VISIT – Romania’s
\npresident, Klaus Iohannis, is today starting his two-day visit to Baku,
\nAzerbaijan, responding to an invitation extended by his Azeri counterpart,
\nIlham Aliyev. The two presidents will open the ministerial meeting of the
\nSouthern Gas Corridor Advisory Council. On this occasion, president Iohannis
\nwill speak about Romania’s contribution to ensuring European energy security,
\nby expanding cooperation with regional partners and diversifying sources and
\ntransport routes for energy resources. Moreover, Bucharest wants to import gas
\nat favorable prices from the Caucasus to replace its Russian gas imports. At
\nthe same time, the Romanian president will discuss with president Ilham Aliyev
\nabout extending bilateral cooperation in the fields of transport, trade,
\nagriculture, education and culture. The two officials will also review the
\nstatus of regional interconnection projects, such as the underwater electricity
\ncable, and will tackle the organization of similar projects in the digital
\nfield as well. <\/p>\n
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DEFENSE – Romania remains
\nfirmly committed to efforts at maintaining a climate of safety and stability in
\nthe Western Balkans, Romania’s Defense Minister, Angel T\u00eelv\u0103r, said Wednesday
\non the sidelines of his visit to the Camp Butmir military base in Bosnia
\nHerzegovina. Accompanied by the Chief of General Staff, General Daniel
\nPetrescu, Minister T\u00eelv\u0103r met with Romanian servicemen taking part in the EUFOR
\nALTHEA operation, with the EU commander of this mission, Major-General Helmut
\nHabermayer (Austria), and the head of the NATO Sarajevo command, General Pamela
\nMcGaha (USA). We are very proud of the exemplary conduct of Romanian
\nservicemen in accomplishing their assigned duties, Angel T\u00eelv\u0103r said. The EUFOR
\nALTHEA operation was launched in December 2004. Starting 2012, the mission has
\nbeen focusing on training and consolidating the military capabilities of Bosnia
\nHerzegovina. 1,100 military from 21 states are taking part in the operation. A
\nRomanian officer is expected to assume command as EUFOR Chief of Staff. <\/p>\n
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EDUCATION – State Secretary
\nwith the Education Ministry, Social-Democrat Florin Lixandru, announced his
\nattributions and prerogatives have been revoked under orders from the Liberal
\nEducation Minister, Ligia Deca. Secretary Lixandru claims this is the result of
\na political row, after PSD criticized some of the provisions in laws regulating
\nhigh-school admission and the Baccalaureate exam. The education laws are on the
\nagenda of Parliament’s current legislative session. <\/p>\n
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PROTESTS – Approximately 1,000 employees in the
\neducation sector protested low salaries yesterday in Bucharest. Union
\nrepresentatives say non-teaching staff are the only category of public sector
\nemployees whose base salary was not increased in line with the provisions of
\nthe framework law for 2022. Trade unions have called on the Government to pass
\na draft law allowing non-teaching staff to receive their due salary rights, as
\nwell as bonuses for special work conditions to all employees in the education
\nsector. The Sanitas Trade Federation also announced it would stage protest
\nactions starting February 6 until their demands are met. Among other things,
\nthe Federation calls for increasing the salaries of all Healthcare and Social
\nWelfare employees by at least 15% in line with inflation. <\/p>\n
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ICR – The Romanian
\ncultural institute (ICR) will earmark some \u20ac200 thousand this year to
\ntranslations of Romanian literary works abroad via two separate funding
\nprogrammes, addressing publishers outside Romania. The measure seeks to
\nfacilitate access to Romanian culture by supporting translations of Romanian
\nauthors and publications devoted to Romanian culture and civilization. For the
\nfirst time, applications can also be submitted online, via email, by March 8,
\nwhen they will be examined by a commission of independent experts. (VP)<\/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":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[22784,36895,37353,28945,32585,37359,37360],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-angel-tilvar","tag-education-laws","tag-icr","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-trade-union-protests","tag-visit-to-azerbaijan","tag-visit-to-bih"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n