June 27, 2015 UPDATE
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Ştefan Stoica, 27.06.2015, 12:30
British tour operators on Saturday evacuated thousands of tourists from Tunisia, after a gunman opened fire killing 39 on a beach. The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State and most of the victims are British citizens, but there are also tourists from Belgium and Germany. We recall that over 60 people have lost their lives in the latest string of terror attacks. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has voiced his deep regret for the victims of the attacks that took place in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, adding that Romania has joined other countries in the fight against terrorism. ‘These attacks show that terrorism is a real threat against which we should remain firm and united, the Romanian president went on to say adding that Romania would continue to get involved in fighting this scourge. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has also lashed out at the attacks, which prove, he says, the need for stepping up global efforts against terror.
Romania supports a thorough implementation of the EU’s association agreements with the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine and the continuation at a sustained pace of the reform processes so that they can meet the objective of political association and economic inclusion with an essential impact for the democratization and modernization of society in these states, the Foreign Ministry said. The Romanian Foreign Ministry hailed on Saturday the anniversary of one year since the three states signed the Free Trade and Association Agreements with the European Union. These agreements represent the EU’s ongoing commitment to its eastern vicinity and are meant to lead to modernity, stability, consolidation of the rule of law and economic growth, the Romanian Foreign Ministry says. Romania was the first European state to have ratified the Association Agreements with the three partner countries, on July 3rd 2014.
Romanian Catalin Lozici has won a contest for the logo of the new North-Atlantic Alliance’s headquarters. His project has been selected together with that of a Dutch drawer, a Romanian TV channel reports. Other two Romanians have received mentions: Adinel Chirita for popularity and Sebastian Popa for concept. Two months ago NATO launched a new logo design contest on Facebook. The construction of the Alliance’s new building kicked off in 2010, and the costs of the project stay at around 750 million euros.
Romania has taken major steps in certain fields of activity and has a solid macroeconomic situation, but it didn’t implement enough of the policies agreed upon with the European executive, particularly in the fiscal field, a communiqué issued by the European Commission at the end of its 10 day mission to Bucharest reads. Bucharest has to maintain the progress it made in the current programme with Brussels, as this is the foundation for the continuation of a steady and balanced growth. We recall the Commission representatives didn’t reach an agreement with the authorities in Bucharest. The issue at stake was the new Fiscal Code, which provided for a cut in the VAT from 24 to 19%. Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici admitted the fiscal relaxation envisaged by the new code would cause, as international lenders believe, a temporarily swollen budget deficit, but the Romanian official says the deficit will stay under 3% of the GDP.
Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Saturday announced that the bailout package for Greece would not be extended beyond its expiration date, June 30th, as the Greek government had initially requested. The Dutch official said the snap bailout referendum called by the government in Athens is practically blocking negotiations. According to Dijsselbloem, the lenders were flexible but the Greek government rejected all their proposals, and are now trying to shift responsibility to the Greek people. The statement came at the Saturday’s meeting of the Eurogroup, which was seen as a last ditch attempt to avoid Greece’s defaulting on debt. Athens has to pay 1.6 billion euros to the IMF until June 30th.
