September 20, 2015
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România Internațional, 20.09.2015, 12:00
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is today giving a concert, which ends the 22nd edition of the George Enescu International Festival, one of the most prestigious classical music events in Europe. Roughly 25 hundred foreign artists and 500 artists from Romania have been attending this years edition, which went on for 22 days in Bucharest and other cities across Romania. This years festival included scores of outdoor and indoor performances.
Events devoted to the first documenting of Romanias capital city Bucharest, 556 years ago, are being held these days. Among these we mention Sound&Vision, the first festival of 100% Romanian alternative music as well as live concerts and theme workshops including iMapp Bucharest – one of the worlds largest video-mapping shows. Currently at its fifth edition, The White Night of Bucharest included cartoon screenings, light & laser shows, live music concerts and painting exhibitions involving state-of-the-art techniques and gear used by Romanian and international artists.
Romania maintains its position that it can take in 17 hundred refugees, but can improve its accommodation facilities in future provided more European funds are allotted, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has said. Following the talks he had with his Dutch counterpart, Bert Koenders, Aurescu said that building up fences to separate ‘the Civilized Europe from the rest of Europe is rather more of an autistic and unacceptable act, having nothing to do with the European spirit. He said that Romania is the EUs and NATOs border and has the capability of defending the community of values it is part of. Referring to migration, the Romanian official went on to say that a possible solution would be to improve situation in certain countries so that people may not want to leave them.
Romanias main opposition party, the National Liberal Party, announced it would table a censure motion to sanction the governments lack of credibility, caused by the legal issues of Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Liviu Dragnea, the interim president of the main ruling party, the Social Democrats, said he didnt believe in the success of such a motion. We recall that the Prime Minister, Social Democrat Victor Ponta and his party colleague Dan Sova have been indicted by the National Anti-corruption Agency DNA on corruption charges. On June 5th, the prosecutors announced they had launched penal prosecution against Ponta for forgery, conspiracy to commit tax evasion and money laundering in a corruption file related to the investigation into legal council contracts at the Turceni and Rovinari power plants in southern Romania. Prosecutors also noted that a further investigation was due against Ponta for conflict of interest in his current position of head of government. Ponta has rejected the prosecutors accusations as well as requests from president Iohannis and the liberal opposition to step down.
The inflow of migrants and refugees towards Western Europe continues. Nearly 10 thousand people have reached Austria in the past 24 hours, another 2 thousand entered Croatia while over one thousand crossed the border into Slovenia. Budapest has accused Croatia of violating international law concerning asylum-seekers after the later sent numerous migrants over the border without registration. The migrants went from Croatia to Hungary and then to Austria. Meanwhile the Romanian authorities are preparing for the arrival of some refugees staging a response and intervention exercise in the county of Timis, western Romania, close to the Serbian border, where scores of tents have been mounted.
Greeks are expected to the polls today to cast their vote in snap legislative election. According to opinion polls the former Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprass far-left Syriza and the right-wing New Democracy led by Vangelis Meimarakis are running neck in neck. Both Tsipras and Meimarakis have pledged to carry on the fiscal reforms asked by international lenders, the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank at the same time implementing measures to offset the austerity impact. 14 parties and five coalitions are running in the present legislative election in Greece.
