VISIT – Romanian PM Viorica
\nD\u0103ncil\u0103 on Wednesday paid a visit to Brussels. She presented Romania’s
\npriorities at the helm of the Council of the EU during the plenary session of
\nthe European Committee of Regions. Also on Wednesday she met with Katharina von
\nSchnurbein, EU coordinator for combating anti-Semitism. Prime Minister Dancila
\nsaid combating anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are key priorities for the
\nRomanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Also on Wednesday, PM Dancila met
\nwith the Secretary General of the World Jewish Restitution Organization,
\nCollette Avital. Talks focused on Romania’s recent efforts to accelerate the
\nprocess of Jewish restitution, as well as the latest legislative action to pay
\nallowances for Holocaust survivors. Prime Minister Dancila on Thursday will
\nattend the conference titled The Fight against Anti-Semitism: a common
\napproach to better protect Jewish communities in Europe. From politics to
\naction. Also on Thursday, Viorica Dancila will meet with European Council
\nPresident Donald Tusk and with European Commission First Vice-President, Frans
\nTimmermans.<\/p>\n
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DRAFT
\nBUDGET – Talks continue in Bucharest on Romania’s 2019 draft
\nbudget, as the leaders of the ruling parties met on Wednesday with
\nrepresentatives of the Municipal Cities’ Association, who are discontent about
\nthe way in which money is allotted to local communities. Social-Democrat leader
\nLiviu Dragnea said the budget of local municipalities will be at least
\ntantamount to last year. Mayors remain disgruntled, saying talks would continue
\non Thursday at the Finance Ministry. The coalition intends to finalise talks
\nfor the budget to be discussed in Friday’s session of the Government, to then
\nbe forwarded to Parliament for debate. Meanwhile, the Fitch rating agency has warned that the 2019 budget bill, in the
\ncurrent form which has been launched for public debate, is actually based on
\noptimistic estimates and does not shed light on the uncertainty over the tax on
\nbank assets. The Fitch analysts are
\nsceptical that Romania will observe the budget deficit target of 2.6%, given
\nthat the state budget is based on an economic growth rate of 5.5%, higher than
\nthe 3.2% initial estimate by the agency.<\/p>\n
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ROMANIAN-US
\nRELATIONS- Romanian deputy prime-minister Ana Birchall, on a visit to the US, has
\nreiterated the Romanian Government’s firm commitment to further develop the
\nrelation with the US on all dimensions of the Strategic Partnership. According
\nto a communiqu\u00e9, during her official visit to the US, Ana Birchall has had
\ntalks with several US high officials with responsibilities on the relation with
\nRomania. They approached issues of high interest on the bilateral agenda, such
\nas organising the Romania-US Strategic Dialogue, whose last session was held in
\nBucharest, in June 2018. The officials also tackled opportunities of
\ncooperation with the Romanian side to promote common objectives on the
\ntrans-Atlantic agenda, such as Romania’s priorities during its tenure at the
\nhelm of the Council of the European Union. <\/p>\n
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MEETING -
\nForeign Minister Teodor Melescanu on Wednesday met with a delegation of the
\nBundestag Committee for European Affairs, led by President Gunther Krichbaum.
\nTalks focused on the latest development of the EU eastern vicinity and the
\nBlack Sea region, highlighting the support given by Romania and Germany to
\nmaintaining active action and commitment from the EU towards states in the
\nEastern Partnership. Both sides also reiterated the joint interest to
\ndeveloping cooperation in the Black Sea region, as well as regarding the
\nEuropean Union Strategy for the Danube Region. <\/p>\n
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STATE
\nOF THE UNION – US President Donald Trump has launched an
\nappeal for unity in his State of the Union address in Congress on Tuesday. He
\nsaid the economic miracle of his country cannot be stopped by fighting,
\npolicies and partisan investigations. The US President has underlined that his
\nagenda is a national one, in the interest of all Americans. Donald Trump, who
\nhas made of migration policies a priority of the second year of his term in
\noffice, devoted much of his address to this issue, calling on Congress to
\ndefend the US’s southern border from illegal migrants, who come-according to
\nhim- with a criminality potential. <\/p>\n
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MACEDONIA – The NATO member states on Wednesday
\nsigned in Brussels, the NATO Accession Protocol with Macedonia, an important
\nstep towards accepting that Baltic country as the 30th member of the
\norganization. Macedonia will be allowed to participate from now on, in NATO
\nmeetings, as observer, until all allied countries ratify the accession
\nprotocol. This step has been taken after the resolution of a protracted dispute
\nbetween Skopje and Athens on the name of the country. The former Yugoslav
\nrepublic agreed last year to change its name into The Republic of North
\nMacedonia, to thus make a clear distinction between the former Yugoslav
\nrepublic and the old Greek province of Macedonia. The name change will become
\nofficial once Greece has ratified the accession protocol. <\/p>\n
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FLU – The number of people who succumbed to the flu in Romania stands
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TENNIS – The Romanian
(Translated by D. Vijeu & V. Palcu)<\/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":[34477,29893,30018,34411,34480,30537,31448,33035,34479],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-103321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-2019-draft-budget","tag-ana-birchall","tag-davis-cup","tag-flu-epidemic","tag-macedonia-and-nato","tag-romania-us-relations","tag-teodor-melescanu","tag-viorica-dancila","tag-visit-to-brussels"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nat 91, according to the latest data released by National Centre for<\/em> Surveillance
\nand Control of Communicable Diseases. <\/em>Doctors call
\nagain on people to get the anti-flu shot. Almost all people who died of the flu
\nvirus had not been vaccinated. Some 1.3 million people have been vaccinated so
\nfar, and the Health Ministry has purchased another 30,000 doses of the vaccine
\nfor people in the high risk category: people with chronic diseases, pregnant
\nwomen, children and elderly people. A flu epidemic has officially been
\ndeclared in Romania, because of the fast-paced spread of the virus and the high
\nnumber of flu-infections and deaths.<\/p>\n
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\nmen’s Davis Cup team will take on Zimbabwe in the first round of Group II in
\nthe Europe Africa zone, according to Wednesday’s draw venued in London. The
\nmatch will be played on home turf. Romania and Zimbabwe previously played each
\nother in the Davis Cup in 2000, in Harare, Romania winning 3-2. Other matches
\nin Group 2 are South Africa vs. Bulgaria, Denmark vs. Turkey, Lithuania vs.
\nMorocco, Egypt vs. Slovenia and Norway vs. Georgia. <\/p>\n