May 24, 2018 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 24.05.2018, 19:45
SUMMIT US president Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he had sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announcing him about his decision to cancel their historic summit in Singapore on June 12th. President Trump has invoked what he has called the tremendous anger and open hostility in Pyongyangs most recent statement. The summit had been established in the wake of the historical meeting in April between the North Korean leader and South-Korean president Moon Jae-in in the demilitarized zone at the common border. North Korea has recently announced it has dismantled its main nuclear test site.
MEMORANDUM Romanias Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu on Thursday said he stood against the declassification of the recently approved memorandum by the government on the possible relocation of Romanias embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Romanian official has also said the decision on this issue belongs to the Social-Democratic Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. A survey on the relocation of the diplomatic representation is to be completed within a month. The governments intention to relocate the embassy has sparked off heated debates between the ruling PSD-ALDE coalition and the countrys president Klaus Iohannis backed by the Liberal opposition.
ECONOMY The Romanian Government will further pursue a tax reduction policy, also meant to increase the minimum wage and state pensions by 2020, in an attempt to improve living standards, the president of the Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition, Liviu Dragnea told Reuters on Wednesday. He added that choosing an optional private pension scheme might become optional. The European Commission estimates that Romania will register a deficit of 3.4% of the GDP this year, exceeding the 2.9% target, if no supplementary measures are taken to reduce costs. Liviu Dragnea is hopeful however that the Romanian Government will observe the deficit target without taking other measures and he confirmed the 5.5% economic growth target for this year. According to Dragnea, by 2020, social contributions will further be reduced, the minimum wage will be of at least 300 Euros, whereas the minimum pension will increase to 200 Euros.
REVOLUTION FILE Romanias former PM, Petre Roman, on Thursday appeared for hearings at the Prosecutor Generals Office in the 1989 anti-communist Revolution case, in which he is accused of crimes against humanity. Last month, Romanias president Klaus Iohannis, approved the prosecutors request to start prosecution, against Romanias former leftist president, Ion Iliescu, Petre Roman and the former deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu. They allegedly orchestrated a military diversion, meant to give them legitimacy as leaders of the then newly instated power, after dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fled Bucharest city. 1,166 people died in December 1989, over 800 of them loosing their lives after Ceausescu was toppled. This week, Ion Iliescu also went to the Prosecutor Generals Office where prosecutors told him the investigation against him has been extended. Both Roman and Iliescu rejected the accusations.
(translated by bill)
