September 23, 2018 UPDATE
Romania stagnates this year in terms of social progress.
Newsroom, 23.09.2018, 18:01
SOCIAL PROGRESS — Romania stagnates this year in the Global Report of Social Progress, ranking 44th out of 146 countries, just as last year, according to a release of the Initiative for Competitiveness. Romania’s social performance slightly improves in terms of access to water, shelter, environment quality, tolerance and inclusion and individual rights but deteriorates in terms of medical services, personal safety, access to knowledge and to IT&C. In terms of GDP per capita, Romania ranks 45th out of 146 countries. According to the report, a real advance of the social progress index in Romania depends on the quality of social investment, education and connection with the technology of the future, as national priorities.
POPE – Pope Francis paid tribute on Sunday to Lithuanians who suffered and died during Soviet and Nazi occupations, on the day the country remembered the near-extermination of its Jewish community during the Holocaust. During Mass in Santakos Park, Pope Francis honored both Jewish victims of Nazi-era executions and the Lithuanians who were deported to Siberian gulags or were tortured and oppressed at home during five decades of Soviet occupation. The Pope will tour Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as they celebrate 100 years since declaring independence following World War I.
OLYMPIAD – Romanian pupils won nine prizes at the 4th International French Language Olympiad in Ohrid, Macedonia, held between the 15th and the 19th of September. They won four first prizes (two in individual and two in team events), three second prizes and two third prizes. The International French Language Olympiad gathered pupils from 6 countries members of the International Organization of La Francophonie: Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. The competition is enlisted in the program of the activities carried out by the Regional Office of La Francophonie for Central and Eastern Europe. Romanian pupils also got very good results at other international competitions, such as the International Physics Olympiad held in July, where they won five medals, at the Central European Olympiad in Informatics, where they won two gold and two silver medals and at the International Earth Science Olympiad in Warsaw, in August.
BUCHAREST – Events celebrating the City of Bucharest ended on Sunday with a concert of the British singer Rod Stewart. Romania’s capital city marked 559 years since it was first mentioned in official records, as well as 100 years since the Union of December 1, 1918, when the Romanian provinces were united into a nation state. On Friday, the famous Romanian panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir gave a memorable show and on Saturday Bucharest hosted one of the biggest 3D video-mapping shows in the world.
RESEARCH – Ministers from Romania hold the EU record in appearing at EU council meetings, being present in over 90 percent of the meetings, according to research from Danish think tank Europa. The figures – based on minutes from council meetings in the period 2015-2018 – also showed that ministers from Slovakia and Poland appeared the least, leaving their chairs to diplomats in almost every other meeting.
ELECTION — Almost 30 Romanians are on the candidate lists of political parties in Belgium, in the local elections scheduled for October 14. They are trying to win local councilor seats in several localities, including the capital Brussels. The initiator of the “DreptLaVot” project, Ioana Banach, says in a post on the RomBel website, of the Romanian community in Belgium that more than ever before, Romanian candidates matter at these elections, given the fact that in Brussels, for instance, they account for 9% of the population.
