July 11, 2015 UPDATE

For a roundup of domestic and international events, click here.

Newsroom, 11.07.2015, 12:15

VISIT – President Klaus Iohannis on Monday is paying his first official visit to Spain. The president will meet with King Felipe VI and with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. President Iohannis will also attend several cultural meetings and will meet with representatives of the business environment and the Romanian community in Spain. According to official data issued by the National Institute of Statistics, over 750,000 Romanians are living in Spain, accounting for the largest community of foreign immigrants in this country.

UNION – Some one thousand young people from the Republic of Moldova crossed the Romanian border on Saturday morning, where they met with one thousand Romanians, advocating the unification of the two states. On Sunday, they will reach Bucharest and will hand president Klaus Iohannis the declaration of unification adopted on July 5 signed by 30,000 citizens of Moldova as part of the great national assembly. The rally was called by NGOs from the two states, according to which “only if we stand united can we face future challenges, live well in our own country and enjoy a larger country, without internal borders and setbacks, with a common and prosperous destiny for all Romanians. The event was held in the public square which hosted the great anti-Soviet protests of 1989-1990 and where in August 1991 the Great National Assembly hailed Moldovas independence from Moscow. We recall the Moldova emerged as an independent state on part of Romanias eastern territories annexed by the USSR in 1940.

FREEWAY – The first freeway segment linking Romania to another European state was opened on Saturday. The A1 freeway segment linking Nadlac and Arad to the new Nadlac II border crossing point, links Romania to the Hungarian highway M43. The freeway will open to transport of people and goods, having ten lanes on each direction. Transport of hazardous material must undergo a health safety check before being granted access, as well as all slow-running vehicles.

ATTACK – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has harshly condemned Saturdays bomb attack close to Italys Consular Office in Cairo, killing one person and wounding several others. The Foreign Ministry labelled the acts of violence as inhumane and unjustified, affecting foreign diplomatic relations and expressed solidarity with Italy. At the same time, the Romanian Foreign Ministry supports Egypt in its fight against terrorism. Last month the Egyptian prosecutor general was killed in a car bomb attack in Cairo. The Egyptian security forces are confronted with an unprecedented wave of attacks by Islamist terrorists.

COMMEMORATION – The Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was forced to leave the ceremony marking 20 years since the Srebrenica massacre on Saturday, after the crowd chanted slogans against him and hurled stones towards him and his delegation. According to Taniug news agency, a stone hit Vucic on his head while laying floral tribute to a monument with the names of the 6,200 unidentified victims. The crowds started chanting “Allah Akbarand hurling stones at him. Before leaving for Bosnia, the Serbian official made public a statement, calling the Srebrenica massacre “a monstrous crime. Numerous delegations on Saturday attended the ceremony marking 20 years since 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly young men, were killed by the Bosnian-Serb army, against the backdrop of an ethnic war that led to the break-up of former Yugoslavia.

GREECE – Saturdays meeting of Eurozone Finance ministers will be very difficult, as the reforms proposed by the Greek Government are insufficient to consider the possibility of a new financial agreement for Greece, Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said. The main problem is trust between Greece and its European partners, the EU official went on to say. The Greek Parliament adopted the reform package on Friday evening, even though some members of the ruling party abstained or voted against. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted some measures go against the promises made in the parliamentary election campaign by the ruling left, although he says they are milder than those proposed by the lenders. Greece wants a three-year financing package, and commits to adopting a new pension law by this autumn and to come up with a new fiscal legislation. Athens also intends to cut military expenses, increase the VAT and to eliminate tax breaks for Greek islands by the end of 2016. Greeces debt currently amounts to 320 billion euros, of which 65% to Eurozone countries and the IMF, and 8.7% to the European Central Bank. Starting July 1, Greece has technically defaulted on its payments and needs a third financial rescue package to avoid leaving the Eurozone.