\n
\n<\/p>\n
DIPLOMACY <\/strong>– Romania’s
<\/p>\n
FOREIGN
<\/p>\n
VISIT<\/strong>– The Romanian prime minister, Dacian Ciolos, is paying a two-day official visit to
<\/p>\n
READER’S DIGEST AWARD<\/strong> -The Chief Prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption
<\/p>\n
MOLDOVA<\/strong> – The Prime Minister
<\/p>\n
CAR INDUSTRY<\/strong>-
<\/p>\n
TENNIS –<\/strong>Romanian tennis
<\/p>\n
WATER POLO<\/strong> – Romania’s national water polo
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":100004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29795,29801,29360,28945,29799,29772,29800,29305],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-australian-open","tag-european-water-polo-championship","tag-foreign-affairs-council","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-laura-codruta-kovesi","tag-lazar-comanescu","tag-readers-digest-european-of-the-year-2016-award","tag-victoria-nuland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\npresident Klaus Iohannis received in Bucharest on Monday the US Assistant
\nSecretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland. On the
\noccasion, president Iohannis said that, since Mrs. Nuland’s latest visit, in
\nJanuary 2015, things had changed in Romania, some for the better. In turn, the
\nUS official said that her presence in Bucharest was a good opportunity to
\nhighlight the fact that the US and Romania were good allies. Victoria Nuland
\nalso had a meeting with the Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc and the two officials
\ndiscussed topics regarding bilateral military cooperation, which was
\ncharacterized as consistent and pragmatic. On Sunday, Victoria Nuland had an
\ninformal meeting with PM Dacian Ciolos, who briefed her on the priorities of
\nthe technocratic government in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nAFFAIRS COUNCIL<\/strong>– On Monday, the Romanian Foreign Minister,
\nLazar Comanescu, attended the Foreign
\nAffairs Council in Brussels. Regarding
\nSyria, minister Comanescu said that the regional and international partners
\nshould join efforts and find a solution in order to avoid a power void in the
\ntransition period. Also, the Romanian Foreign Minister voiced his concern over
\nthe humanitarian situation in Syria and said that a stable cooperation was
\nneeded in order to find viable solutions. In another move, Lazar Comanescu
\nstressed the need for national reconciliation in Iraq and said Romania
\nsupported the continuation of the reconstruction process in that country. On
\nthe sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council, minister Comanescu held talks
\nwith his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin about prospects of boosting
\nbilateral political dialogue. Also, he
\ntalked with counterparts from other EU countries about the need to support
\nMoldova’s European aspirations.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nParis, as of Wednesday. He will be accompanied by the Economy Minister and
\ndeputy Prime Minister Costin Borc, and
\nby the Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu. On the first day of the visit, Ciolos
\nwill meet with the French president,
\nFran\u00e7ois Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and the Speakers of the two
\nChambers of the National Assembly, G\u00e9rard Larcher and Claude Bartolone. Talks
\nwill focus mainly on economic issues. Ciolos will also meet with
\nrepresentatives of the Romanian community living in France. On the second day
\nof the visit, the Romanian prime minister is due to meet CEOs and managers of
\nbig French companies. We recall that France is the fifth largest foreign
\ninvestor in Romania.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nDirectorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, is the winner of the Reader’s
\nDigest European of the Year 2016 award, in recognition of her brave and sustained
\nfight against top level corruption. It’s the second time that a Romanian wins
\nthis award. The first Romanian recipient was Iana Matei, the president of the ‘Reaching Out Romania’ Foundation, back in 2010, for the support provided to the
\nvictims of human trafficking. For 21 years, Reader’s Digest has annually
\nawarded people who, without being celebrities, have been deeply involved in
\nhumanitarian campaigns regarding issues such as rape, torture or human
\ntrafficking, HIV\/AIDs and women’s rights, but also to personalities who have
\nhad a positive influence on society.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nDesignate of the Republic of Moldova, Pavel Filip, said on Monday that the
\ngoverning program of the new Cabinet would be completed by midweek and
\nParliament’s vote of confidence would be called for by the end of the week.
\nAccording to Filip, his Government would focus on carrying on along the path to
\nEurope. While the Liberal Democratic Party has announced it will not support
\nPavel Filip’s candidacy and will turn into an opposition party, the Democratic
\nParty and the Liberal Party, as well as 14 MPs who left the Communist Party
\nwill take part in the formation of the future Executive. The Socialists, who
\nhave 24 out of the total of 101 seats in parliament, contested at the Constitutional Court on Monday the decree issued
\nby president Nicolae Timofti on the designation of Pavel Filip. Unless
\nParliament endorses the new Government by January 29th, the
\nlegislative will be dissolved and early elections will be held.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe largest car manufacturer in Romania, Dacia, a brand owned by the French
\ngroup Renault, registered record high sales in 2015. Some 551,000 units were
\nsold worldwide last year, registering a 7.7% increase, as compared to 2014. Ranking
\nfirst in the classification of best selling makes of the Dacia brand, at global
\nlevel, is Sandero, followed by Duster and Logan. Most of the units sold were
\nmotorcars, followed by light commercial vehicles. We recall that in 1999,
\nRenault bought 73% of the Dacia shares. Re-launched in 2004, with the Logan
\nmake, Dacia became a prominent player on the European car market.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nplayer Monica Niculescu has qualified for the second round of the Australian
\nOpen, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. In the debut match,
\nNiculescu defeated Brazilian Teliana Pereira, 6-2, 6-1. Romania’s four other
\nrepresentatives, Simona Halep, WTA’s no.2, Irina Begu, Alexandra Dulgheru and
\nAndreea Mitu on Tuesday will play matches to qualify for the second round of
\nthe tournament. In the men’s double, the pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau
\nand Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer is first seeded in the competition, and the
\nRomanian -Indian pair Florin Mergea \/ Rohan Bopanna is fourth seeded.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nteam will play against Germany on Wednesday, at the European Championship in
\nBelgrade, in a match counting for the 9-12 position. On Monday, Romania
\ndefeated Malta 12-7 and Germany won against Slovakia, 16-15. Romania and
\nGermany have played against each other before, part of Group C of the European
\nChampionship, and the Romanian squad won 14-13.<\/p>\n