December 20, 2014
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România Internațional, 20.12.2014, 13:10
The outgoing president Traian Basescu is to hold tonight his last press conference as president of Romania. On Sunday Basescu’s second five-year term as president comes to an end. After serving as transport minister, mayor of Bucharest and party president, in 2004 and then in 2009 Traian Basescu was elected president of the country. His key achievements include Romania’s EU accession in 2007. During his 2 presidential terms, marred by many political scandals, Traian Basescu was suspended twice, in 2007 and 2012, but the impeachment referendums reconfirmed him in office. Traian Basescu’s successor is the German ethnic Klaus Iohannis, the former president of the National Liberal Party.
On Sunday Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest will host the ceremony whereby president-elect Klaus Iohannis takes over the office of president from the outgoing president Traian Basescu, after Iohannis has been sworn in, in a special Parliament session. Klaus Iohannis will be received with honours at Cotroceni Palace, where Traian Basescu will hand him over the State Seal. The two will also have a private discussion. In the second round of the presidential elections, on November the 16th, Klaus Iohannis won 54.43% of the votes, outrunning the incumbent PM, the Social Democrat Victor Ponta. Klaus Iohannis is the fourth president of Romania since 1989.
The Parliament of Romania will vote Sunday morning on the 2015 draft state budget and social security budget laws. The announcement was made by the secretary of the Chamber of Deputies, Niculae Mircovici, after on Friday MPs finalised debates on the state budget bill, adopted largely in the form proposed by the Government. On Saturday the MPs also endorsed the social security budget bill. The 2015 budgets are based on a forecast budget deficit of 1.8% of the GDP, a 2.2% inflation rate and a 2.5% economic growth rate. The largest amounts will be allotted to the ministries of labour, agriculture, European funds, transport and economy. Less money will be channelled into healthcare, culture and home affairs. According to the Social Democratic PM Victor Ponta, next year taxes will not be raised, the 16% flat tax rate will stay in place and the fight against tax dodging will continue.
In Timisoara, western Romania, and elsewhere in the country and abroad, ceremonies continue, to commemorate the victims of the anti-communist uprising of 1989. Twenty-five years ago, on December the 20th, Timisoara was declared “the first city free from communism in Romania,” after the day before tens of thousands of people had taken to the streets in an unprecedented protest against the communist dictatorship. The protests that started in Timisoara on December the 16th are viewed as the start of the Romanian Revolution, which resulted, several days later, in the fall of Ceausescu’s regime. More than one thousand people died and close to 3,400 were wounded. Romania was the only country of the eastern bloc where the regime change was accompanied by violence and the communist leaders were executed.
Youth from 15 European countries are taking part today in Bucharest in Youth Cancer Europe Open Space Summit, an event designed to bring together survivors of various types of cancer and to discuss their specific needs. The meeting gives young people a platform for discussing the transition from child care to adult care, best practice models and civil involvement. The conclusions of the meeting will be subsequently sent to various relevant forums and international associations. Youth Cancer Europe Open Space Summit will be followed on Sunday by a Christmas Gala.
