February 6, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 06.02.2014, 12:05
Romania has recovered from the economic crisis faster than other EU countries and 2014 will be the fourth year of economic growth, Romanian president Traian Basescu said during a business forum in Turkish capital Ankara. On the last day of his visit to Turkey president Traian Basescu has participated in a business forum and will pay visits to several sites from the aerospace industry. On Wednesday, Basescu held talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul reiterating the support of Bucharest for Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. The Romanian president voiced hope the bilateral trade exchanges, currently standing at 5 billion dollars would double. Basescu also held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, with the speaker of Parliament Cemil Cicek and with representatives of the Romanian community in Turkey.
The Romanian government has issued an emergency ordinance on regulating the election for the European Parliament due in May. The ordinance regulates the way in which election tickets are designed and printed and gives a major role to the Permanent Election Authority. We’ll revert to the topic after the news.
According to EurActiv webpage, quoted by diplomatic sources, the European Commission has called on Washington to lift visas for Romania and four other EU countries whose citizens cannot travel to the United States without a visa. A community regulation, which came into effect on December 20th, calls for concerted action from EU members in this respect, particularly when it comes to countries that apply different standards for European citizens. The new regulations allow the Commission to impose temporary visas to citizens coming from the countries, which do not have a visa waiver for European citizens.
The pro-Russian separatists in Transdniester, a region in the east of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian speaking majority have released the director and two other employees of the only high school in the region with tuition in Romanian. The three were detained under the accusation of smuggling. Earlier, the authorities in the breakaway region of Transdniester had frozen the bank accounts of the aforementioned school and searched the building. Romania has described the incident as a provocation and called for the OSCE’s immediate intervention. We recall that Transdniester came out of Moldova’s control back in 1992 following an armed conflict, which left hundreds of dead and ended after the intervention of the Russian troops in favor of the breakaway republic.
The central bank of Romania has revised the inflation rate forecast this year from 3% in November last year to 3.5%, the bank’s governor Mugur Isarescu announced on Thursday. The bank has also envisaged a 3.2% inflation rate for late 2015. We recall that Romania’s budget this year is based on an estimated inflation rate of 2.4%.
Romanian women’s tennis team outperformed Hungary 2-1 in Budapest on Wednesday in a game counting towards the Fed Cup’s group one Europe-Africa. Romania will on Friday play Britain and will be up against Latvia on Saturday. If they win our players will meet the winner of group C, comprising Ukraine, Austria, Slovenia and Israel.
