May 27, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 27.05.2025, 13:55
TALKS Romania’s president Nicusor Dan has today announced he will be having working meetings with the Minister of European Projects, Marcel Bolos, and the Minister of Development, Cseke Attila, in order to assess the real pace of investment starting from the issue of budget deficit. On Wednesday, the head of state is expected to kick off talks with Parliament parties with a view to forging a new government. The president wants that all pro-European parties get involved in the ruling process in order to ensure a solid Legislature majority with an impact on the country’s economic-financial development. The PSD has been avoiding a direct answer in terms of their involvement in the ruling process. The Social-Democrats say they want first and foremost to talk about the projects the new government wants to implement for citizens. The Liberals have backed their president, Ilie Bolojan, to hold talks for setting up the future cabinet. According to some political sources they are also backing him for the position of Prime Minister, a formula also agreed by President Dan. The other two pro-European parties, USR and UDMR are also getting ready for talks. The USR will be part of the ruling coalition irrespective of the new Executive formula; a minority one only jointly with the PNL and UDMR enjoying the Parliament support of the Social-Democrats, or a majority one based on a coalition to also include the PSD, which will enjoy support in Parliament from the group of the national minorities. In turn, UDMR leader, Kelemen Hunor says that if he joins the new government, he wants an extremely detailed agreement. He says the first option remains a large majority coalition made up of the PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR and the group of the national minorities.
EDUCATION Romania has expanded its educational system but there are significant disparities in terms of attendance and results between the rural and urban areas, says an OECD report on education presented at the Romanian Academy on Tuesday. Enrollment is under the OECD average at all levels with significant differences in the preschooling and higher education. Students in the rural area have a lower probability to be included in various education programmes being more prone to dropouts and significantly underrepresented in the tertiary education system, the same sources say. According to the OECD report the Roma population, overly present in the poor rural areas remains one of the largest marginalized groups with higher dropout rates and lower participation in the preschooling, schooling and tertiary education systems. According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, nearly 4 out of 10 students have performances under competence levels in reading and sciences while 5 out of 10 in mathematics. The document shows that Romania has also introduced policies aimed at improving the results of vulnerable students including through the extension of the social support for disenfranchised students to help them complete their higher studies and provide access to the tertiary education.
TENNIS Romanian Anca Todoni will today be up against the US challenger Jessica Pegula, one of the odds-on favourites of the first round of the Roland Garros tennis tournament, the year’s second Grand Slam competition. Another two Romanians have already qualified for the second round. Gabriela Ruse secured a two-set win on Monday against McCartney Kessler of the USA while Jaqueline Cristian outperformed Kimberly Birrell of Australia also in a two-setter. Ruse will be taking on Paula Bardosa of Spain in the second round, while Cristian will be up against Sara Bejlek of Czechia. Irina Begu gave up in the competition’s first round, in the match she was playing against Leolia Jeanjean of France while Sorana Cirstea announced her withdrawal shortly before the tournament kicked off.
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