February 16, 2024

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom and Elena Enache, 16.02.2024, 14:04

SECURITY – The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminiţa Odobescu, is participating, as of today until Sunday, in the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany. She will present Romania’s assessment as regards current security threats, especially those in its neighborhood. Odobescu will highlight the deterioration of the security situation in the Black Sea region, caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and will encourage NATO allies to increase their presence in Romania, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s response to the threats to the Euro-Atlantic security. At the same time, she will emphasise the importance of the 2024 NATO Summit for the Alliance’s adjustment to the growing number of threats to the security environment. Luminiţa Odobescu will reaffirm Romania’s support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and will emphasize the need to continue providing solid support to the Republic of Moldova in order to counter the pressures on its stability. The Minister of Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, Gheorghiţă Vlad, also participate in the security conference. The international conference in Munich represents one of the most prestigious security forums, which brings together important leaders and decision-makers in the field of security and defense.

COOPERATION – Romania and Italy will boost  cooperation, in keeping with a joint declaration for the development of the consolidated strategic partnership between the two countries, signed on Thursday, in Rome, by prime ministers Giorgia Meloni and Marcel Ciolacu. At the joint government meeting, seven memoranda were signed for a number of sectors, from defense to justice. Italy is now Romania’s second largest trade partner, and Prime Minister Ciolacu invited businessmen from Italy to continue investing in Romania.

ELECTIONS – The Social Democrats and the Liberals making up the ruling coalition in Romania are deciding the schedule of the elections for the European Parliament as well as that of the local, legislative and presidential elections, to be held this year. The two parties have not agreed on merging the elections yet. The PNL would like the European and local elections to take place on the same date, June 9, but the PSD says the calendar for the entire electoral year must be established firs, and only afterwards they can talk about combining the elections. The social-democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu specified that, in the absence of a decision regarding the merger, the elections will take place separately, in keeping with the law. The Opposition is against the idea, arguing that merging the elections would be a violation of democracy and is considering going to the Constitutional Court if such a decision is taken by the ruling coalition.

TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has sued the Canadian company that produced the nutritional supplements because of which she believes she tested positive and was suspended for four years for doping and is demanding more than 10 million dollars in damages. In October 2022, the Romanian, former world number one and double Grand Slam winner, was suspended for 4 years after testing positive for roxadustat, a drug on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances. Halep claimed that she used the respective supplements during  the 2022 edition of the US Open, and that they were contaminated with roxadustat, which did not appear on the label. She was heard last week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, where on October 24 she appealed the suspension.

BUCHAREST – The National Bank of Romania (BNR) revised downwards, to 4.7%, the inflation forecast for the end of this year, from 4.8% in November, and estimates that it will reach 3.5% at the end of 2025, according to the data presented on Thursday by the Centralo Bank governor, Mugur Isărescu. The Central Bank decided, at the same time, to keep the reference interest rate at 7%.