October 13, 2016
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 13.10.2016, 12:03
KIDNAPPING The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Romanian engineer kidnapped in Nigeria on October 10th has been released. The ministry has reiterated its firm recommendation that the Romanian citizens in conflict areas or in security high risk areas should contact the closest Romanian diplomatic missions and record their presence in the region, in order to benefit from proper protection and assistance. According to the Nigerian policy, the Romanian engineer was kidnapped by armed men in the state of Delta, in the south of the country. The region has been hit by a wave of rebel attacks on oil and natural gas installations. They are fighting to get a larger share of the revenues generate by oil, as a large part of Nigerias production comes from Delta.
COHESION POLICY A quarter of the total government investments in Romania, in the 2007-2013 period, is the result of the EU cohesion policy, according to an independent evaluation made public by the European Commission. Some 15 billion and a half Euros have been invested in transportation, enterprise support programs, research and environmental protection projects, through the European regional development program. Also, within the same time-frame, the cohesion policy helped create 35,000 jobs. At European level, the number of jobs created in that period stood at one million, accounting for one third of the total number of jobs in the whole of the EU created during the same interval. According to the Commission, the cohesion policy has benefited all the EU member countries and has supported them in difficult times from an economic point of view.
JHA The Romanian Interior Minister Dragos Tudorache is attending in Luxembourg the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting. The main topics on the agenda of talks are the implementation of the regulation concerning FRONTEX, the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the IT measures concerning border management, the stage of fulfillment of objectives regarding migration and relocation, as well as the reform of the European asylum granting system. The Romanian official will present Romanias contribution to managing migration and will stress the importance of rendering the new agency operational as soon as possible, as well as Romanias availably to deploy 75 border police officers as part of a rapid response team.
EU-ASEA Today and tomorrow, the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is attending in Bangkok, Thailand, the 21st joint EU – Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministerial meeting. Previously, the Romanian Foreign Minister went to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he talked with his counterpart Retno LP Marsudi about boosting bilateral political, economic and commercial dialogue. The two officials attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries chambers of commerce. Lazar Comanescu has agreed with the trade minister Enggartiasto Lukita to encourage Romanian and Indonesian companies to participate in promotion events. During talks with the transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi, the Romanian foreign minister stressed Romanias capacity to become for Indonesia a maritime access gate to Europe.
MOLDOVA According to an opinion poll, in the Republic of Moldova, 34% of the citizens would vote for this former Soviet countrys unification with neighbouring Romania. According to the latest public opinion barometer, quoted by the Radio Romania correspondent in Chisinau, 51% of those questioned would vote for Moldovas EU integration, and 43% for the countrys joining the Russia -Belarus- Kazakhstan Customs Union. 42% of the respondents would vote for Chisinaus accession to NATO. The results of the polls were made public in the run up to the presidential elections due on October 30th. According to political analysts, the stake is not just political, but also geo-political, because the battle will be carried out between pro-Russia and pro-Western candidates.
APPOINTMENT The UN General Assembly is to official appoint today the former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres as UN Secretary General. Guterres will replace the South-Korean Ban Ki-moon and his term will last 5 years, as of January 1st. Antonio Guterres is the first head of government to reach this position and, according to diplomatic sources in New York, is very likely to use his leadership skills and expertise in refugee-related issues to take over the initiative of regulating the main current crises, especially the one in Syria.
