May 31, 2017

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 31.05.2017, 14:29

VISIT Romania’s Foreign
Minister Teodor Melescanu is in New York until Saturday to formally launch a
campaign of promoting Romania’s candidacy for a mandate as a non-permanent
member of the UN Security Council over 2020 and 2021. According to the Foreign
Ministry, the campaign will unfold under the motto ‘Romania: a lasting
commitment to Peace, Justice and Development’, and represents Bucharest’s
ambitious foreign policy objective. In 2006, Romania filed a candidacy for a
new mandate as a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council. The voting is
due to take place in June 2019. Ever since its UN accession in 1955, Romania
has had four mandates of this kind.

TALKS The government is
today holding talks on a document over the reconfirmation of Romania’s
candidacy to host the headquarters of the European Medicines Agency, after the
Brexit. The institution has almost 900 employees who are monitoring the safety
of the medicines sold in the European Union, a market of over 500 million
consumers. After Britain’s leaving the bloc, the European Commission has to
move the headquarters of this agency from London to another member country and
Romania is among the candidates together with Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

UNEMPLOYMENT Romania’s
unemployment rate in April 2017 stayed at the same level as in the previous
month, 5.3%. The number of jobless men was 1.3% higher than the women, the
National Institute for Statistics has announced today. The number of unemployed
with ages between 15 and 74, estimated for April, was 471 thousand, 7 thousand
less than in March. They account for over 74% out of the total number of
unemployed estimated for last month.

MINISTER Romania’s
Minister delegate for European Affairs, Ana Birchall, currently on a working
visit in the Hague is today having talks with Foreign Minister Bert Koenders
and members of the Parliament committees in charge of the European affairs in
the Netherlands and in the European Parliament. According to the Foreign
Ministry in Bucharest, Minister Birchall’s agenda includes high topical
European issues, such as stakes and expectations related to the Brexit talks
and Romania’s preparation to take over the rotating presidency of the EU
Council in the first semester of 2019. On June 1st Ana Birchall will
be in Brussels for talks with Jean-Eric Paquet, deputy Secretary General of the
European Commission.

ATTACK Scores have been killed and
hundreds wounded in a car bomb attack in Kabul’s diplomatic district, the
Afghan Interior Ministry has announced. The district is home to numerous
foreign embassies, ministries and the presidential palace. The most affected
seem to be the embassies of Germany and France in Kabul. No group has claimed
responsibility for the attack yet. Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis has
recently said (quote) 2017 is going to be another tough year for the valiant
Afghan forces and the international troops who have stood and will continue to
stand shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan against terrorism and against those
who seek to undermine the legitimate United Nations-recognized government of
this nation. (unquote)

VISIT The heir apparent
of the British crown, Prince Charles of Wales, is in the UNESCO village of
Viscri, central Romania, to meet forestry experts and small farmers. According
to a communiqué of the British embassy in Bucharest, Prince Charles has met
members of the Pro Silva, a European organisation, which supports a responsible
forestry management and which is to also open a branch in Romania. In the past
years Prince Charles voiced concern about the illegal exploitation and
deforestation of Romania’s forests believed to be Europe’s last wildlife area.
Prince Charles has also met several organic food producers. Prince of Wales
foundation Romania will be launching a new project to assist farmers in the
mountainous areas in developing their products and accessing fresh markets in
Romania or abroad. Prince Charles has a keen interest in Romania, a country he
has visited several times over the past 20 years.