February 7, 2015
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România Internațional, 07.02.2015, 12:00
The Romanian authorities continue talks in Bucharest with the representatives of the IMF and the European Commission. The main topics of discussion are related to funding and energy, including the gas price liberalization timetable. The international financial experts, who are in Romania until February 10th for an assessment mission, have talked with the Romanian authorities about the recent developments and priorities in the economic reform process. The current agreement concluded with the international financial bodies, the 3rd asked from the IMF after the start of the economic crisis in 2009, will end in autumn and stands at almost 2 billion euros. This precautionary agreement was meant to protect the Romanian economy from possible shocks on the financial markets.
The Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, said that the fight against corruption had to be continued at a larger scale because corruption is a threat to national security. In an interview granted to a French television station, the Romanian president said that important steps had been taken in the past years to fight corruption, but that it was important for the authorities to prove to the Romanian people that they were continuing the fight for eradicating this scourge. He added that he himself would support the anti-corruption institutions. As regards the Ukrainian crisis, Klaus Iohannis said that the Romanian authorities did not consider that the conflict in Ukraine could be extended to Romania, but the fact that Romania has a common border with Ukraine measuring 650 kms required much caution. He also added that Russia infringed the international treaties and recalled that the Romanian authorities have always supported the cooperation between the EU and NATO meant to urge Moscow to respect those treaties.
Further negotiations on the Ukrainian issue are taking place in Munich today at the annual security conference which is to be attended by almost 20 heads of state and government and more than 60 ministers. On the sidelines of the conference, the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg had a series of bilateral meetings with the Russian foreign minister Serghei Lavrov, with the American vice-president John Biden and with the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. On Friday, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the French president Francois Hollande talked in Moscow with the Russian president Vladimir Putin about a new peace plan for Ukraine. Supported by the EU and the US, the plan was discussed Thursday in Kiev with president Petro Poroshenko. The diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the ex-Soviet republic come against the backdrop of the intensification of fighting. Over 5,300 people have lost their lives in the fighting between the Ukrainian troops and the pro-Russian secessionists in the east of Ukraine.
Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, world no. 3 and Silvia Soler-Espinosa, no. 67 in the world, are facing each other today, in Galati, in the south east of Romania, in the first match between Romania’s and Spain’s Fed Cup teams, in the first round of World Groups II. In the second match world no. 34 Irina Begu is facing Garbine Muguruza, world no. 24. On Sunday Halep plays against Muguruza and Begu faces Soler Espinoza . in the doubles the Romania pair Alexandra Dulgheru (95) /Monica Niculescu (57) will play against the pair Lara Arruabarrena/Anabel Medina-Garrigues. All the 4 players in Romania’s Fed Cup team participated, last month, in the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, where Halep reached the quarterfinals.
