President Klaus Iohannis on a formal visit to Spain
\n
<\/p>\n
Early this week,
\nRomania’s president Klaus Iohannis paid a formal visit to Spain. The talks with
\nKing Felipe 6th and prime minister Mariano Rajoy focused on economic
\ncooperation and the situation of the big Romanian community living in Spain.
\nThe Romanian head of state recalled that, at the end of last year, Spanish
\ninvestment in Romania exceeded 1.3 billion Euros and pleaded for a stronger
\npresence of such investment in Romania, especially in fields such as energy,
\nindustry and agriculture. In turn, King Felipe said Bucharest was entitled to
\njoining the Shenghen agreement, thanks to the sustained efforts it had made
\nalso as external border of the EU. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appreciated the
\nway in which the approximately 1 million Romanians in Spain managed to
\nintegrate and their role in Spain’s economic dynamics. During talks with
\nrepresentatives of the Romanian community, Klaus Iohannis told them that a
\ncoherent vision of the Diaspora had already started to get shape at the level
\nof the presidential administration. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nKlaus Iohannis in Serbia
\n
<\/p>\n
On Thursday, president Klaus
\nIohannis traveled to neighboring
\nSerbia, which is one of Romania’s key partners in the region. The talks with
\nhis Serb counterpart, Tomislav Nikolici, with prime minister Alexandar Vucic
\nand parliament speaker Maja Gojkovici focused on regional stability, economic
\ncooperation, Serbia’s European integration prospects and several joint
\nprojects, in fields such as infrastructure, cross-border cooperation and energy
\ninterconnectivity, the president has stated. He has also said that Romania
\nsupports Serbia’s European prospects and hopes that accession negotiations will
\nstart this year. Moreover, Bucharest is willing to help Belgrade in this
\nprocess. The situation of the Romanian
\nminority in Serbia, and the observance of their rights, which Bucharest has
\nconstantly supported, was a major
\ntopic on the visit’s agenda. Klaus Iohannis stressed that the Romanian minority
\nin Serbia must enjoy all the rights stipulated in the international documents,
\nwith regard to representation, education, religion and media in their mother
\nlanguage. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nAir traffic controllers’ strike
\n
<\/p>\n
Several flights scheduled for early Wednesday on the
\nmain international airport in Bucharest were affected by the two-hour warning
\nstrike staged by air traffic controllers. The controllers demanded a new
\ncollective employment contract, wage
\nprotection, air traffic safety and a lower retirement age. By Tuesday, July 21st,
\nboth the employer and the trade union must come up with clarifications and
\nsolutions to these demands. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nA new transport minister
\n
<\/p>\n
Iulian Matache is
\nthe new Transport Minister in Romania. A
\nformer state secretary in the same ministry, Matache was prime minister Ponta’s
\nsecond choice, after the president rejected the nomination of Mihai-Viorel
\nFifor for this office, saying that he did not have the necessary managerial
\nexperience. Iulian Matache thus takes over the office previously held by Ioan
\nRus, who resigned following offending statements he made about the Romanians
\nwho are working abroad. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nPrime Minister Victor Ponta steps
\ndown as head of the Social Democratic Party
\n
<\/p>\n
Leader of the Social Democrats since February 2010,
\nPrime Minister Victor Ponta has decided to step down as president of the party
\nand to take no other leading position within the party until he proves his
\ninnocence in the case in which the National Anticorruption Directorate accuses
\nhim of corruption. The prime minister is currently being prosecuted for
\nforgery, tax evasion and money laundering, which he allegedly committed while a
\nlawyer. His party colleague, Senator Dan Sova, a former Transport Minister in
\nthe Ponta Government, is the main culprit in this case. President Klaus
\nIohannis and the right wing opposition called on the premier to resign and thus
\navoid harming Romania’s image abroad. For the time being, Rovana Plumb is the
\ninterim party president, the one who took care of party leader prerogatives
\nalso when Ponta was away in Turkey, to have his knee operated on. In the
\nmeantime Ponta has returned to Romania and has been heard by anti-corruption
\nprosecutors, who issued as decision of distraint upon Ponta’s property. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nGreece’s situation
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian Foreign
\nMinister Bogdan Aurescu has hailed the historic agreement on the fresh
\nfinancial aid program for Greece. Aurescu has recalled that during the Greek
\ncrisis, Bucharest hoped a solution would be found, to favour Greece’s European
\nfuture. This week, the Eurozone leaders have reached an agreement regarding
\nGreece’s bailout, thus avoiding the country’s exiting the Eruozone. On
\nWednesday night, the Greek Parliament approved the reform measures requested by
\nthe international lenders in exchange
\nfor resuming the financial aid plan, after tense debates against the background
\nof violent anti-austerity rallies staged in capital Athens. The tough economic
\nmeasures requested by lenders include, among other things, higher taxes and an
\nincrease in the retirement age. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look at the headline-making events this past week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n