April 25, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 25.04.2016, 12:15
The Romanian Minister for European Funds, Carmen Aura Răducu, on Monday tendered her resignation upon the request of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. The Prime Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the short-term objectives of her mandate. Dacian Ciolos accepted her resignation, arguing that he would soon submit a nomination for the Ministry of European Funds to President Klaus Iohannis. This is the second minister, after Labour Minister Ana Costea, to step down in the last two weeks. Aura Raducu specializes in European and international financing projects of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Last year she was project manager with the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission.
The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis received Monday in Bucharest the NATO Deputy Secretary-General, Alexander Vershbow. The two talked about the NATO summit to be hosted by Warsaw in July as well as about the developments in the Alliance’s eastern and southern vicinity. Alexander Vershbow appreciated Romania’s active role within NATO, especially in the military field, pinpointing the significant participation of the Romanian armed forces in the efforts to prevent and combat the risks and security challenges facing the Alliance. Also on Monday during talks with the NATO Deputy Secretary-General, the Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazăr Comănescu, pleaded for a solid military presence on the NATO eastern flank in the context of the current security challenges. He added that for Romania, consolidating the trans-Atlantic relation and the NATO-EU strategic partnership remained essential objectives. During the meeting with the Romania Defense Minister, Mihnea Motoc, Alexander Vershbow hailed Bucharest’s commitment to allotting 2% of the country’s GDP for the defense field as of next year.
Two F-22 Raptor American planes landed on Monday for a short while at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in the south east of Romania, as part of the ‘Atlantic Resolve’ exercise. The most advanced fighter aircraft of the world, the single-seat, all weather stealth aircraft F-22 Raptor is capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground attack missions. The American General Timothy M. Ray, commander of the 3rd Air Force of the US Air Forces said that the F-22 planes were for the first time in Romania to ensure the NATO allies of the US commitment and also to prove the strong bilateral relation with the Romanian authorities. In turn, the American ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm, recalled that the US and Romania had a strong partnership in far-away theaters of operation such as those in Kosovo and Bosnia, where they collaborated in the past, and in Afghanistan.
The American President, Barack Obama, on Monday called on the NATO states whose representatives gathered in Hanover, Germany, to support the allies in the east of Europe — Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. He also asked them to increase the defense budget and to be ready to respond to the threats on the southern flank of the Alliance. President Obama said that each NATO member state should bring its contribution to common security, with a defense budget of 2% of the GDP, which does not always happen. President Obama showed that he intended to reiterate this message at the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw.
Talks were started on Monday at the Labour Ministry in Bucharest with the trade union representatives on the issue of the new emergency ordinance regarding the salaries of state employees. The Labour Minister, Dragoş Pîslaru, said they were working on several versions of the ordinance, which is mainly aimed at eliminating the imbalances of the system. The representatives of the big trade union confederations have called for an increase in the salaries of all state employees, and not only in the small salaries as the government intends. Otherwise they have warned to start protest actions.
Eliminated in the eighth finals of the recently ended WTA tournament in Stuttgart, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has dropped one position in the world classification from the 6th to the 7th place. This is the poorest position Simona has had in the world hierarchy since March 2014. Monica Niculescu, another Romanian player, is ranked 31st in the WTA ranking. In another move, the Romanian pair made up of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecău on Monday won the doubles of the last edition of the BRD Năstase – Ţiriac Trophy, a tournament hosted by Bucharest which has prizes up for grabs worth 460 thousand euros. They defeated the pair Chris Guccione (Australia) / Andre Sa (Brazil). In the singles, the Spanish Fernando Verdasco defeated in the finals the French Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-2.
(news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
