February 5, 2015 UPDATE
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Mihai Pelin, 05.02.2015, 20:31
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday congratulated his Italian counterpart, Sergio Matarrella, who took over his mandate this week. According to presidency sources in Bucharest, in a phone call the Romanian president has voiced his desire to consolidate the strategic partnership between the two countries, built on a long and solid relation. The two officials have agreed that the presence of a significant Romanian community in Italy and of a strong Italian business community in Romania grants this relation a special dimension. President Iohannis has also mentioned that one of his immediate top priorities is a dialogue with representatives of the Romanian community in Italy. We recall that one million Romanians are presently living in Italy, which is the largest community of foreigners in that country.
France’s president Francois Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel are going to Kiev for talks aimed at putting an end to the conflict in Ukraine, as soon as possible. On Friday the two European officials are to present Russian president Vladimir Putin with a peace plan in Moscow. The diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the conflict in the region come against the clashes between the government forces and pro-Russia rebels, which have intensified of late.
Security in the Black Sea region, the British-Romanian cooperation as well as issues high on the agenda of the latest NATO ministerial meeting were tackled by Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa and his British counterpart Michael Fallon in Brussels on Thursday. The event took place concurrently with the NATO defence ministers meeting, which had high on the agenda the implementation of the rapid reaction force, NATO’s most important collective defence force since the end of the Cold War. This task force, which is to include 5,000 soldiers can be deployed in 48 hours at the latest to any NATO country or region facing a military threat. One thousand of these soldiers are to be deployed by Britain to Romania and Poland. Command centers will be set up in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The General Prosecutor’s Office in Romania on Thursday announced that the file on the miners’ raid on Bucharest over June 13th and 15th 1990 had been reopened. The miners had violently repressed a large-scale demonstration against the government that came to power shortly after the fall of the communist regime. Romania was asked by the European Court of Human Rights to continue investigations in this file. Several incidents in Bucharest had prompted Romania’s leftist president at that time, Ion Iliescu, to call miners from Valea Jiului, in central-western Romania, asking them to defend the Romanian democracy. The miners arrived in Bucharest and stormed the University, the offices of various opposition parties and some independent newspapers. Six people were killed in the raid, hundreds were wounded and over 1000 arrested.
The European Commission on Thursday raised its outlook on Romania’s economic growth in 2015 up to 2.7%, 0.3% higher than the previous forecast. This economic growth, followed by a 2.9% growth in 2016 would be supported by the domestic demand and the global economic recovery. The private consumption is expected to remain stable, while rising salaries, and improving conditions on the labour market are also factors, which could positively influence the consumers’ purchasing power, shows the European Commission report. Private and public investment is expected to improve and exports to be on the rise. The European Commission’s report has also mentioned the risks of a possible deterioration of the geopolitical tension in the neighboring region, which could have effects on the Romanian economy.
