February 18, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 18.02.2014, 12:01
The political bureau of the National Liberal Party is convening today to confirm the mandate of its leader, Crin Antonescu, at negotiations within the Social Liberal Union, the ruling center-left alliance in Romania. The meeting takes place amid tensions between the two USL leaders , the Social Democratic prime minister Victor Ponta and the Liberal senate speaker Crin Antonescu. For almost two weeks, Ponta and Antonescu have been trying to reach an agreement on the government’s new structure. The liberals are opposing the creation of a new position of deputy PM, to be taken over by a representative of the Conservative Party.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has on Tuesday announced that it hasn’t received any official confirmation regarding the presence of Romanian citizens aboard the Ethiopian Airlines jetliner, hijacked on Monday. The ministry’s specification comes after an Ethiopian official said there were many foreign citizens on board the plane, Romanians included.
Protesters clashed with police near Ukraines parliament on Tuesday as they sought to force lawmakers to strip embattled President Viktor Yanukovich of a raft of powers, in the latest bid to break months of political deadlock. Police fired rubber bullets and hurled smoke bombs at protesters who threw stones and set two trucks on fire.
With 22.7%, Romania is among the EU countries that are least dependant on energy imports. According to Eurostat, Romania comes third in the Union in terms of energy imports, after Estonia and Denmark. Denmark is the only net exporter of energy in the EU, in 2012. Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus, on the other hand, are highly dependant on imports.
