July 5, 2016

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.07.2016, 12:02

GROWTH STRATEGY The economic strategy titled: A
Competitive Romania: a Project for Sustainable Economic Growth was launched for public debate on
Tuesday. According to the Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, the government
will place at the disposal of civil society, the academic environment and
political parties the documents it has developed so far. The launch will be followed by a string of public consultations aimed at improving the
initial document and reaching the sustainable economic growth goal. The launch
event was attended by President Klaus Iohannis, who called on the Government to
make sure the strategy targets not only the economic component, but also
Romania’s priorities in the current European climate. The president also said
that Romania managed to successfully overcome transition and the economic
crisis.

COUNTRY PROJECT Romania’s President Klaus
Iohannis has announced the setting up of a group to draft a new country project
for Romania, 10 years after its EU accession. The decision was made following
consultations in Bucharest on the situation created by Brexit. Iohannis has
stated that the working group will work with the Romanian Presidency, and the
country project will guide Romania’s European path in the medium and long run.
Also, the strategy will establish Romania’s place in the EU, as well its role
and commitment level.

NATO SUMMIT At the Warsaw
summit, due late this week, NATO leaders will decide upon turning a Romanian
brigade into a multi-national force, said the NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg during a press conference. The brigade, in which other member
countries will take part too, will be
under the command of the Multinational Division South-East based in Romania.
Other multi-national battalions will also be deployed in the three Baltic
countries and Poland. This is the biggest collective defense strategy since the
end of the Cold War, Stoltenberg also said. Strengthening the Eastern flank of
the Alliance, starting 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, will be
endorsed at the 8-9 July Summit.

MIGRATION The British Labour MP Keith
Vaz has conveyed a message to Romanians saying they are still welcome to Great
Britain, even if the Kingdom leaves the EU. The British official has stated
that the result of the referendum brought to light the gaps existing in British
society. Also, he believes that the issue of migration was used abusively and
in an exaggerated manner in speeches and it is not as big a threat as some
would like to make it appear. Keith Vaz has stated that Romanians bring a
significant contribution to Great Britain and believes that the campaign
Romanians adopt Remainians is a fabulous way of showing the world that the
British are not willing to leave their European neighbors, despite the result
of the June 23rd referendum.

REFERENDUM On October 2nd,
Hungary will organize a referendum on the European refugee allocation plan,
opposed by the Hungarian PM Victor Orban. The Hungarian citizens will be
invited to give an answer to the question: Would you like the EU to impose a
mandatory allocation quota for non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary, without the
approval of the Hungarian Parliament?. PM Orban, known for his anti-migration
stand, had announced a few months ago
that he would hold a referendum against the plan to relocate some 160,000
thousand asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy. Budapest believes that these
mandatory quotas, decided upon in September last year, violate the country’s
sovereignty.

TORY ELECTION The British Conservative MPs
will cast their vote today in the first ballot for the election of the leader
of the party. There are five candidates in the race for the office previously
held by David Cameron, who announced his resignation after the referendum on
Britain’s membership of the EU. One of the candidates will be eliminated today,
and others might decide to give up the race. According to the BBC, the Home
Secretary Theresa May has the best chances of succeeding.

NATO EXERCISE The town of Targu-Mures, in
central Romania, is these days playing host to a NATO exercise, enjoying the
participation of 17 teams from countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech
Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, the US, Switzerland and
Turkey. The exercise was organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response
Coordination Centre and Romania, and is
a computer simulation of an large-scale disaster situation, resulting in
multiple victims and the evacuation of thousands of people.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Simona
Halep, ranking 5th in the WTA classification, is today fighting for
qualification to the semifinals of the Wimbledon tournament. She will play
against Angelique Kerber, number 4 in the WTA rankings. So far, the two have
played against each other four times, and the Romanian has won twice. On
Monday, Halep qualified for the quarters, after defeating the American Madison
Keys 6-7, 6-4, 6-3. Aged 24, Halep is the youngest player still in the
competition. The Wimbledon tournament has over 33.5 million Euros in prize
money.