March 15, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 15.03.2015, 13:31
The Dutch Parliament does not support at the moment Romania’s Schengen accession, on grounds that Bucharest has not met all the original requirements for becoming an EU member. The statement was made by the Dutch Ambassador to Bucharest, Matthijs van Bonzel, in an interview to a private television station in Romania. He added that according to the Dutch Parliament, Romania joined the EU without meeting a number of key requirements concerning fields like legislation, the judicial system, efficiency and impartiality in law enforcement, and institutional corruption, and that the country is now catching up, reaching the level it should have reached in 2007. The Dutch diplomat added that there is a connection between the Schengen accession and compliance with the European standards.
The Romanian Defence Minister, Mircea Duşa, will attend on Monday the Black Sea drills of the vessels in the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG-2), which will be joined by two corvettes, two missile carriers and the “Marasesti” frigate, from the Romanian Naval Forces, and three aircraft of the Romanian Air Forces. SNMG-2 is one of the four multi-national naval groups of the North Atlantic Alliance. The group includes four frigates—from Canada, Turkey, Italy and Romania—an American cruiser (the flagship USS Vicksburg) and a tanker (FGS Spessart, from Germany). Meanwhile, armoured vehicles of the US Army will take part in an exercise on Romanian territory. On Saturday the vehicles reached the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in south-eastern Romania. The American troops will take part in joint exercises with their Romanian colleagues, the Defence Ministry in Bucharest announced.
Romania continues to support the authorities of the neighbouring Republic of Moldova on their pro-European track, and tries to attract as many other EU member states in this process as possible. The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has made this statement today on the public radio station. He added that the government in Chisinau is complying with its commitment to carry on reform processes. Aurescu announced that on Monday in Brussels 26 EU foreign ministers take part in the 10th meeting of the “Moldova Friends Group.”
Romania last year saw a 514-million euros surplus in farm products and food trade, up nearly 60% since 2013, the Romanian Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin has told the Agerpres news agency today. According to him, 2014 is the second consecutive year with positive results in terms of the foodstuff trade. Last year Romania exported agricultural products and food worth a total 5.4 billion euros, 6% more than in 2013.
The Vatican says a military intervention might be necessary in order to stop ISIS attacks on Christians and other ethnic or religious minorities. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Ambassador of Vatican to the UN, accused the jihadist group of genocide, and said this must be ended. If political solutions fail, the Vatican supports military action against the IS, the Vatican official added, and emphasised that any coalition should include the Muslim countries in the Middle East. According to the BBC, the Vatican has traditionally opposed armed interventions in the Middle East, but Pope Francis has said the use of force is legitimate if aimed at stopping an aggressor.
The Romanian/British pair Florin Mergea/Dominic Inglot has today qualified into the eighth-finals of the WTA tournament in Indian Wells, California, with over 5 million US dollars in prize money. Mergea/Inglot defeated Tommy Robredo and Viktor Troicki (Spain/Serbia). In the women’s singles, the Romanian Simona Halep, no 3 WTA, is playing tonight against Varvara Lepchenko (USA), 31st WTA, in the third round of the competition, while in the men’s singles the Romanian Victor Hanescu (no 146 ATP) is playing in the second round against no 33 ATP, Andreas Seppi. In the women’s doubles, Raluca Olaru from Romania and Olga Savciuk from Ukraine are playing today in the eighth-finals against Caroline Garcia (France) / Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia), while Monica Niculescu (Romania) / Alexandra Panova (Russia) will be meeting Lisa Raymond (USA) / Samantha Stosur (Australia).
