June 14, 2022

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 14.06.2022, 13:55

NATO.
The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis,
is participating today, in The Hague, in a preparatory meeting ahead of the NATO
Summit, the Presidential Administration has informed. The meeting was organized
at the initiative of the Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mette
Frederiksen, and will also be attended by the Prime Ministers of Belgium,
Latvia, Poland and Portugal, as well as the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. The meeting aims to
coordinate the common positions and messages of the allied states in the run-up
to the NATO Summit to be held in Madrid in late June. The agenda focuses on
assessing the security situation in Ukraine following Russia’s aggression,
continuing assistance to Ukraine, preparing for the Madrid Summit decisions on
strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defense posture on the Eastern Flank of the
Alliance, the negotiation process on NATO’s New Strategic Concept and the
prospects of Sweden and Finland joining the Alliance.

Visit.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron,
is coming to Romania today to salute the 500 French soldiers deployed to a NATO
military base since the invasion of Ukraine. France is leading the NATO Battle Group following a decision by the NATO defense
ministers to strengthen the Alliance’s eastern flank. Paris has also set up a
state-of-the-art ground-to-air defense system in Romania in the face of Russian
threats. According to a statement from the Elysée Palace, from Romania
President Macron will send a very clear message that France remains fully
engaged with its NATO allies and other European partners. On Wednesday, in the
neighboring Republic of Moldova, he will reaffirm Paris’ determination to help
the country, one of the poorest in Europe and one of the most affected by the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is Emmanuel Macron’s third visit to Romania
since he became president of France and the first since winning a second term
at the end of April.

Protest.
Romanian carriers are urging the government
to urgently cap gasoline and diesel prices at maximum rates, following the
model of neighboring states, and point out that new price rises are possible
next month. The Federation of Romanian Transport Operators has announced that
there will be protests at the entrance to gas stations all over the country. On
the other hand, FORT welcomes in a statement the parliamentary legislative
initiative to reduce the VAT on public road passenger transport services to 5%,
but calls on the executive to do this in the form of an emergency ordinance, in
order to have immediate effects.

Commemoration. The Romanian Prime Minister, the Liberal
Nicolae Ciuca, has conveyed a message on the 32nd commemoration of the so-called Miners’
Raid of June 13-15, 1990, stating that ‘the marathon demonstration of civil
society against neo-communism was suppressed by instigating some Romanians
against other Romanians and Romanian society ‘should never again fall victim
to diversions and false propaganda’. He has also said that Romania now relies
on the stability and security given by its membership in the European Union and
the North Atlantic Alliance. We owe it to ourselves to continue consolidating
democratic values ​​and integrating Romania into the institutional architecture
generated together with our Western partners, which offers, especially in such
periods, the guarantee of security and well-being, the prime minister said, 32 years after the
violent repression of anti-communist rallies in Bucharest by miners from the
Jiu Valley (center-west), instigated by the left-wing power of the time.

Football.
The Romanian national football team takes
on the Montenegrin squad tonight, in Bucharest, in the fourth or match of the
current edition of the Nations League. The Romanian squad has been defeated
twice so far, by Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has scored a victory on
home turf, against Finland. The Romanian national team ranks last in the group
led by Bosnians, who are also playing today, with Finland. (MM)