October 14, 2013
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România Internațional, 14.10.2013, 12:05
The opponents of the mining project in Rosia Montana (in central Romania) have again protested in Bucharest and other cities of Romania. They are asking for the withdrawal of the draft law regulating that gold ores exploitation, the cancellation of the contract with the Canadian company Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, for establishing a ban on cyanides use in Romania and the introduction of the Rosia Montana area on the UNESCO heritage list. A special parliamentary committee will look into the project and will present a report on the mining project by October 20th, which will be forwarded to Parliament.
The healthcare system employees have today gone on a work-to-rule strike. Until Wednesday they will do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract and will wear an armband in protest of the under- financing of the system. In November the healthcare trade unions might go on an all out strike.
Today is the deadline for the GFR Company (The Romanian Railway Group) to pay the remaining 170 million euros for purchasing the majority stake in the state owned company CFR Marfa- the freight division of the Romanian Railway Company. GFR asked the Transport Ministry to urgently get involved in the privatization process and warned that privatization might fail because the seller allegedly did not comply with the contractual obligations. GFR claims its interests have been violated adding that it is willing to collaborate to find a legal solution. In September the Transport Ministry signed the privatization contract of CFR Marfa with the GFR company after the latter won in June the public sale of the state-owned company, offering 202 million euros for the 51% share package in CFR Marfa. Moreover GFR promised to make further investments worth 204 million euros. Under the precautionary agreement with the IMF Romania pledged to sell the majority stake in several state-owned companies, mainly in the transport and energy fields.
The Romanian environment minister, Rovana Plumb, is today participating in Luxembourg in the meeting of the EU Environment Committee. The participants will talk about the proposal to change the regulations on wastes transfers. Also the participants will look into the final form of the Regulations on CO2 emissions for cars in the run up to the conclusion of a new agreement.
The city of Sibiu (in central Romania) is hosting as of today the 20th edition of the ASTRA documentary film festival, the most important such festival in Romania. For one week more than 100 films will be screened ranging from stories from far away places and controversies in the online environment to protests against shale gas exploitation in Poland and the USA. This year the organizers have also prepared vintage movies by legendary documentary directors and courses given by the winners of the previous editions of the festival. The festival also has a program for students, Astra Film Junior, part of which special documentaries for them will be screened.
The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, believes that a ministerial meeting with the great powers should be held in the wake of the negotiations to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, meant to finalize a possible agreement, France press reports. Iran and the countries in the 5+1 group (the USA, France, Great Britain, Russia, China and Germany) are meeting in Geneva to resume the negotiations on nuclear issues that were suspended in April. The first ministerial meeting took place in September in New York as part of the UN General Assembly. The western countries suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weaponry but Teheran has constantly denied the accusations, claiming that its nuclear program is meant for peaceful purposes.
