CONFERENCE – As a strategic partner of the
\nUSA, Romania considers its mandate at the rotating EU presidency as an
\nopportunity to promote a positive agenda of cooperation between the EU and the
\nUSA, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday at the annual
\nTransatlantic Conference staged by AmCham in Brussels. Iohannis went on to say
\nthat annual trade exchanges between the two entities exceed one trillion
\ndollars creating 7 million jobs in the USA and 5 million in the EU. On Thursday
\nand Friday the Romanian official is attending the European Spring Council where
\nhe is expected to urge the EU members to carry on efforts towards the
\nconsolidation and streamlining of the single market in all its dimensions. Several
\nother issues are also high on the summit’s agenda, such as the consolidation of
\nEurope’s economic base, climate change, the future summit with China as well as
\nways of fighting disinformation. The European leaders are also to discuss a
\nrequest by Prime Minister Theresa May for postponing Britain’s leaving the bloc
\nuntil June 30th. <\/p>\n
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PROTESTS – Trade unionists from Bucharest’s underground picketed the building of
\nthe Transport Ministry in Bucharest on Thursday. They are denouncing the
\nauthorities’ indifference towards the safety issues present in some of the trains.
\nTransporters have again rallied in downtown Bucharest for their second day of
\nprotest. After the protest rally staged by FORT Federation on Wednesday, the
\nConfederation of Authorized Operators and Transporters COTAR has mounted its
\nown protests during which taxi drivers in Bucharest are calling on the
\nauthorities to amend the present legislation to be able to regulate alternative
\ncity transportation, which they consider disloyal competition.<\/p>\n
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MIGRATION – 4.4 million migrants entered
\nthe EU countries in 2017, a figure, which includes migration inside the EU,
\ndata released by Eurostat show. The statistical office of the European Union
\nregistered 2.8 million migrants in the 28 member states from outside the union
\nas well as 1.9 million people who already were in a member state and migrated
\nto another. At the same time, 3.1 million migrants have left a state in the EU.
\nMore immigrants than migrants have been registered in 22 EU countries. The
\nnumber of emigrants exceeded immigrants in six countries, Bulgaria, Croatia,
\nLatvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The largest number of immigrants was
\nreported by Malta (46 per 1,000 inhabitants. Luxembourg reported the largest
\nnumber of emigrants in 2017 (23 per 1,000 inhabitants). <\/p>\n
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VISIT – EU Commissioner for Regional
\nPolicy Corina Cretu on Friday will visit Bucharest to discuss investment
\npriorities in the next EU budget. Corina Cretu will attend the presentation of
\nthe country report as part of the European semester and the conference titled
\nInvestment priorities for Romania 2021-2027. According to a Commission
\nrelease, Corina Cretu said Romania should direct its European funds to
\ninnovation, SMEs, and the transition towards a low-carbon economy, improving
\ntransport networks and employment and social inclusions measures. <\/p>\n
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rescEU
\n– The consolidate civil protection mechanism, rescEU, aimed at strengthening
\ncollective response to natural disaster across the EU, has come into force on
\nThursday, the European Commission reports. To ensure a better protection of
\ncitizens, the European Parliament, the EU Council and the Commission reached an
\nagreement in December last year to consolidate the current civil protection
\nmechanism. Under the new mechanism member states will be able to access an
\nadditional response capacity in case of disasters, medical emergencies,
\nchemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. Europe has been
\naffected by scores of disasters in recent years, which left hundreds dead and
\nproduced damages in the billions of euros. <\/p>\n
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MOLDOVA
\n– The Moldovan Parliament has convened in its first plenary session on
\nThursday, despite the lack of a Parliament majority. Attending the meeting was
\nthe pro-Russian President Igor Dodon. The new Parliament comprises 35 Socialist
\nMPs, 30 Democratic MPs, 26 MPs representing the ACUM pro-European alliance, 7
\nMPs representative of the SOR populist party and three independent MPs.
\nAccording to Radio Chisinau, the Democrats and Socialists have invited the ACUM
\nalliance for negotiations over a Parliament majority, but the representatives
\nof the opposition said they refused to side with oligarchic and anti-European
\nparties. <\/p>\n
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(Translated by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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