November 1, 2018 UPDATE

Romania takes over presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region

Newsroom, 01.11.2018, 20:06

Radio Day — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday signed the decree which decorates the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation with the Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of Commander, category F — Promotion of culture. According to the presidential administration the order acknowledges the radio’s important contribution to promoting and supporting the Romanian cultural, moral and civilizational values. The president granted the decoration to the national radio on the very day of its 90th anniversary, as it first went on air on November 1, 1928. The events devoted to Radio Romania’s anniversary also included an extraordinary concert by the National Radio Orchestra together with the Academic Choir and the Radio Children’s Choir under the baton of Cristian Mandeal. Also on Thursday the public radio aired the first episode of the first radio sitcom in Romania called “Somewhere in 1928”.

EU Strategy for the Danube Region — On Thursday Romania took over the rotating presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region for a one year mandate, until October 31, 2019. The strategy has 4 objectives, namely interconnecting the Danube region, protecting the environment, boosting prosperity and consolidating the Danube region. The Strategy is structured according to 11 priority domains. Romania intends to promote several topics and lines of action during its term. One is related to improving connectivity and mobility in the Danube region by promoting transportation, tourism, digitalization and human contact. Romania also plans to promote exchanges in priority domains in close cooperation with the public administration, the social actors, the academia and the business community.

Visit — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday received in Bucharest his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset. The two officials talked about bilateral cooperation, mainly in the fields of culture, education, research and innovation. Klaus Iohannis talked about encouraging investments and also the need to boost trade exchanges, which have exceeded 850 million Euros. Another issue under discussion was the Romanian community in Switzerland which numbers almost 30 thousand people. These people are highly qualified, are well trained and well integrated and are contributing to the development of the Swiss economy and society. The two officials also tackled the issue of eliminating restrictions on the Swiss labor market for the Romanian citizens after May 2019. In turn, Alain Berset said that Switzerland was supporting Romania’s candidacy to the OECD. Also on Thursday the Swiss president met with the PM Viorica Dancila with whom he tackled such issues as bilateral relations and regional and multilateral cooperation as well as Romania’s priorities for the period when it will hold the presidency of the EU Council.

London — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has revised downwards its estimates regarding Romania’s economic growth in 2018 and 2019. According to the EBRD, Romania’s economy is going to report a 4.2% growth rate from 4.6% as estimated in May and in 2019 Romania’s economic growth will stand at 3.6% as compared to the initially estimated 4.2%, show recent data made public on Thursday. The EBRD is more optimistic than the IMF in relation to the prospects of the Romanian economy. In early October the IMF revised downwards its estimates regarding the evolution of the Romanian economy up to 4% in 2018, 1.1% less than the spring estimate and forecast that in 2019 Romania will report an economic growth rate of 3.4%, down by 0.1% as against the April estimates.

Swine fever — The African swine fever is expanding across Romania’s territory. So far 1,062 outbreaks have been identified in 17 counties and more than 356 thousand pigs were culled, the National Sanitary Veterinarian and Food Safety Authority announced on Thursday. Also 142 cases of swine fever were reported with wild boars. Romania has asked for the EU support in order to grant financial compensations to farmers affected by swine fever. The African swine fever was also identified in several wild boars in the north of Hungary but no cases among domestic pigs were reported. (translation by L.Simion)