November 24, 2013 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 24.11.2013, 19:13
ROMANIAS BUDGET – The Romanian expert parliamentary committees have approved the draft budget law for 2014, which will be submitted to the debate of the joint budget-finance committees. The PM Victor Ponta wants the draft budget law to be voted in Parliament by mid December, so that its provisions could be applied as of January 1st 2014. The Romanian President, Traian Basescu, warned once again, on Sunday, in a press conference, that he would not promulgate the draft budget law and would send it back to Parliament, if they did not eliminate the increase by 7 eurocents in the fuel excise tax.
STRIKE — The Sanitas Federation trade unionists in Romanian announced they would go on a 2-hour token strike on Monday morning to draw attention to the under-financing of the healthcare system. The trade unionists are asking, among other things, for 6% of the GDP to be allocated to the healthcare sector. After several rounds of talks with health minister, Eugen Nicolaescu, which had no concrete results, the trade unionists said they were open for resuming dialogue.
IRAN— The Romanian Foreign Ministry hails the preliminary agreement signed in Geneva on the Iranian nuclear file, expressing its firm support for the negotiations to follow. On Saturday night the world’s great powers — France, Great Britain, the US, Russia, China and Germany- and Iran reached an agreement in Geneva on the Iranian nuclear file. The interim document is considered by all sides a step forward towards solving a prolonged crisis. The West suspects that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weaponry under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, but Teheran denies the allegations.
GAUDEAMUS BOOK FAIR— The trophies of the 20th edition of the Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organized by Radio Romania, were awarded on Sunday, on the last day of the festival. The Humanitas publishers are the public’s favorites and winner of the 1st prize, being followed by the RAO and Polirom publishers. Tens of book launches were scheduled for Sunday as well and book lovers had the opportunity to meet the French writer Andre Makine, winner of the Goncourt Prize. The guest of honor of this year’s edition of the book fair was the Group of European Nordic Countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Gaudeamus is considered one of the most important events on the book market in Romania.
UKRAINE – The pro-European Ukrainians gathered on Sunday in downtown Kiev to protest against the government’s decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. The Ukrainian government’s decision was also denounced by the opposition and considered a strategic error in Europe. Iulia Timosenko, former PM and political opponent of president Viktor Ianukovici, on Friday called on her fellow citizens to protest the government decision to abandon this agreement which was to be signed at the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius between November 28th and 29th.
COOPERATION — The Chinese PM Li Keqiang will pay a visit to Bucharest early next week to talk with the Romanian officials about the development of bilateral relations. The Chinese PM will also participate in the China- Central and Eastern Europe Economic and Trade Forum to take place on November 26th in Bucharest. The meeting will be attended by almost 1,000 representatives of the private and public sector from many European countries.
