May 8, 2015
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România Internațional, 08.05.2015, 12:00
Poland marked Thursday 70 years since the end of WWII. The event was also attended by the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis. Alongside the Polish president, the UN secretary general, the president of the European Council and other political leaders, the Romanian president participated in a ceremony in Gdansk, the place where WWII started on September 1, 1939 and where the Solidarity movement was born. In another development, as of today manifestations are being held in Romania to mark Europe Day. Concerts and artistic events, sports and general-knowledge competitions will be organized. In Bucharest 16 subway stations have been decorated to represent various European countries, more than 50 films will be screened as part of the European Film Festival and 160 NGOs, institutions and companies are meeting as part of the NGOFest. The events are organized in cooperation with the European Commission Representative Office in Romania.
Almost three quarters of Romanians consider themselves European citizens, 65% believe the country’s EU accession has brought many advantages, while 23% claim the contrary, shows a survey made by INSCOP. The survey also shows that most of the Romanians agree with the setting up of a EU army and with accession to the Euro zone. The EU is, first of all, associated with the right to free movement, democracy, human rights and with peaceful relations with the neighboring countries, the survey shows. As regards the Republic of Moldova, most of the Romanians, namely 80%, support this country’s EU accession.
The Romanian ambassador to Islamabad, who was in the helicopter that crashed Friday in Pakistan, has survived the accident and is safe and sound, the Romanian foreign Ministry has announced. A Pakistani military helicopter crashed this morning in the north of Pakistan, killing 6 people among whom the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines, the army representatives, quoted by the e-edition of the Wall Street Journal have announced.
Romania and Turkey represent two geo-strategic pillars of NATO, said Friday the Romanian vice premier and interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, after his meeting, in Bucharest, with the Turkish interior minister, Sebahattin Ozturk. Oprea said that Romania and Turkey are in the vicinity of two major sources of crisis with an impact on regional and global security, namely the Black Sea area and the extended Middle East. Turkey, as a NATO member state, is a privileged partner of Romania in the region, and the relations between the two states are based on mutual trust and solidarity, Gabriel Oprea added.
The acting British PM, David Cameron, will be received today by Queen Elisabeth II after the Conservative Party won more MP seats in Thursday’s legislative elections held in the UK, Reuters and France press report. The visit to the Queen is an official procedure ahead of forming the government. According to the BBC estimates, the Conservatives received 329 of the total of 650 seats in the House of Commons. His main counter candidate, the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, conceded defeat and announced he would resign his position. The National Scottish Party seems to have obtained a good score according to polls, namely 56 of the 59 seats allocated to Scotland. The final results are expected today.
The EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening on his win in the elections and urged the Israeli and Palestinian institutions to make “courageous choices” in favour of peace, France Press reports. The American President Barack Obama also congratulated PM Benjamin Netanyahu on his win, underlining the importance of cooperation in the military, intelligence and security fields between the US and Israel. The Israeli PM on Thursday managed to agree a last-minute deal with the center-right parties to form a new coalition government. The Palestinians have denounced what they call a government of union for war and against peace.
