A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.
Accident. Nine Romanians, seven men and two women, were killed in a bus accident that took place on Tuesday evening in Hungary. They were travelling from Slovenia to Romania. According to preliminary information, the bus driver tried to overtake at high speed and crashed into a truck coming from the opposite direction. A mobile consular team from the Romanian Embassy in Budapest travelled to the site of the accident. According to a Romanian foreign ministry release, Romania's embassy in Budapest is in permanent contact with the local authorities and the families of the victims and is providing consular assistance.
UN. Romania's ambassador to the United Nations Ion Jinga highlighted in a Security Council address Bucharest's contribution to peace keeping operations and ensuring the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. He also underlined the major importance of preventing conflicts through international cooperation and respect for international humanitarian law and human rights. He made these statements at a talk about the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts hosted by the Polish presidency of the United Nations. According to the defence ministry in Bucharest, Romania currently contributes 1,000 military, observers and advisors to international missions, of whom 700 are deployed under the NATO aegis to missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia-Hertegovina.
Talks. The president's foreign policy advisor Bogdan Aurescu has emphasised during talks with senior officials from the Pentagon that the Black Sea region must be given enhanced attention at the future NATO summit in Brussels, Romania's embassy in the US has said in a release. Bucharest's goals at the summit are to ensure the coherence of the Eastern Flank and consolidating allied defence and deterrence, stability and the relationships with the partners in the eastern and southern neighbourhood and enhancing NATO's role in combating terrorism. Bogdan Aurescu met Robert S. Karem, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Thomas Goffus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. The American officials appreciated the Romanian national programme for the modernisation of military capabilities. Bogdan Aurescu has emphasised that, in 2017, Romania ranked first among its NATO allies when it comes to enhancing its defence spending, namely by 45%.
Transporters. On Wednesday and Thursday, Bucharest is playing host to the works of the Executive Committee of the European Transport Workers' Federation. Talks are expected to focus on the current problems faced by maritime, road, naval, rail and air transport. The meetings, which are chaired by the Federation's president Frank Moreels, and its secretary general Eduardo Chagas, are attended by a number of Romanian officials, including the speaker of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Calin Popescu Tariceanu and Liviu Dragnea, respectively, as well as the transport minister Lucian Sova. This is the first time the Federation's Executive Committee is not held in Brussels.
New car model. The American company Ford is to manufacture a new model at its factory in Craiova, in southern Romania, which will create 1,500 new jobs. The new model will be made in parallel with the current generation of subcompact SUVs, Ford EcoSport, and the EcoBoost engine. For the manufacturing of the new model, Ford will make an additional investment of almost 200 million euros. The company's representatives have continued to call on the government to improve the transport infrastructure. The Ford factory in Craiova employs 4,400 people and Ford's investment in Craiova since 2008 has amounted to around 1.5 billion euros.
Trial. The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest has postponed for the 5th of June a ruling in a corruption trial involving the former government minister Elena Udrea. She was previously convicted in a court of first instance to 6 years in prison for bribe taking and abuse of office and fined 3 million euros in damages. At the final hearing, the anti-corruption prosecution requested harsher sentences for Udrea and the former president of the Romanian Boxing Federation Rudel Obreja over their involvement in the organisation of a boxing gala with former world champions Lucian Bute. According to the National Anticorruption Directorate, Udrea coordinated a system that allowed persons close to her to receive sums of money from representatives of commercial companies to guarantee the latter were paid on time for works funded by the ministry she was running at the time. Investigators say the sums obtained went directly to Udrea, in cash or through the payment of goods and services, to the Bucharest branch of the former Liberal Democratic Party (now part of the National Liberal Party) and to Rudel Obreja.
Employment. 27 million European Union employees aged between 15 and 64 had temporary employment contracts in 2017, which accounts for 14.3% of the total number of employees in the Union, according to figures published by Eurostat today. Romania ranks last among EU member states in this respect, with only 1.2% of employees having temporary contracts. Other member states with a low number of temporary employment contracts are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. At the opposite end, one out of four employees in Spain and Poland had temporary employment contracts in 2017.
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