Newsflash, June 19
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Mihai Pelin, 19.06.2013, 00:00
A single company, owned by a Romanian, still bids for the privatization of CFR Marfa, the freight division of the Romanian state railroads company. Two other investors have pulled out of the bid. The deadline for offers is June the 19th. This is the second attempt to privatize the state company, after all offers were rejected in the first stage. This privatization is part of the contract for a major loan with the IMF, the EU and the World Bank.
The United States President Barack Obama proposed on Wednesday, in a historic speech held at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany’s capital city Berlin, the reduction of the nuclear arsenal by as much as one third, worldwide. He said he would seek cooperation with Russia for further cuts “to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures”. Barack Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the situation in Syria, Afghanistan and the Middle East. The two officials also discussed about the negotiations between the European Union and the United States on forging a free trade agreement. Obama’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate was given 50 years from the historic speech held there by the then US President John F. Kennedy.
Romania, alongside Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia is featured in the semi-consolidated democracy category, according to the latest Freedom House report, based on criteria such as election process, civil society, freedom of the press, legal framework independence of the judiciary and corruption, to name just a few. Each of the countries is given an overall democracy score, based on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 signifying the highest level of democratic development, and 7 the lowest. That score represents the average of the marks each nation has received in the individual categories. Romania, rated at 3.46 in this years report, down from 3.36 in the previous one.
Euranet Plus, a European radio network dedicated to community issues, will have its official launch at the European Parliament in Brussels, and it counts Radio Romania among its members. The event will be attended by journalists, civil society and high European officials, such as European Parliament chairman Michel Barnier. The Euranet Plus inauguration comes against a survey that indicates that two out of three European citizens say they are badly informed on community issues.
An International Monetary Fund mission is these days paying a visit to the Republic of Molova after the previous agreement, signed by the two sides three years ago, has not been finalized because of the political instability in Chisinau. The international experts met with the country’s prime minister Iurie Leanca on Wednesday. In 2010 Moldova signed with the IMF a loan agreement worth 570 million dollars that was badly needed to maintain financial stability, reduce poverty and boost the country’s economy. The former government in Chisinau failed to observe the commitments it had made before the political crisis began. For this reason, the IMF has not disbursed the last tranche of the loan, worth 76 million dollars.
