July 4, 2014 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Florentin Căpitănescu, 04.07.2014, 19:48
Romania’s economy shows stability and predictability for the business environment, and it is important for the country to maintain this positive trend, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said in London on Friday. Together with the country’s minister delegate for energy, Razvan Nicolescu, Prime Minister Ponta has participated in the first listing at the London Stock Exchange of Electrica SA, the leading distributor and supplier of electricity in Romania. It is for the second time when the Romanian Prime Minister has opened London trading following the listing of Romgaz, six months ago. Electrica raised 444 million euros through a public tender carried out in June, by which the state has transferred 51% of the company’s share to private investors.
Representatives of the European Commercial Bank and of the European Commission on Friday accepted the release of a one billion euro installment for Greece, from the bailout package, saying that Athens has made headway in implementing the reforms it pledged. On Monday, finance ministers from the euro zone are to approve officially the money for Greece that does not include the IMF installment, which is separate. Since 2010, Greece has been kept afloat thanks to two assistance programmes of 240 billion euros from the IMF and euro zone partners. The possibility of a third programme has been evoked in the past weeks, but some European governments are reluctant to grant Athens another financial aid due to the public opinion’s vehement reaction.
The first WTA tournament in Romania, BRD Bucharest Open, with 250 thousand dollars in prize money is due in Bucharest over July 5th and 13th and will bring together big names of the world’s tennis, such as third seeded Simona Halep of Romania, the finalist in Roland Garros and semifinalist in Wimbledon. Romania will also be represented by Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu, Alexandra Cadantu, Alexandra Dulgheru and Andreea Mitu. Also on the list of invited players there are Roberta Vinci and Karin Knapp, both from Italy, Klara Koukalova and Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic, Annika Beck of Germany, Anna Schmiedlov of Slovakia, Polona Hercog of Slovenia and Vania King of the USA.
Navy forces from Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the United States are taking part in a ten-day exercise known as Breeze-2014 carried out in the western part of the Black Sea. The operations involve navy vessels, a US patrol aircraft and vessels from the permanent NATO anti-mine naval group. The joint military exercise carried out by the five states as part of NATO is aimed at improving cooperation and the capability of participating in anti-crisis operations.
Prime minister Victor Ponta says the partnership with the United States has always been very important for Romania. In a talk given on Thursday at the US Embassy as part of the July 4th celebrations, Mr Ponta underlined that the Romanian military paid a high cost in Afghanistan to show that Romania is a reliable partner. He also thanked the US for its support to the ex-Soviet, majority Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova on its path towards democracy and European integration.
International diplomatic efforts are being made to bring the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to the negotiation table. Kiev says terms have not been met to discussing a new ceasefire and threatens with military operations. German chancellor Angela Merkel and US president Barack Obama on Thursday called on Russia to use its influence to convince the separatists to respect a possible ceasefire. In Moscow, Russian deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin said, however, that NATO was supplying Ukraine with weapons and military equipment via the east European states. The information has not been confirmed by the Defence Ministry in Kiev. On July 16th, the European Council may apply new sanctions against Russia following the conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to a statement by the British foreign secretary William Hague. On the 27th of June, the Council adopted a statement that called on Russia to take steps to defuse the situation in Ukraine.
