October 18, 2017

Foreign Minister Melescanu meets Spanish counterpart in Bucharest; Trade Wings 2017 forum opens in Romania

Mihai Pelin, 18.10.2017, 13:54

BUCHAREST — Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu on Wednesday meets in Bucharest his Spanish counterpart Alfonso Maria Dastis, to discuss issues relevant to the Romanian community in Spain. The two are set to sign a convention between their two countries on preventing tax evasion and elimination of double taxation for incomes. At the half of last year, the two countries had bilateral trade reaching 2.3 billion Euro, while the number of Spanish companies in Romania was over 5,600.

TRADE — Bucharest is host, starting Wednesday, to the Trade Wings 2017 business forum, the largest scale government trade mission in the history of South-east Europe, according to the US Embassy in Bucharest. The mission is organized by the US Department of Commerce in partnership with the Romanian government. In its 10th edition, the event concludes on Friday, and will be attended by 100 American and 50 Romanian companies. In the three days of the forum, the attendees will be holding business and trade conferences, as well as discussions with American commercial attaches from 25 European states. Parallel events are held in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Serbia.

BRUSSELS — European Council President Donald Tusk has introduced an ambitious schedule of 13 regular summits over the next two years to revive the European Union after the Brexit. Tusk made public this schedule on Tuesday, after several calls for a profound revision of the Union, including from French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker. The schedule starts with the end of the week summit in Brussels, which will be attended by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. President Tusks plan will also include an extraordinary European summit in Romania a few weeks after the UK leaves the EU, which is scheduled for March 2019, as well as a security summit next year in Vienna.

JUSTICE — Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on Wednesday that his ministry has finalized the proposal to modify the basic package of legislation regulating justice. He said he would meet on October 26th European Commission First Vice-President Hans Timmermans to discuss the project. Toader called on the Venice Commission to approve the procedure to appoint high ranking prosecutors. The Minister of Justice said that the way to introduce the amendments to justice legislation will be decided by the majority coalition by either going through executive endorsement, followed by vote in Parliament, or straight through parliamentary debate.

KIEV — The leaders of the Romanian cultural community in the region of Cernauti, in western Ukraine, held a protest on Tuesday in front of the Regional Administration headquarters, with a symbolic funeral of the Romanian language. They were protesting against the new Ukrainian law of education, which limits drastically the right of the Romanian minority to education in its ethnic language. The new law dictates that minority children would only be able to get education in their mother tongue in kindergarten and primary school. Almost half a million ethnic Romanians live in the west of Ukraine, in an area annexed by the former USSR in 1940.

MILITARY — Over 250 Romanian and foreign soldiers will take part in the multinational special forces exercise called Carpathian Eagle 2017, taking place until October 22nd in Targu Mures, the Singeorgiu de Mures and Bogata ranges, as well as at Campia Turzii airfield. The exercise is attended by troops from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The exercise is run around a scenario that is meant to train special operations forces to coordinate between countries.

FOOTBALL — Romanian football vice-champions FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest, plays on Thursday away from home against Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel, in the third game in Group G of the Europa League. They rank first with six points, after defeating the Swiss side Lugano, 2-1, and Czech contenders Viktoria Plzen, 3-0.

WEATHER — The weather in Romania is warmer than expected, with clear skies and mild winds. Maximum temperatures are between 19 and 29 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 22 degrees.