November 21, 2015 UPDATE
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Florentin Căpitănescu, 21.11.2015, 12:06
The new Government of Romania, headed by the independent Dacian Cioloş convened on Saturday in an informal meeting. The talks focused on next year’s public budgets, the sector priorities for the coming months, the improvement of the institutions that manage the European fund absorption and on outlining the principles for an administrative reform. According to the PM, such informal meetings will be held on a regular basis, at the weekend, and will focus on the priorities in the governing programme. The technocratic cabinet headed by Dacian Ciolos was sworn in early this week.
As many as 150 book launches and cultural events were organised on Saturday as part of the Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organised by Radio Romania. The fair ends on Sunday. This year’s edition is held under the motto “The Most Read Book Fair from the Most Listened to Radio.” Gaudeamus brings together over 300 publishers and 700 events. The guest of honour in this year’s fair is the Group of Francophone Embassies, Delegations and Institutions in Romania.
The Brussels metro remains shut until Sunday after the Belgian authorities raised the terrorist alert status to the highest level, warning people to avoid crowds because of a “serious and imminent” threat, news agencies report. One week after the Paris attacks, perpetrated by ISIS members, and with one of the suspects, based in Brussels, still at large, the city was placed on the top level, 4, of the government’s threat scale. Meanwhile, Turkey announced having arrested a Moroccan-born Belgian citizen suspected of having searched for targets for ISIS in the attacks in the French capital city.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry is traveling to the Middle East on Sunday, Washington announced. During the three-day tour, Kerry will have meetings in Abu Dhabi (the United Arab Emirates), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and in Ramallah, West Bank. Talks will focus on the situation in Syria, particularly on the fight against the terrorist group ISIS, and on the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence. According to AFP, after the attacks in Paris the US is trying to strengthen the international coalition against the Islamic State.
