July 12, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 12.07.2015, 18:37
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who has been the leader of the Social Democratic Party since February 2010, announced in a post on a social network that he would not hold any position within the party anymore until he proved his innocence before the prosecutors. Ponta said he took this decision in order not to affect the party’s image. In early June the Romanian PM was informed, by the anti-corruption prosecutors, that he is being investigated for forgery, accessory to fiscal evasion and money laundering. He allegedly committed these crimes while a lawyer and they are related to a case involving his party colleague, Dan Sova, former transport minister in the Ponta cabinet. The Prime Minister spent the past few weeks in Turkey, where he underwent a knee surgery. Ponta returned to Romania last week and resumed his tasks as prime minister.
Eurozone finance ministers drew up on Sunday a list of supplementary conditions that Greece must meet in order to start negotiations for a third financial assistance program, Reuters and France Press report. A Eurogroup document seen by Reuters said Greece must pass laws to change its value added tax and pension systems, reform bankruptcy rules and strengthen the independence of its statistics office before bailout talks can even begin. The European Union summit initially scheduled for Sunday was cancelled, so that the difficult negotiations for an agreement on a third bailout plan for Greece can continue, the European Council president Donald Tusk said.
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. They reached Bucharest on Sunday and handed 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 Moldova’s independence from Moscow.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is paying his first official visit to Spain on Monday. The Romanian President will meet with King Felipe VI and with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and will attend meetings with representatives of the Romanian community in Spain. According to the Spanish Statistics Institute, over 750 thousand Romanian citizens were living in that country last year, the largest foreign community in Spain.
The film “Box”, directed by the Romanian Florin Serban won the prize of the International Federation of Film Critics, known as the FIPRESCI prize, at the Karlovy Vary international film festival, in the Czech Republic, now at its 50th edition. The (FIPRESCI) awarded Florin Serban for “a movie brilliantly directed about the Romanian contemporary society”.
Horia Tecau of Romania and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands won the mens doubles title at Wimbledon on Saturday. Rojer and Tecau beat Jamie Murray of Britain and John Peers of Australia 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court.This is Horia Tecau’s first victory in the men’s doubles at a grand slam tournament. Tecau previously won a Grand Slam, but in the mixed doubles at the Australian Open in 2012. tecau also play the men’s doubles final in Wimbledon in 2010, 20111 and 2012 alongside Swedish Robert Lindstedt but they lost each time. Tecau is the second Romanian tennis player to win the men’s final in Wimbledon, after Ilie Nastase who teamed up with the American Jimmy Connors in 1973.
