August 26, 2013
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România Internațional, 26.08.2013, 13:00
Prime minister of Romania Victor Ponta is on a two-day visit to the Republic of Moldova. Ponta will have meetings with his counterpart Iurie Leanca, together with whom he will take part in the official opening of works on the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline, and will take part in the Siret – Prut – Dniester Euroregion Forum. The event will also be attended by the EU commissioner for energy, Gunther Oettinger. The ministers in the Romanian delegation will also discuss with their Moldovan counterparts issues related to energy, education and healthcare. The topics approached will include the interconnection of the two countries’ energy networks, the grants offered by Bucharest to Moldovan students and the prospective establishment of an emergency rescue service in the Republic of Moldova.
The Romanian Economy Minister, Varujan Vosganian, will pay a formal visit to Kiev on Tuesday, together with a government delegation. The purpose of the visit is the resumption of negotiations with the Ukrainian side with a view to recovering the money spent by Romania in the building of the Active Ore Enrichment Works in Krivo Rog. The total amount is estimated at around one billion dollars. The building of the works in Krivo Rog started in 1983, when the Soviet Union still existed, and involved the participation of the Democratic Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. In 1990, the building works stopped.
In Romania, over 55 thousand high school graduates on Monday sat for the first written test in this year’s second Baccalaureate session. The first baccalaureate session, held this summer, was marred by a major incident, involving fraud in a high school in Bucharest whose principal was arrested. According to the Education Ministry, the national pass rate in the June-July session of the Baccalaureate this year was 55%.
The new Romanian Transport Minister is 41 year old Ramona Manescu, a member of the National Liberal Party since 1990 and member of the European Parliament since 2007. The office had been vacant since the resignation of the former minister, liberal Relu Fenechiu, who was sentenced to prison for influence peddling. Prime Minister Victor Ponta was the interim transport president.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry once again warns the Romanian citizens to avoid traveling to Egypt until security is restored. The Foreign Ministry said a state of emergency is still in place in several Egyptian provinces, and a curfew is valid in several regions, including Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Sinai and Suez. Tensions remain high in this country after 10 days of tough military interventions against the Islamists who organised protests calling for the reinstatement of former president Mohamed Morsi. He was removed from office by the military on July 3rd. Over 1,000 people have been killed in the last few days in the clashes.
The annual meeting of the Romanian diplomacy, organized by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, starts in Bucharest on Tuesday. The Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Linas Antanas Linkevicius and the minister of Foreign Affairs and European integration of the Republic of Moldova, Natalia Gherman are special guests. The agenda of talks includes European affairs, the eastern neighborhood, Romania’s relations with global players in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, supporting Romanian communities abroad, economic and cultural diplomacy.
Romania is taking part, until August 31st, in the Film Festival in Douarnenez, France, with a number of films that have won awards in major festivals. Among them is “Child’s Pose”, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, winner of this year’s Golden Bear in the Berlin Festival. “Child’s Pose” is a psychological drama on the distorted relations between a dominating mother and her adult son. The film takes part in the competition for the 2014 Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. Another film screened at Douarnenez is “Beyond the hills”, by Cristian Mungiu, which won the 2012 Cannes awards for best script and best actress.
Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu is the winner of the big prize for poetry at the International Literary Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. The director of the festival has stated that the award was granted not only to an exceptional writer, but also to a vital culture, which asserted itself despite all difficulties. Romania is represented at Novi Sad by six poets and an anthology of contemporary poetry.
