July 5, 2016 UPDATE
Four ministers of the Ciolos Cabinet, replaced.
Newsroom, 05.07.2016, 12:15
GOVERNMENT Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos announced on Tuesday that he decided to replace four ministers of his Cabinet. The ones to be replaced are Transport Minister Dan Costescu, Education Minister Adrian Curaj, Minister-Delegate for the Relation with the Romanians Abroad, Dan Stoenescu, and the Communications Minister Marius Bostan. Taking their place will be Sorin Buse as Transport Minister, Marius Dumitru as Education Minister, Maria Ligor as Minister-Delegate for the Relation with the Romanians Abroad and Dragos Tudorache as interim Communications Minister. PM Ciolos also said he informed President Klaus Iohannis on the changes within the Government.
VISIT Romanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc met on Tuesday in Rome with his Italian counterpart Roberta Pinotti. The two officials emphasised the need to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of defense, under the Consolidated Strategic Partnership between Romania and Italy. Earlier on Tuesday, Minister Motoc met in Brussels with General Curtis Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, to discuss the recent regional and international security developments.
GROWTH STRATEGY The economic strategy dubbed “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 goal of sustainable economic growth. 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 Romanias priorities in the current European climate. The president also said that Romania managed to successfully overcome transition and the economic crisis.
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 Britain, even if the country leaves the EU. The British official has stated that the result of the referendum brought to light the gaps in the 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 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 neighbours, 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 thousand asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy. Budapest believes that these mandatory quotas, decided upon in September last year, violate the countrys sovereignty.
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, number 5 in the world, failed to qualify to the semi-finals in Wimbledon, after losing to German Angelique Kerber (4th WTA) on Tuesday, 5-7/ 6-7. 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.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
