7 December 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 07.12.2014, 13:34
A joint IMF – EC delegation carries on in Bucharest negotiations with Romanian authorities over the 2015 draft budget. The two sides have divergent opinions regarding the budget deficit, with the creditors’ representatives insisting for a seficit of 0.9% of the GDP, while Romanian authorities say the figure should stand at 1.4%. According to Bucharest officials, the figure set by the international partners is unacceptable, because that would entail a reduction in the amounts earmarked for investment, health and co-funding for European projects, and that would seriously damage Romanian economy.
The Polish Parliament has ratified the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the EU. The Deputy Foreign Minister, Tomasz Orlowski, said during a Seim meeting, that the Republic of Moldova has implemented several successful reforms and needs more assurances from the EU that its future is indeed a European one. So far, the document has been ratified by ten EU member countries: Romania, Latvia, Malta, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden and Poland. The Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the EU was signed on June 27th, 2014, and was ratified by the Moldovan Parliament on July 2nd, a procedure that needs to be carried out by all the EU member states.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls on France and Italy to boost their economic reforms. In late November, the European Commission said that the two countries’ 2015 budgets did not comply with the EU rules and gave the French and the Italian governments three months to start implementing measures to reduce the budget deficit and public debt, to thus avoid being sanctioned. German officials have often criticized France’s too high a deficit, and this criticism has grown in scale over the past weeks, also reflecting the divergences between Paris and Berlin with regard to economic policies. Germany is in favour of austerity policies and reforms, while France is in for a higher budget deficit to stimulate economic growth.
US President, Barack Obama, has strongly condemned the barbaric murder of US journalist Luke Somers, who was kidnapped in Yemen by Al Qaida militants a year ago, reads a communiqué issued by the White House. Luke Somers and another hostage were killed on Saturday, during a rescue operation conducted by US and Yemenite forces in capital Sana’a. US commandos intervened to save the journalist, following Friday’s information that he was about to be killed the next day. The 33 year old photo-journalist had been kidnapped in September 2013 in Sana’a, and South-African teacher Pierre Kordie, aged 57, had been held hostage by the Sunni extremist organization since May 2013.
Life expectancy grew significantly in the 90s in the EU, but there are still huge gaps between the countries, reads an annual report on health in Europe, published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. On average, in the 28 EU member countries, life expectancy was 79.2 in 2012, 5.1 more years than in 1990. The growth can be explained by the fact that mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases has dropped, especially in people aged 50 to 65. Spain, where life expectancy is 82.5 years, Italy with 82.4 and France with 82.1 are the European countries with the longest life expectancy.
Romania’s national women’s handball team is to meet in Debrecen, Hungary, the team of Norway, in its first match at the European Championships’ final tournament. Trainer Gheorghe Tadici sees the Romanian squad among the first eight this year, after holding the 10th position in the last two competitions, in 2012 and 2013,and failing to meet supporters expectations. In the last matches played in preparation for the final tournament, Romania defeated Germany 26-23 and 27-23 respectively.
