BUCHAREST – In Bucharest, less than 6 months after
\ntaking office, the cabinet led by PM Sorin Grindeanu is faced with its first
\nmotion of no-confidence, initiated by the parties that formed the government in
\nthe first place, the Social Democrats and ruling coalition partners ALDE. The
\ntext of the motion was read in full Parliament session on Sunday, and will be
\ndebated and submitted to a vote on Wednesday. The initiators of the motion
\nclaim that withdrawing their political support means the end of the government’s
\nmandate, and that PM Grindeanu should have resigned when the government
\ncoalition made the decision, after an evaluation of the executive’s activity.<\/p>\n
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BERLIN – To Romania, the relationship with Germany is not
\njust strategically important, but also a privilege, said in Berlin Romania’s
\nPresident Klaus Iohannis during a press conference he held alongside Chancellor
\nAngela Merkel on Monday. Germany, the Romanian head of state also pointed out,
\nhas remained Romania’s most important trading partner. As regards the
\ntrans-Atlantic relation, Romania and Germany agree that there should be no
\nchoosing between the EU and NATO, and that the Union is important to the US,
\njust like the US is important to the EU. In turn, the German chancellor sated
\nthat Bucharest and Berlin share the same view on Brexit, border security,
\nterrorism and migration. According to the German Chancellor, Romania has made
\nsignificant progress in defending the rule of law and in the fight against
\ncorruption, also stressing that slowing the pace would not be a good thing. On
\nMonday, the Romanian president also held talks with his German counterpart
\nFrank Walter Steimeier. The Romanian president’s three-day visit to Germany
\nbears particular significance, as 2017 is the
\nyear when Romania celebrates 50 years of diplomatic ties with Germany on
\nembassy level, 25 years since the signing of the partnership and cooperation treaty
\nwith Germany and also 10 years since Romania joined the EU.<\/p>\n
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BRUSSELS – Negotiations have begun in Brussels for
\nBritain’s exit from the European Union. British voters stood in favour of the
\nso called Brexit in a referendum held in June last year. Almost three months
\nago, PM Theresa May activated Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which regulates
\na member state’s exit from the community.
\nThe negotiation process, which is supposed to end before 30 March 2019, is
\nexpected to be convoluted, considering the different perspectives of the
\nparties on essential issues, such as Europeans living in Britain, and Brits
\nliving in the EU. Other points of contention are the Irish frontier, and the
\ndebts that the UK may have to pay on account of its EU commitments.<\/p>\n
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PARIS- French PM Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party En
\nmarche and its ally, MoDem, have emerged victorious in the second round of
\nParliament elections on Sunday. They now hold the majority in the National
\nAssembly, which would allow the implementation of the social liberal platform
\nof the newly elected head of state. The two parties won 350 seats of the total
\nof 577. However, the elections were marred by absenteeism, with only 43% of
\nvoters showing up to the polls. The first law to be voted in the Paris
\nlegislative assembly will be on reducing privileges for dignitaries. Changes
\nare also expected to be proposed in terms of labor regulations and taxation. At
\nthe same time, President Macron wants to bolster security contingents, in order
\nto support the fight against terrorism.<\/p>\n
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LONDON – British PM Theresa May has stated that the
\npolice are treating the latest attack in London as a potential terror attack,
\nand has called an emergency cabinet meeting. One man was killed and ten people
\nwere injured after a van plowed into a group of people in the north-east of
\nLondon exiting a mosque after a religious service for Ramadan. The victims are
\nall Muslim. The driver, 48 years old, was immobilized by by-standers and then
\narrested. The mosque was known since the early 2000s as a place favored by
\nIslamists in London, who came there to attend sermons by Egyptian cleric Abu
\nHamza, who was in the meantime given a life sentence by the United States for
\nterror related activities. The fresh attack came against high tensions, as the
\nUK is in the aftermath of three terror attacks in three months, two of which
\nhave involved vehicles driven into crowds of pedestrians.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[32216,30447,14005,31802],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-102034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-en-marche","tag-attack","tag-brexit","tag-pm-sorin-grindeanu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n