October 23 2013 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Leyla Cheamil, 23.10.2013, 12:34
A joint mission of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission is in Bucharest assessing the latest loan agreement it has concluded with Romania. The two-billion euro precautionary agreement was approved by the IMF board on September 27th for a period of two years. Romania has also been granted access to another two billion euros from the European Commission. On Wednesday, international finance experts held talks with the Finance Ministry on medium term budget forecasts. They also met experts from the Ministry of the Economy, with whom they talked about promoting exports and the strategy for a better regulation and on curbing the administrative burden facing small and medium-sized businesses.
The Spanish government supports Romania’s entry into Europe’s border-free area Schengen, the Spanish Justice minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardon said on Wednesday at the meeting he had with his Romanian counterpart Robert Cazanciuc. The two ministers tackled topics of general interest for the two countries, such as the reform of the judiciary, the anti-graft fight, cooperation in various legal issues and in issues concerning the Romanian community in Spain. We recall that in summer, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy decided to strengthen the bilateral relation between the two countries with a view to building a strategic partnership.
On Wednesday, the last day of his visit to the United States, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta met the US secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, with whom he talked about the development of the economic and trade relations between the two countries. The issue was also tackled on Tuesday at the meeting Prime Minister Ponta had with US vice-president Joe Biden. Also high on the agenda was the political and military strategic partnership between the two states.
Spain in the third quarter of 2013 has emerged out of the recession it has been going through in the past two years, strengthening socialist Prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s efforts to invigorate the country’s public finances and to curtail the unemployment’s record high figure. According to the Bank of Spain, over June and August 2013 the country’s Gross Domestic Product saw a slight naught point one per cent growth as compared to the second quarter. However, the data are not enough for the ongoing problems to be solved across the country, with the poor domestic demand and the new austerity measures package delaying a sustainable recovery. Nonetheless, the positive information on Spain has an important psychological impact.
The Euro Zone’s public debt saw a slight increase in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to the past three months, standing at as much as 93.4 % of the GDP, while across the European Union the public debt soared to 86.8 %, according to data the European Statistics office Eurostat has made public on Wednesday. At the end of the second quarter, the EU countries with the biggest public debt were Greece (169.1%), Italy (33.3 %) and Portugal (131.3%). EU countries with the lowest public debt were Estonia (9.8 %) Bulgaria (18%) Luxembourg (31.1 %) and Romania (38.6 %).
The construction in Romania of the anti-missile defense system AEGIS as part of Europe’s anti-missile shield will start by the end of October, NATO’s Secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels, in the wake of the meeting of the defense misters of NATO’s member states. Rasmussen went on to say that the antimissile shield in Europe up until 2018 will protect the entire population of NATO’ s member states. The Alliance’s Secretary General has reiterated the fact that the anti-missile shield, which was created as a deterrent for threats posed by North Korea and Iran, is purely defensive. Rasmussen invited Russia to take part in the project, We recall Russia thought the aforementioned system was directed against itself.
The turnover of Romania’s exports to Israel in 2013’s first eight months alone stood at 215 million dollars, 10 per cent of which came from agriculture, the Romanian Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin said in Jerusalem. These days Constantin is on an official visit to Israel and Palestine. In Palestine’s Ramallah Daniel Constantin will be holding meetings with his counterpart Walid Assaf as well as with other Palestinian high-ranking officials. Yesterday Constantin took part in the official opening ceremony of the Water Technology and Environment Control Exhibition WATECWATEC 2013, which brings together top-ranking Israeli and international companies.
