30 November 2015

Romanias president Klaus Iohannis attends the climate change summit in Paris.

Newsroom, 30.11.2015, 12:00

Climate change. Alongside heads of state and government from 149 countries, the Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis today attends the opening of the 21st
session of the Conference of the Parties as part of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference, which takes places
until the 11th of December, aims to achieve a new legally binding
and universal international agreement on climate change to be applied as of
January 1st 2021. On Sunday, Klaus Iohannis attended the EU-Turkey
summit in Brussels. The Romanian president said Turkey plays a key role in
solving the migration problem and underlined that Romania supports this
country’s EU accession process. He also called for stepping up visa
liberalisation for Turkish nationals, provided Ankara meets its commitments in
this regard. At the end of the summit, the EU said it will grant Turkey a first
3 billion euro package to stem the migrant flow to Europe and will speed up
talks on Turkey’s EU accession. Turkey itself pledged to secure its borders and
cooperate in the fight against illegal human trafficking on the Union’s
borders.

Colectiv fire. The victims of a deadly fire at Bucharest’s Colectiv
nightclub were commemorated today, one month after the tragedy that cut short
the lives of 60 people and injured almost 200. According to the interior
ministry, one of the injured was transferred today to a hospital in Austria. 36
people are still undergoing treatment in Bucharest, while 29 others are in
hospitals abroad. Four different inquiries carried out by the National Anticorruption
Directorate and the General Prosecutor’s Office have revealed a long series of
irregularities, including in the case of the bodies in charge of verifying compliance
with fire protection regulations. A number of persons have been arrested, including
the owners of the club and of the company that organised the pyrotechnics show
that sparked the fire, while two heads of departments from the Inspectorate for
Emergency Situations have been sacked.

National Day. More than 2,600 troops and army personnel and 360 pieces of military
equipment will take part in the National Day parade on December 1st
in Bucharest. This year, the Romanian military will be joined in the parade by
troops from the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, the United States, Poland and
Turkey. Concerts, exhibitions, film screenings and official receptions are held
across Romania and abroad to celebrate the National Day. Declared an official
celebration after the post-communist revolution of 1989, December 1st
marks the completion, in 1918, at the end of the First World War, of the
building process of the Romanian unitary nation-state following the union with
Romania of all provinces with a majority Romanian population that had been
under the control of neighbouring multinational empires.

NATO. NATO foreign ministers will meet
in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss security challenges. Romania will be
represented by its foreign minister Lazar Comanescu. Talks will focus on the
consolidation of NATO’s eastern flank, the organisation’s relationship with
Russia and its military cooperation with the European Union, as well as the
situation in Afghanistan.

Christmas. Almost 3 million Christmas lights will be switched on tonight in
Bucharest. The Christmas market in the centre of the city already opened on
Friday. Its 60 stalls sell everything from food to jewellery and Christmas
decorations. The market is decorated with over 10,000 light bulbs, while its
15-metre tall Christmas tree is illuminated by 20,000 bulbs. Concerts and
performances will be held every day at the market all month. A humanitarian
campaign is also being run, encouraging people to donate books and toys for
disadvantaged children.

Patron saint. Romania’s majority Orthodox population, as well as its Greek-Catholic
and Roman-Catholic communities today celebrate the Feast of St Andrew.
Considered the patron saint of Romania, St Andrew introduced Christianity to
these parts and first baptised the locals in Dobruja, on the Black Sea’s
western coast. 700,000 people in Romania are named after this saint.

(Translated by: C. Mateescu)