November 8, 2013
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România Internațional, 08.11.2013, 12:00
Public events devoted to the birthday and the name day of Romania’s former sovereign King Mihai, who on October 25th celebrated his 92nd anniversary continued in Bucharest on Friday. Over 1.3 million Romanians, bearing the name of Archangels Michael and Gabriel are today celebrating their name day. According to folk tradition, the two archangels are commanders of the heavenly host and guides of the mortal souls to heaven. Military and religious ceremonies were held all over the country as Michael and Gabriel are the patron saints of the Romanian gendarme corps.
US secretary of state John Kerry is today in Geneva to participate in Teheran’s negotiations with the P 5+1 group, made up of the USA, Russia, China, France, Great Britain plus Germany over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. The talks, presided by the head of the European diplomacy, Catherine Ashton are aimed at reaching an agreement to include both concessions from Teheran, as well as a relaxation of the Western sanctions. A couple of days ago, Kerry pleaded for solving the Iranian nuclear issue by means of diplomacy. The West claims Iran is seeking a nuclear weapons capability, which Teheran has denied.
Romanian Foreign Ministry on Friday launched an EU-sponsored project called E-viza, aimed at facilitating the process of granting Romanian visas to foreign citizens. The project includes an improved system of processing visa applications for Romania through the setting up of an e-portal open to all applicants. The system will allow all those interested to fill in the application form in order to get a visa through the Internet. The portal is mainly targeting the applicants for a visa in Romania, at the same time being available to all of Romania’s consulates abroad.
A special committee assessing the Rosia Montana cyanide-mining project in central Romania on Thursday night ended its debates and is to cast a vote on this project on Monday. Endorsed by the government in late October, the controversial project, regulating the gold and silver mining by means of cyanide in Rosia Mintana, has of late triggered a string of large-scale protests in Romania and abroad.
Standard & Poors rating agency has revised France’s rating down to AA with stable prospects, amid concerns about the country’s economic growth. The agency believes the reforms the French government is trying to implement in the field of fiscality and labour legislation aren’t going to improve the country’s medium-term growth prospects. France lost Fitch’s triple A rating in July after Moody’s demotion from triple A to Aa1 in November last year. According to the IMF, France will be able to steer away from recession this year with a 0.2 % growth and to register a 1% growth next year.
The summit in Vilnius will represent for the ex-soviet Republic of Moldova a historic moment of a one-way commitment to European integration, state secretary with the Romanian Foreign Ministry Bogdan Aurescu said on Friday during a series of public debates on the Eastern Partnership, the Summit in Vilnius and the Republic of Moldova’s European Integration Prospects. We recall that in three weeks time, the Republic of Moldova will ratify the agreement of association and free trade with the EU.
