June 16, 2015
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 16.06.2015, 12:00
Romania has made significant, even notable progress in fighting corruption, said the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis in Zagreb on Monday, during a meeting with his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The Romanian president expressed hopes that these results will have a positive influence on Romanias Schengen accession. He also pointed out that both Romania and Croatia would have a lot to gain, in terms of economic development and regional stability, from the European integration of the Western Balkans. In her turn, the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said her country wanted its economic relations to Romania to match the good level of political relations, and added that Croatia was interested in projects in IT and modern technologies as well as hydro power plant revamping. The talks also referred to Romanias experience as a EU member, cooperation within the Union and the question of national minorities in the two countries. President Klaus Iohannis is on a two-day visit to Croatia, where he also held talks with Pm Zoran Milanović. Today he had a meeting with the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Josip Leko.
Troops from 25 NATO countries take part, as of tomorrow, in a large-scale exercise in central Romania. TRIDENT JOUST 15 is a collective defence operation run by NATO. Another multi-national exercise, ROUSOFEX 15, has begun today in eastern Romania, involving special operations forces from Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Poland, the US and Turkey.
Matteo Patrone was appointed director for Romania of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and will take over the post on July 1, EBRD announced today. Patrone was previously the EBRD director for Serbia. With nearly 600 million euro in 2014, Romania received the sixth-largest volume of investments from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Since the beginning of its programmes, the EBRD has invested in Romania over 7 billion euro.
A delegation of the European Commission arrives in Bucharest today for an assessment of the current financial programme, which Romania plans to finalise this autumn. The topics will include the progress in structural reforms, the energy sector, transports, the professional management of state-owned companies and the stage of the privatisation process in general. The EC experts will also discuss the fiscal relaxation measures taken by the Romanian government, in light of their impact on Romanias medium-term budget deficit objective.
European foreign ministers are convening in Luxembourg today to analyse the European Commissions request for a stricter implementation of the EU policy of repatriating the immigrants who have not been granted political asylum. Because of the opposition of several EU member states, the Commission has revised its original plan regarding the redistribution of illegal migrants between member states, according to refugee quotas linked to each countrys GDP. The EC now pleads for prioritising asylum applications, accepting the ones coming from countries affected by severe crises, like Syria or Eritrea, and repatriating the migrants who come to Europe in search of better living standards. Last year only 39% of them were sent back to their countries of origin.
The kayak double team, made up of Roxana Borha and Elena Meroniac won the silver medal in the 500 m race today. This is the first medal for Romania at the European Games in Baku. Borha and Meroniac, European champions in the 1,000 m event and European vice-champions in the 500 m race, were outperformed by Serbia, with Hungary coming in third. Meanwhile, the Romanian player Simona Halep (number 3 in the world), seeded first in the WTA tournament in Birmingham, UK, plays today against Britains Naomi Broady.
