February 7, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of Romanian and international news
România Internațional, 07.02.2015, 12:15
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 Russian president, Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia was not at war with anybody. In Munich the French president Francois Hollande and the German chancellor Angela Merkel said, on the sidelines of the annual security conference, that they obtained the approval of the Russian president for a new peace plan for Ukraine. The German chancellor warned however that sending weapons to Ukraine for the government troops would not solve the serious situation in that country. The exchange of tough declarations made Saturday at the annual security conference hosted by Munich shows, according to Reuters, the fragility of the trans-Atlantic consensus over the resolution of the crisis in eastern Ukraine. On the ground, the pro-Russian separatists intensified, Saturday, the attacks on the government forces along the entire front line.
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.
Romania’s and Spain’s women’s tennis teams have obtained equal scores, 1-1, after Garbine Muguruza defeated Saturday Irina Begu 6-3, 6-2 in Galati, in south eastern Romania, in the first round of World Group II. Previously Simona Halep defeated Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-2, 6-1. 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.
