoffs for the Fed Cup World Group, hosted by the north-western Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, general score 3-1. In the last match of the competition, the Swiss pair Viktorija Golubic/Jil Teichmann defeated Sorana Cîrstea and Mihaela Buzărnescu. In the first match of the day, world no 1 Simona Halep outplayed the Swiss Patty Schnyder and won the decisive point for Romanias qualification. The previous day, Halep won against Viktorija Golubic, while Irina-Camelia Begu defeated Timea Bacsinszky. Demoted in 2016 from Fed Cups World Group, Romania thus returns to the world tennis elite in the 2019 season.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • April 22, 2018

    April 22, 2018

    EARTH DAY – Earth Day is celebrated today in Romania as well, with cleaning projects, flower planting and hikes organised by schools, NGOs, associations and political parties. Climate changes are a clear proof that the Earth is suffering and each and every one of us can end this suffering, provided that we all work together, reads a Facebook post of the Romanian Ministry for the Environment. In 2018, events focus on containing plastic pollution. The Earth Day network, which has offices in over 175 countries, intends to raise awareness on the risks entailed by the use of plastics for peoples health as well as for the oceans and wildlife. Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are sold around the world every year.




    PROTESTS – A new large-scale rally of railway workers is scheduled for Monday, April 22, at noon, in Bucharest. On Friday more than 2,000 unionists picketed the Transport Ministry and the Government head offices. Dumitru Costin, leader of the National Union Bloc, believes all-out strike to be the only solution. Railway sector unions want a special law to regulate professions in the sector, including salary rights, and demand solutions for the Freight Transport Corporation and investments in the maintenance and development of the railway network. Romanias railway network, the 7th longest in Europe, is subject to over 700 speed restrictions, and the 1,200 trains of the public railway corporation only total 300 cars. Transport Minister Lucian Şova said in a news release that he supported the adoption of relevant regulations and that increasing investments in the sector was a priority.




    HUMAN RIGHTS – Corruption remains widespread in Romania, and bribe-giving is still common practice in the public sector, reads the 2017 Country Report on Human rights issued by the US State Department. Laws were not always implemented efficiently, and officials, judges included, sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Immunity from criminal prosecution held by existing and former cabinet members who were also members of parliament sometimes blocked investigations, the report also reads. The same document notes that some Romanian politicians own or control media organisations, influencing their editorial policy. As regards prisons, the report mentions that they remained overcrowded and in breach of international standards, although the authorities took some steps to address the situation. In Romania, the US State Department says, some cases of police abuse were reported in 2017 as well, most of them going unpunished. So were cases of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and discrimination against the Roma, people with disabilities and sexual minorities. Child abuse and neglect cases were also reported.




    HUNGARY – Tens of thousands of protesters marched the streets of Hungarian capital city Budapest to protest governmental control over the media. This was the second consecutive Saturday of protests against PM Viktor Orban, recently re-elected to office. According to the BBC, the protesters accuse the Government of high-jacking the public and private mass media and using them in order to win the recent elections through anti-immigrant messages. The participants in the rally also criticised opposition parties and called for a new opposition movement. The PM Viktor Orban has dismissed the protests as “irrelevant, BBC reports.




    TENNIS – Simona Halep, no 1 in the world, secured Romanias qualification in the Fed Cup World Group, with a decisive win in the playoffs. Halep defeated today in Cluj (north-west), the veteran Patty Schnyder, 39, who replaced Timea Bacsinzky, on the second day of the Fed Cup World Group playoffs. The fourth singles match, between Irina Begu and Viktorija Golubic, was therefore cancelled. In the doubles event, Simona Halep and Irina Begu face Patty Schnyder/Jil Teichman. So far, Romania is ahead, 3-0, Halep having defeated Viktorija Golubic on Saturday 2-1, while Begu outplayed Bacsinzky 2-0.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • February 9, 2016 UPDATE

    February 9, 2016 UPDATE

    The Romanian Defence Minister, Mihnea Motoc, is taking part in Brussels in a meeting of NATO defence ministers on Wednesday and Thursday. The agenda focuses on the Alliances adjustment to the new security context, in view of preparing the decisions to be adopted by the heads of state and government in the forthcoming summit in Warsaw. The defence ministers will also talk about the implementation of the Action Plan to increase the operational capacity of NATO, to fight hybrid and cyber threats, to streamline the Allied missile defence system, the commitment in Afghanistan and ensure the necessary budget resources. During the meeting, Mihnea Motoc will have bilateral consultations with General Philip M. Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and with the defence ministers of several NATO countries.




    Romanias womens tennis team will be facing Germany in the playoffs for the Fed Cup World Group on February 16 and 17, at home, according to Tuesdays draw in London. Germany has ten players in the WTA top 100, whereas Romania only has four: Simona Halep (3), Irina Begu (34), Monica Niculescu (37), and Alexandra Dulgheru (54). In the Fed Cup quarter-finals, Romania was defeated by the trophy holder Czech Republic, late last week in the Romanian city of Cluj, 3-2, while Germany lost to the Switzerland in Leipzig. Germany is 4th in the Fed Cup ranking made public on Monday, with Romania on the 9th place. The two teams only met once before in this competition, in 1975, when West Germany defeated Romania 3-0, in Naples, in the World Cup quarter-finals.


    (translation by: Ana-Maria Popescu)