September 28, 2014
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 28.09.2014, 12:00
Candidatures for the presidential elections in November are now definitive with the publication of the final list by the Central Election Bureau in Romania. Of the 14 candidates, 2 are running on behalf of political alliances, 8 are supported by a political party and 4 are running as independents. The election campaign starts officially on the 3rd of October. According to opinion polls, the main favourite is prime minister Victor Ponta, the leader of the left-wing Social Democratic Party, followed by Klaus Iohannis, the mayor of Sibiu and co-leader of the main opposition force, the centre-right Christian Liberal Alliance, made up of the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.
A new traffic code came into force on Sunday. Some of the new provisions refer to changes in the way minors are transported, the possibility to collect biological samples from the site of an accident and the suspension of the driver’s licence for not paying traffic fines. The new code also provides for harsher penalties for actions that pose a great social threat. The authorities say the new traffic code is mainly designed to reduce the number of road accidents and simplify the entire system.
The government in Bucharest will next week adjust this year’s budget for the second time. According to a draft published by the finance ministry on Saturday, additional funds will be allocated to six different areas. Around 250 million euros will go to the labour ministry for the payment of salary rights and social services, while about the same amount will be cut out of the budget of the government’s Secretariat General.
The Danube Delta, which lies on both Romanian and Ukrainian territory, is vulnerable to the climate changes expected in the coming decades, shows a study by the World Wide Fund Romania. The increase in the annual average temperature is believed to affect the quality of water, wildlife and plants and human health. As an essential measure, the World Wide Fund recommends the restoration of wet areas, which, during the communist era, were enclosed by dams and turned into farmland. With its 5,400 different plant and animal species, this area is the third most biodiverse area in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO site since the beginning of the 1990s.
The RadiRo International Festival for Radio Orchestras came to an end in Bucharest with a special concert given by the French National Orchestra, featuring violinist Vadim Gluzman and conductor Vassily Sinaisky. Hosted by Radio Romania, the festival is the only one in Europe to be entirely dedicated to radio symphonic orchestras. Its line-up features orchestras from Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Romania, while its programme was dedicated to the German composer Richard Strauss, whose 150th anniversary is celebrated this year.
