EDUCATION
\nIn Bucharest, the Liberal PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103, the Social Democratic leader Marcel
\nCiolacu and the labour minister Marius Bud\u0103i invited trade unions in public
\neducation to talks in order to avoid an all-out strike announced for tomorrow. Unionists
\nsaid protests could only end when the solutions to their demands, particularly
\nconcerning salaries, were introduced in officially endorsed legislation. The
\nfinance minister Adrian C\u00e2ciu said the teaching staff’s demands could have been
\nsolved, if Romania had received the money in the second disbursement round
\nunder the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is currently suspended
\nbecause of targets that have not been met in the field of energy, for which the
\nNational Liberal Party is responsible. On the other hand, PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 said
\nthe solution to the unions’ demands has to do with the unified salary law that
\nthe labour ministry headed by the Social Democrats has failed to finalise in
\nspite of the support of the entire ruling coalition. Amid these disagreements, the
\npresident of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, demanded that
\nnegotiations on the new cabinet make-up following the PM rotation should be
\nsuspended until the issue in the education sector has been solved, and the Democratic
\nUnion of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior partner in the ruling
\ncoalition, agreed. The Liberals on the other hand argue that the government
\ntransition should be completed quickly in order to maintain stability and
\nbalance. Under a protocol signed by the 2 parties, on 26 May the Social
\nDemocrats should take over the prime minister post from the Liberals, for the
\nnext 1,5 years, until the next general elections.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
MOLDOVA
\nA large-scale rally is held in Chi\u015fin\u0103u today, at the
\ninitiative of president Maia Sandu, in order to prove Moldovans’ support for
\nthe country’s EU accession. Europe is the Republic of Moldova. The Republic of
\nMoldova is Europe. Moldova is not alone, the president of the European
\nParliament, Roberta Metsola said in Romanian at the European Moldova National
\nAssembly. Participants adopted a resolution confirming the support of Moldovan
\ncitizens for the country’s EU accession efforts. The rally takes place as the Republic
\nof Moldova, an EU accession candidate country, would like to begin accession
\nnegotiations by the end of this year. For this stage to begin, Moldova must
\ncomplete 9 recommendations, which will be assessed by this autumn in a European
\nCommission report. In Bucharest, the Organisation of Moldovan Students
\norganised a similar rally in front of Moldova’s Embassy. Scores of people
\nwatched the speeches in Chisinau jointly with the Moldovan Ambassador to
\nBucharest, Victor Chirila.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
UKRAINE The US president Joe Biden Sunday announced new military aid
\nmeasures for Ukraine, following talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy,
\non the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima. The new aid package will
\nconsist of ammunitions, artillery and armoured vehicles, Joe Biden explained, just
\ndays after approving the provision of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. According
\nto Reuters, this new package is worth up to USD 375 mln and is designed to
\nstrengthen Ukraine’s defence in the war against Russia. The British PM Rishi
\nSunak also announced in Hiroshima that his country would start training
\nUkrainian pilots this summer, to support Ukraine’s air forces in the conflict.
\nRishi Sunak added that no one wants peace more than Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but
\nthe terms for peace, he added, should be based on Ukraine’s principles. In the
\n3-day summit in Japan, the G7 nations voiced their willingness to stand by
\nUkraine in the long run.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
FLOODING
\nIn Italy, code red alerts for heavy rainfalls with landslide risks are valid
\ntoday as well, in the Emilia Romagna region in the north of the country, already
\naffected by unprecedented flash floods. Fourteen people died and 36,000 others
\nwere evacuated by the authorities. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent
\nin Italy, in Ravenna province alone, the most severely hit by the floods, over 16%
\nof the territory has been evacuated. A preliminary estimate by Confagricoltura,
\nthe association of Italian farmers, indicates that the flooding in Emilia
\nRomagna caused crop damages of over EUR 1.5 bln. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
GREECE
\nGreece is holding elections today for its single-chamber 300-seat parliament, with
\naround 9.5 million people expected to take part in the vote. As many as 36 parties
\nand political associations are running for parliamentary seats, for which they
\nneed at least 3% of the votes. The most likely to win is incumbent PM Kyriakos
\nMitsotakis’s party, New Democracy, with 33% of the voting intentions in polls. The
\nleft-of-centre Syriza party, headed by Alexis Tsipras, is predicted to carry
\n26% of the votes. A novelty in this election is the scrapping of the 50-seat
\nbonus for the winning party. Unless the parties manage to form a new
\ngovernment, early elections will be held in July, with a return to the previous
\nbonus system. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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