June 30, 2018

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Newsroom, 30.06.2018, 13:27

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Friday reaffirmed our country’s determination to develop and expand its Strategic Partnership with the United States of America in a speech marking the anniversary of Independence Day, celebrated at the US Embassy in Bucharest. Cooperation between Romania and the US at political, military and security levels has reached an outstanding standard, the president argued, adding that action is further required to also consolidate economic relations. To that end Romania needs stability, predictability and a powerful and independent system, transparent and responsible governance that should observe the rule of law, President Iohannis said. In turn, US Ambassador to Bucharest Hans Klemm said the two countries will try to expand and consolidate the Strategic Partnership, and that cooperation in all fields will continue.

PENSIONS — Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said public pensions will go up starting July 1. The pension point will go up by 10%, will the minimum pension will increase by 20%. The measure addresses over 5 million Romanians. Additionally, social allowances for people with disabilities will also go up. The Government has also adopted a measure aimed at implementing 8 strategic investment projects under private-public partnership. Among these projects there is the construction of two regional hospitals, a plant specialized in producing electric vehicles, a national blood and stem cells bank as well as a new tourist center in the Fagaras Mountains.

EXTREME WEATHER — Romania is under orange and yellow codes against heavy rainfall and storms in place until Sunday morning. During the interval rainfall is expected to exceed normal limits, while reports of extreme weather instability, with electrical storms and strong winds are expected locally. Meteorologists say the weather phenomena are expected to engulf the whole country until the end of the warning interval. Highs will range between 19 and 29 degrees Celsius. Hydrologists have also issued warnings against floods for 19 counties.

INTERVENTION — Over 20,000 firemen and gendarmes intervened to deal with the damages caused by the floods triggered by the heavy rainfall of the last three days in Romania, Interior Minister Carmen Dan announced on Saturday during an emergency meeting called at the ministry. There are cases where the population has been evacuated pre-emptively, with measures being taken to find temporary accommodation. Scores of national roads have been blocked due to the rain, while traffic has been diverted in the region. Several towns and villages were cut off from the power grid and hundreds of households have been flooded and are now isolated.

DECISION — The European Council adopted the European Parliament’s decision to cut down the number of MPs from 751 to 705, following Brexit. Of the 73 seats currently held by British MPs, 43 will be preserved for future EU enlargements, while 27 will be redistributed to underrepresented countries. Romania will be granted an additional seat, raising the number of Romanian MEPs to 33. The decision highlights that the new redistribution of seats will be enforced only if Britain leaves the community bloc. Otherwise, the current structure will be kept in place until Brexit is finalized from a judicial point of view.

TENNIS — The tennis pair made up of Irina Begu and Mihaela Buzarnescu is toadying playing the doubles finals at the WTA tournament in Eastbourne, the United Kingdom, totaling 850 thousand dollars in prize money. On Friday, the two players knocked out Nadia Kicenok of Ukraine and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, 4-6, 6-0, 10-6. In the final match the Romanians will play Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Yifan Xu of China.

2018 WORLD CUP — France is playing Argentina while Uruguay will take on Portugal in the first two matches counting towards the 2018 World Cup round of 16. France won Group C with 7 points in three matches. On the other hand, Argentina was ranked 2nd in Group D with 4 points in three matches.

(Translated by V. Palcu)