April 27, 2015
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 27.04.2015, 12:00
Five years ago today Romania and the Republic of Moldova signed a Joint Declaration on setting up a Strategic Partnership for Chisinau’s European Integration. The document sets the framework and mid-term development priorities of the privileged relation between the two countries. According to the Foreign Ministry, since then the Republic of Moldova has negotiated, signed and started to implement its EU-association agreement, a document paving the way for the country’s political and economic integration into the EU. Furthermore, the citizens of the Republic of Moldova have traveled around Europe without visas for a year now and the inauguration of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline in August 2014 is another step towards strengthening the connection between the former Soviet Republic and the EU. In another development European Council president Donald Tusk today starts a two-day visit to the Republic of Moldova. Talks with the officials in Chisinau will be mainly focusing on the reforms agenda and the implementation of the Association Agreement the Republic of Moldova signed with the EU in June 2014.
Over 34 hundred people are known to have died in the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck an area between Nepalese capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara. Thousands have been wounded with further loss of life in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and Mount Everest. Tremors were felt across the region where search and rescue operations are underway. Numerous countries and humanitarian organisations have responded sending aid to the affected areas. According to the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, all the 30 Romanians in Nepal are unscathed and out of harm’s way. According to sources with the same ministry, authorities in Nepal have declared a state of emergency in the affected regions recommending the Romanians to avoid traveling to Nepal and the neighboring regions in India.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu is paying a formal visit to Oslo in response to an invitation from his Norwegian counterpart Borge Brende. High on the agenda are ways of strengthening the Romanian-Norwegian cooperation as well as other topical issues including security in Europe with emphasis on the latest developments in the eastern neighborhood, preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga in May as well as cooperation inside the North-Atlantic Alliance. Aurescu’s agenda in Oslo also includes a meeting with representatives of the League of Romanian Students Abroad.
As of today Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is paying a two-day formal visit to Italy. The two states have signed a strategic partnership and Italy is one of Romania’s most important strategic partners. The Romanian president’s agenda includes talks with president Sergio Mattarela, with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, senate president Pietro Grasso as well as with representatives of the Romanian community in Italy. Iohannis is expected to deliver a speech in front of the Romanian students in Italy at the Accademia di Romania. With about one million people, the Romanian community in Italy is the largest community of Romanians abroad. Since he became president on December 21st 2014, president Iohannis has paid formal visits to France, Germany, Poland and the former soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine. Iohannis’ next visit will be in Spain, which is home to another major Romanian community.
As of today Ukrainian capital Kiev plays venue for the EU-Ukraine summit, part of the Association Agreement approved last year by the European Parliament and ratified by the Ukrainian Rada. The summit will be attended by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, the European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Council Donald Tusk and the head of the European diplomacy Federica Mogherini. The summit will be focusing on implementing the association agreement and the political and economic reforms in Ukraine and on the financial assistance Europe is offering to Ukraine. The summit will be followed by an international conference on reforms in Ukraine. The aforementioned events are taking place against the ongoing conflict in the east of the country where the pro-Russia separatists have stepped up attacks against government troops, violating the armistice signed in February. Over 6,000 people have lost their lives in this conflict since its beginning a year ago.
Romanian top tennis player Simona Halep is back to second place in the world starting today, a position she held last year as well. Even though she got defeated on Saturday in the semi-finals in Stuttgart by Danish player Caroline Wozniacki, Halep took advantage of Maria Sharapova’s elimination in the eighth finals, replacing the latter as second in the WTA standings, still dominated by Serena Williams. In other tennis news, on Sunday in Bucharest, the Romanian double Marius Copil and Adrian Ungur won the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, with prizes totaling almost half a million Euro, defeating the US- New Zealand pair Nicholas Monroe/ Artem Sitak. The singles competition victory went to Spanish player Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who played against Czech player Jiri Vesely.
Today the Dutch celebrate Koningsdag or Kings Day which is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 27th April (26th April if the 27th is a Sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander who was born in 1967.
