January 17, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 17.01.2014, 19:06
The Romanian President, Traian Basescu, will meet early in February with the head of the European Commission, Jose Barroso, to discuss available finances that would speed up the electrical hook-up between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Basescu announced this after meeting on Thursday in Brussels with the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy. He also mentioned that he pointed out in Brussels that there are issues with schools teaching in Romanian in the breakaway region of Transdnestr, calling on the EU to intervene.
Romania and Estonia are ranked first in the EU in terms of average price increases in 2013 as compared to the previous year, 3.2%. According to Eurostat, the annual rate of inflation was 1.3% in December, while the average in the EU was 1%. The governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, said that the average annual rate of inflation is the most relevant figure in terms of price hikes, but that it does have a delayed reaction to quick changes in consumer prices.
Direct foreign investments in Romania totaled almost 2.4 billion euros in the first 11 months of 2013, increasing by 22.3% as compared to the same period of 2012. This is the highest level reported in the past 4 years, show data made public on Friday by the National Bank of Romania. The highest level of direct foreign investments was registered in 2008- namely 9.5 billion euros.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry firmly denies allegations according to which Romania is involved in military equipment delivery operations to Syria. In a communiqué made public on Friday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry pointed out that its department for the export and control of weaponry did not register and did not authorize any foreign trade operations involving military equipment with Syria in 2013 or 2014. The Romanian Foreign Ministry’s statement comes after the news agency Reuters wrote that Russia intensified, in the past weeks, military equipment exports to Syria, including through the agency of several companies from Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, in an attempt to help the regime in Damascus in their fight against the insurgents. The Bulgarian and Ukrainian foreign ministries also denied the allegations made by Reuters.
The American secretary of state, John Kerry, urged the Syrian opposition to participate in the peace talks devoted to Syria that were scheduled for next week in Switzerland. The American official made this statement in the context in which the Syrian opposition, which is deeply divided, according to France Press, is to decide on its participation in the peace talks. In turn the Syrian regime reiterated they would not attend the conference in Switzerland. The conference, called Geneva 2, is meant to work out a political solution to the Syrian conflict started in March 2011, which has so far killed 130 thousand people.
