September 28, 2014 UPDATE
A look at the main stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 28.09.2014, 18:30
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.
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.
There is strong and long-standing cooperation between the Romanian and Chinese armies, said Romania’s defence minister Mircea Dusa on Sunday in Beijing. His visit to China, which lasts until October 1st, is part of the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Romania and China. The Romanian minister on Sunday had talks with the vice-president of the Central Military Commission, general Xu Qiliang, who said his country looks at Romania as a trusted friend and partner in Central and Eastern Europe.
The state secretary for European affairs George Ciamba on Monday attends a meeting of the EU General Affairs Council in Brussels, the foreign ministry in Bucharest has announced. Talks will focus on the preparation of the European Council on the 23rd and 24th of October, whose agenda is likely to be dominated by climate change, energy and the economic situation across the European Union. Monday’s meeting in Brussels will also look at the implementation of the decisions taken at the previous European Council meeting in June regarding the first pillar of the EU’s strategic agenda focusing on employment, growth and competitiveness.
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 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.
World number two Simona Halep of Romania defeated Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of the Czech Republic in straight sets in the opening round of a WTA tennis tournament in Beijing worth some 5.4 million dollars. In the second round, Halep will meet either Lin Zhu of China or Anastasia Pavliucenkova of Russia. Also on Sunday, Romania’s Monica Niculescu lost to world no. 15, Andrea Petkovic of Germany.
