UNION Romanians on Tuesday celebrated the union of the historical provinces
\nof Moldavia and Wallachia, a political event, which took place 164 years ago,
\nin 1859, under the leadership of ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The move was the
\nfirst step in the process of creating the Romanian modern state, process
\ncompleted back in 1918. Military and religious services were staged by the
\nMinistry of National Defence jointly with central and local authorities at the
\nmonuments devoted to the union of the Romanian principalities. Wreath laying
\nceremonies were held at the monument of the Unknown Soldier. Present at the
\nevent, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said that the successes achieved back
\nin 1859 are a lesson of responsibility for all those who are building the
\nEuropean, modern and democratic Romania. He reiterated the appeal to use all
\nthe instruments available to complete all the reforms Romania needs and to
\neradicate the malfunctions, which are still affecting this process. Thousands
\nof people took to the streets of Iasi, in eastern Romania, to participate in a
\nseries of events on this occasion. The country’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca
\nand the president of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu also participated
\nin these events. In his public address on this special occasion, Prime Minister
\nCiuca said the roots of the European Romania can be found in the union
\ncompleted 164 years ago – an authentic example of the unity of the Romanians,
\nwhich paved the way for the emancipation and modernization of the state. In his
\nopinion, the responsibility of the political class and the state institutions
\nis to honour this act of uniting the Romanian nation. Religious services were
\nheld in Orthodox churches around the country on this occasion. <\/p>\n
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UKRAINE Several high officials in Ukraine on Tuesday announced their
\nresignations amid high-level corruption allegations during the war with Russia,
\nFrance Press reports. Deputy Defence Minister, Viacheslav Shapovalov, and the
\ndeputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko are among the
\nhigh officials to have stepped down. Deputy prosecutor General Oleksiy
\nSymonenko also resigned amid allegations about a holiday he spent with his
\nfamily in Spain after Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council had banned
\nstate officials from leaving the country during martial law. Amid all these
\nallegations, which threaten to dampen the West’s enthusiasm to help the
\ngovernment in Kyiv, president Zelensky has pledged to launch a staff shake-up
\nin the central and local administrations including at top level. Ukraine’s
\nendemic corruption has been overlooked since the beginning of the Russian
\ninvasion, but fighting the scourge is one of the key conditions for the country
\nto join the European Union. <\/p>\n
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EU Security,
\nprosperity, the democratic values and the rule of law are the priorities of the
\nSwedish presidency of the European Union presented by the country’s Foreign
\nMinister Tobias Billstrom before the European Parliament on Tuesday. Billstrom
\nhas condemned the unprovoked, brutal and unjustified aggression of Russia
\nagainst Ukraine and has mentioned the EU’s Swedish presidency will have as one
\nof the objectives to carry on the political, military, economic and
\nhumanitarian support for Kyiv in spite of the Moscow’s attempts to cause
\ndivision among the Europeans. Billstrom believes that sanctions are an
\nextremely effective instrument through which the bloc can help Ukraine win the
\nwar. The programme of the EU’s Swedish presidency includes roughly two thousand
\nformal meetings in Brussels and Luxembourg as well as 150 informal meetings
\nhosted by Sweden. <\/p>\n
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G7+ Romania’s Foreign
\nMinister Bogdan Aurescu on Tuesday participated in the G7+ videoconference
\nwhere he stood for an increased assistance for Ukraine in the context of the
\npresent winter challenges. Aurescu said that Romania would continue to support
\nUkraine jointly with the partners sharing the same visions and objectives. The
\nG7+ conference was co-chaired by the US secretary of state Antony Blinken and
\nthe Foreign Minister of Japan Hayashi Yoshimasa. High on the agenda was the
\nsituation of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which suffered massive and
\nrepeated attacks from the Russian Federation as well as the stage and prospects
\nof the support granted to Ukraine by the international community to handle the
\nresults of these attacks and increase its resilience at society level.
\nAccording to Foreign Ministry sources, the head of the Romanian diplomacy mentioned
\nthe success of this format launched in Bucharest in November 2022 on the
\nsidelines of the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting. Aurescu says that the repeated
\nlarge-scale attacks against the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is a blatant
\nviolation of the international humanitarian law and their aim is to break the
\nresilience of the Ukrainian society, something the international democratic
\ncommunity cannot allow to happen. <\/p>\n
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HOLIDAY Students are going back to school on Wednesday after the mini-holiday
\ncelebrating the union of the Romanian principalities. State employees also had
\na four-day holiday, which most of them decided to spend on the mountain resorts
\nof the Prahova Valley. Brasov and Sibiu in central Romania as well as Oradea in
\nthe north-west were the cities, which reported most of the reservations. <\/p>\n
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(bill)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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