April 25, 2014
A selection of the main stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 25.04.2014, 12:00
Orange and yellow code alerts for flooding are in place in the hydrographic regions in southern Romania. A yellow code alert for heavy rain and wind has also been issued today in 9 counties in the south and south-east. 15-20 litres of precipitation per square metre are expected to fall in these areas, while the wind may exceed 60 km per hour. The weather remains unstable in the rest of the country, with overcast skies and rain showers.
The campaign for the European elections started today in Romania. 15 political parties and alliances and 8 independent candidates are running for the 32 European Parliament seats Romania is entitled to. The main competitors are the left-wing ruling alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party; the centre-right National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, in opposition; and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior partner in the government. The European elections are also seen as a good test ahead of the presidential elections in November.
The partnership between the European Union and the Russian giant Gazprom must continue, but the Union must reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports and find alternative supplies, said the European commissioner for energy, Gunther Oettinger in Bucharest. As alternative sources he mentioned Norway, Algeria, Azerbaijan and the southern delivery corridor. The EU official emphasised that Romania plays a major role in this sector, given its land and sea gas resources. The European commissioner has attended an energy meeting in Bucharest as the European Commission and Russia are trying to establish a three-party meeting, including Ukraine, to discuss the security of gas deliveries. Russia supplies around 25% of gas consumption in the European Union, while 65 of the 133 million cubic metres of gas purchased by the EU transit the Ukrainian pipeline network.
The north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi is today hosting a Romanian-Moldovan meeting to discuss cross-border cooperation under the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The event is part of a pilot project aimed at enhancing the absorption of European funds through the new mechanism provided by the Strategy. Talks focus on the creation of cooperation mechanisms that will make it easier to find new partners for macro-regional projects that meet the goals set by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.
The BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy worth 420,000 euros is under way in Bucharest. In the men’s singles, Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic will meet the no. 4 seed Gilles Simon of France; Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan plays against Robin Haase of Holland; the no. 3 seed Gael Monfils of France will play against his fellow countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu; while the no. 1 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria faces Sergey Stakhovski of Ukraine. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer faces the all British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.
