October 19, 2014
A look at some of the main stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 19.10.2014, 13:35
Distinguished personalities from political and economic sectors come together in Bucharest for the EU Southeast Europe summit entitled On the Road to Stability and Growth organised by The Economist. The summit starts on Monday with its political section, with the president of the Socialist International and Greece’s former prime minister George Papandreou and the former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta opening the events. The second day of the summit focuses on economic issues and will start with a look at the region’s weaknesses, advantages and prospects.
A procession with a relic of St John Paul II is held on Sunday in Bucharest by the Roman-Catholic Archbishopric. Proclaimed a saint on the 27th of April this year, John Paul II has his feast day in the Catholic calendar on the 22nd of October. Pope John Paul II visited Romania in 1999, his being the first trip by a pontiff to a majority Orthodox country. Also on Sunday, Pope Paul VI, who led the Catholic Church between 1963 and 1978, during a troubled period on the international scene, was beatified by Pope Francis at the Vatican in the presence of the former pontiff Benedict XVI. Paul VI was the first pope to visit all six continents
Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has confirmed reaching a tentative deal with Russia on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan over the price of Russian gas to Ukraine, saying this will contribute to resolving a dispute over gas supply. Russian president Vladimir Putin previously announced that a deal ensuring gas supplies “at least for the winter” had been reached. The Russian giant Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine in June, as the latter refused to pay the higher price requested by Moscow following the coming to power of a pro-European government in Kiev last February. According to Poroshenko, the newly agreed price is 385 dollars for 1,000 cubic metres, down from the current price of 485 dollars.
Spain will help train Iraqi troops for combat against the Islamic State group, but will not intervene in Syria, said the Spanish defence minister. The deployment of 300 Spanish military to Iraq is to be approved by the Spanish Congress, said minister Pedro Morenes in Washington, where he had talks with his US counterpart Chuck Hagel. The Spanish soldiers will train Iraqi troops in explosives handling, land mine clearance and special operations.
The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu will meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the final of an ATP tennis tournament in Moscow worth some 700,000 dollars in prize money. Begu and Pavlyuchenkova only met once before, in the quarterfinals of the Seoul tournament last year, which the Russian player won in straight sets. The defending champion in Moscow is another Romanian player, Simona Halep, currently ranked third in the world. She is in Singapore for the Tournament of Champions, which brings together the 8 best-placed players in the world. Halep is the third Romanian player to compete in this tournament, after Virginia Ruzici in 1983 and 1984 and Irina Spirlea in 1998.
