October 17, 2013 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news ...
România Internațional, 17.10.2013, 20:14
Chevron, the US company that was about to start exploring the shale gas reserves in a commune in eastern Romania, announced on Thursday its decision to suspend the activity. The police and gendarme squads deployed in the area were pull out, as well as all the Chevron equipment. The company made the decision after days of protests by inhabitants and green activists, who are afraid that the company might use the controversial hydraulic fracking technique to bring gas to the surface. People in other villages and towns, including the capital Bucharest, held meetings of solidarity. The protests concurred with the ones that started 7 weeks ago in Bucharest and other cities against the cyanide-based gold mining project in Rosia Montana, central Romania.
The State Secretary with the Romanian Health Ministry, Raed Arafat on Thursday got the title of Knight of the Order of the French Legion of Honour for the efforts he put into developing emergency medicine. The highest civil and military order was handed over to Mr. Arafat by the French Ambassador to Romania, Philipe Gustin. Palestinian born Romanian Doctor Raed Arafat, aged 49, is known as the father of the Mobile Emergency Rescue Service in Romania, SMURD. For his remarkable achievements, he got two important decorations from the Romanian state in 2003 and 2005.
Romanian and Serbian governments will hold a joint meeting early next year, said on Thursday Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta after the meeting he had with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic. The Serbian official paid a visit to Romania after on Wednesday the European Commission had made significant progress in improving relations with Kosovo and started reform allowing for the official start of EU accession negotiations in December. Serbia is one of the 5 EU member countries that have not the independence of Serbia’s former province Kosovo, which declared its independence unilaterally in 2008.
The Romanian Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu held talks in Bucharest on Thursday with his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Muezzinoglu. The two officials talked about the two countries’ experiences in managing and reforming the health-care system. The Turkish minister stressed the need for stability in the health care system and highlighted the changes that had positive effects in his country. In turn, Nicolaescu said that the Turkish experience will help the Romanian Health Ministry implement its reforms regarding hospitals’ status and doctors’ incomes. Also, the two officials agreed to carry on their exchange of experience, especially with regard to emergency care.
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the social democrats reached an agreement on Thursday to start negotiations for the formation of a government coalition, nearly four weeks after the legislative elections. The parties managed to find an agreement after three rounds of talks and failed negotiations between the conservatives and the greens. With 41.5% of the votes, the conservatives missed absolute majority in Parliament and therefore had to find governing allies, as their traditional partners, the liberals, did not manage to go beyond the electoral threshold. Most Germans expect a government made up of conservatives and social democrats, gathered in what was called ‘the grand coalition’, which functioned during Mrs. Merkel’s first term in office, between 2005-2009.
