January 25, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 25.01.2014, 12:43
Romanian meteorologists have extended the orange alert for snowstorms to 18 counties in the south and south east of the country, including the capital Bucharest, until Sunday night. Another 7 counties in the southeast, east and center are under yellow alert for snowstorms. The authorities announced there will follow another difficult 24 hours and called on the population to stay at home. 154 people blocked in traffic in cars, airports and ports have been evacuated. Because of the blizzard and snow road traffic has been closed on 3 highways and on 19 national and county roads. Rail traffic has also been disrupted and scores of trains have been cancelled or register big delays. Also more domestic and external flights from the Henri Coanda airport in Bucharest have been cancelled or postponed. The Black Sea ports have been closed and traffic on the Danube — Black Sea canal has been restricted. More than a hundred villages have been left without electricity. On the other hand, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued warnings for those who want to travel to Serbia, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia, where heavy snowfalls are expected.
A mission of the IMF, World Bank and the European Commission is in Bucharest until February 5th to assess the stand-by agreement concluded last year with Romania. Romania has concluded an agreement worth 4 billion euros with the IMF and the EU, but it does not intend to access the money yet. Besides the authorities, the members of the mission will also meet with representatives of political parties , trade unions, businesspeople associations, banks and civil society organizations. The talks will focus on the economic reforms priorities and the legislative framework with impact on the economy. Andrea Schaechter, the head of the IMF mission to Bucharest, says that their general impression is that Romania has so far had important performances, managing to cope with the economic crisis. Romania has reduced its fiscal deficit by more than 6.5% of the GDP, is one of the 11 member states that are no longer under the excessive deficit procedure and has reported economic growth.
The Dutch Foreign Minister, Frans Timmermans, will pay a visit to Bucharest on Monday. He will meet with the PM Victor Ponta, with his Romanian counterpart Titus Corlatean and also with civil society representatives. Talks will focus on intensifying and diversifying economic cooperation, given that most of the foreign investments in Romania have been made by the Netherlands. They will also tackle issues of common interest on the European agenda such as energy security, the EU enlargement policy, the Eastern Partnership, with focus on the Republic of Moldova. The visit of the Dutch official will take place shortly after the publication of the report of the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for Romania and Bulgaria. We recall that the Netherlands has been repeatedly opposed to Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession.
The pair made up of Romanian tennis player Horia Tecău and Indian Sania Mirza will meet the Canadian-French pair Daniel Nestor/Kristina Mladenovic, on Sunday, in Melbourne, in the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open. On Friday, in the first semi-final, Tecău and Mirza defeated title holders, Australians Matthew Ebden/Jarmila Gajdosova 2-6, 6-3, 10-2. In 2012 Horia Tecău won the mixed doubles at the Australian Open alongside American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Ukrainian president Viktor Ianukovici on Saturday had a new meeting with the opposition leaders, given that the situation in Kiev’s Independence Square is tenser and tenser. The sides are trying to work out solutions to the crisis started in November last year and which has got worse over the past week following the clashes between riot police and protesters, that killed 5 and wounded hundreds. The EU underlined Saturday that it expected “concrete measures” to be taken by the Ukrainian power to stop the spiraling of violence and intimidation. President Ianukovici announced Friday, after meeting the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fule, a government reshuffle and amendments to the very restrictive anti-protest laws. The center of the Ukrainian capital has been occupied since the end of November last year by pro- European protesters, after the power refused a rapprochement to the EU choosing to come closer to Russia.
Four people were killed Saturday in clashes in Egypt as the country marks the anniversary of the 2011 uprising which ended with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. In Cairo the police used tear gas against protesters. On the other hand, the Romanian Foreign Ministry warns the Romanians citizens who travel to that country that, until January 26th, and also in the coming period, demonstrations are likely to be held in Cairo and other Egyptian cities, devoted to the celebration of the 2011 uprising.
