July 30, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 30.07.2015, 12:15
The Romanian Foreign Ministry hailed the endorsement, by Parliament, of the new pro-European government in the Republic of Moldova and has voiced confidence that the new government will continue to apply the Association Accord with the EU and the democratic reforms. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has said that Romania will firmly and unconditionally support Moldovas path towards the EU. Moldova’s parliament confirmed Valeriu Strelet, a legislator and businessman, as prime minister on Thursday and approved his pro-Europe government team. Parliamentary allies from a three-party pro-EU alliance mustered 52 votes in support of Strelet, just enough to ensure his confirmation by the 101-seat assembly. The post of prime minister has been vacant in Moldova since June 12 when former prime minister Chiril Gaburici stepped down after just over 100 days in office following allegations his school diplomas were fake.
Romanias Supreme Defense Council on Thursday had a meeting chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, to discuss the security issues at NATOs eastern border and their impact on the region and on Romania, the presidency said in a release. Also discussed was the situation of the national forest stock, vulnerable to illegal deforestation, with a huge impact on the business environment and the state budget.
Over 250,000 people are expected to attend the UNTOLD festival, which kicked off on Thursday in the central Romanian town of Cluj. UNTOLD is the highlight of the program held in the European Youth Cultural Capital which this year is Cluj. For the first time ever, four of the most popular electro-dance music artists will be performing on the same stage: AVICII, ARMIN van BUUREN, DAVID GUETTA and DIMITRI VEGAS&LIKE MIKE. More than 170 international and domestic artists will step onto the eight stages of the festival. Expected in Cluj are tourists from Mexico, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines and Canada.
The heat wave continued to affect Romania on Thursday with temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius in most areas. However, starting Thursday night, atmospheric instability is reported for the centre and northeast of the country, as well as for the mountain regions. On Friday, instability will be spreading over the entire country. Heavy downpours, thunderstorms and gale force winds are expected for most regions. Hail might also be present. The drought in the past few weeks has severely affected crops in the south and the east. In the county of Iasi alone, in the northeast, more than 33 thousand hectares of cultivated land have started to show signs of severe lack of underground water. The most affected are wheat, corn and sunflower crops. Unfortunately, extreme phenomena have also started to occur quite frequently, such as the hail last week, which damaged 5 thousand hectares of harvested land. The drought has also caused a dramatic decrease in the level of the Danube.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has promised justice to the relatives of the victims of the MH17 plane that crashed in July 2014, despite Russias veto opposing the setting up of a special tribunal during the voting session of a resolution in United Natuions Security Council, according to the AFP. Russias action has thus blocked a resolution proposal backed by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands and Ukraine. Kiev has accused Moscow of having provided pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine the rocket that brought down the Malaysia Airlines flight. We recall the 298 passengers on board the aircraft linking Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur died. In turn, Russia laid the blame of Ukrainian army. The conclusions of an inquiry carried out by the Netherlands are to be made public in October.
