DIPLOMACY -President Klaus Iohannis today met
\nwith ambassadors accredited to Bucharest. On this occasion the President
\nensured ambassadors he would continue to make efforts in 2020 as well in order
\nfor Romania to remain a vector of stability and a promoter of democracy. As
\nregards relations with Chisinau, Romania will resume full cooperation with its
\nneighbor when it sees the Government taking concrete actions to consolidate the
\ncountry’s European track. Klaus Iohannis said Romania will preserve only those
\nprojects directly supporting Moldovan citizens, with an impact at local level,
\nas well as projects of strategic inter-connection. The President presented the
\nmain foreign policy guidelines for 2020, with a focus on consolidating and
\nexpanding the Strategic Partnership with the United States and increasing the
\nrole and effectiveness of Romania in the European Union and NATO.<\/p>\n
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GOVERNMENT -
\nThe Liberal Government today will adopt an emergency decree postponing the
\nimplementation of the law doubling children’s allowances for July 1, when the
\nfirst budget adjustment will be operated. The announcement was made on Wednesday
\nby Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, who explained that although the law
\nwas ratified by the President, his Cabinet wants to apply it, although no funds
\nwere made available for this increase, considering the bill was voted after the
\nbudget for 2020 was adopted. Ludovic Orban said children’s allowances will be
\nincreased with the first budget adjustment depending on the evolution of the
\neconomy. Also today the Government will decide the way in which it will promote
\nthe change in the election law, switching to the two-round system for local
\nelections. The Government can choose whether to take responsibility before Parliament
\nor adopt the new law by emergency decree. The Social-Democratic Party in
\nopposition said it would file a no-confidence motion if the Cabinet changes the
\nelection law months before the local elections are due, which goes against
\nEuropean recommendations. The Liberals claim, however, that the modification
\nwill improve the legislation, boosting mayors legitimacy and representation.<\/p>\n
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COMMAND -
\nRomania has today taken over the command of a NATO naval warfare unit and will
\ncoordinate battleships from five countries. Missions will be staged in the
\nBlack and Mediterranean seas. The Standing NATO Mine Counter Major Group 2
\ncommand will bring together battleships from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Spain
\nand Turkey. The group will act to ensure immediate response capacity at NATO
\nlevel, as well as increasing inter-operability between NATO ships and promoting
\nthe image of NATO.<\/p>\n
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ACEA – The European
\nAutomobiles Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has today announced that new car registrations
\nincreased by 1.2% in 2019 compared to 2018. The biggest increase was reported
\nin Lithuania, where new car registrations reported a growth of over 43%,
\nfollowed by Romania, with 23%. According to ACEA, some 161 thousand cars were
\nregistered in 2019 in Romania. Dacia accounted for nearly 4% of the European
\ncar market in 2019.<\/p>\n
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IRAN – Three
\ncountries that signed the nuclear agreement with Iran, France, Germany and
\nGreat Britain, have triggered a formal dispute mechanism over Iran’s breaches
\nof the 2015 deal that stipulated its commitment to limit its production of enriched
\nuranium. Iran has 60 days to come back into full compliance, after which date
\nadditional sanctions on this country could be taken. In turn, Teheran warned it
\ncould launch missiles stored in underground facilities, targeting military
\nbases of the United States and its allies in the region. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, seeded 2nd in the
\nAdelaide tournament in Australia, was knocked out earlier today in the
\nquarterfinals of the competition by Belarus’s Arina Sabalenka, 6-4, 6-2. The
\nfirst edition of this tournament totals some 848 thousand dollars in prize
\nmoney. This was Halep’s last game ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand
\nSlam tournament of the year, due to kick off on January 20. Another two
\nRomanians will feature in the main draw, Sorana Cirstea (74 WTA) and Irina Begu
\n(105 WTA). Ana Bogdan (96 WTA) will play Ann Li of the US in the final
\npreliminary round to accede to the Australian Open’s main draw. Bogdan is
\nseeded first in the preliminary phase. <\/p>\n
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(Translated
\nby V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/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":[35329,35314,35326,29715,28945,35254,35325,35328,35327],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-acea","tag-adelaide-tournament","tag-childrens-allowances","tag-iran","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-liberal-government","tag-meeting-with-ambassadors","tag-nato-command","tag-two-round-election-system"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n