October 6, 2016
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Newsroom, 06.10.2016, 12:00
BUCHAREST FORUM – High-ranking officials, representatives of the business sector and global experts are today taking part in the 2016 Bucharest Forum conference, the largest-scale international public event devoted to geopolitics and geoeconomics hosted every year by Romania. This years topic is “A Fulcrum of Strategic Changes. The event brings together over 350 participants from Europe, America, the Black Sea region, the Caucasus and Central Asia, including the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu. The 2016 Bucharest Forum is organized by the Aspen Institute of Romania and the Bucharest branch of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, with support from the Romanian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
MEETING – The Romanian Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc is today holding talks in Bucharest with his Dutch counterpart Jeanine Hennis, whos on an official visit to Romania. The agenda for talks will focus on migration, NATO operations and security in the Black Sea region, in the context of a growing Russian military presence in the region. The two officials will also sign a letter of intent on expanding cooperation between the Romanian and the Dutch military. The Dutch official is also giving an address at the Bucharest Security Forum.
UN – The UN Security Council is today officially voting on the appointment of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres as the new UN Secretary General. Aged 67, Guterres on Wednesday got 13 of the 15 votes of the Security Council, at the end of a selection process started in July and comprising six rounds of voting. Politician and career diplomat Antonio Guterres was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees until last December. His candidacy needs to be formally adopted by the members of the UN General Assembly, comprising representatives of 193 countries and territories. The former Portuguese Prime Minister will thus replace the current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, whose second term in office ends on December 31, 2016.
BANKING – During the five months since the give-in-payment law came into force, the National Bank of Romania has reported over 5,300 cases of applications. Of these, 70% were challenged in court by representatives of the lending institutions, who claim that there have been cases where people decided to hand their homes over to the bank simply because they got tired of paying their rates. Banks say some 62% of credits are 90 days overdue, with the exception of some 2,000 credit holders whose outstanding debt is shorter than 90 days. On October 11 the Constitutional Court will examine the constitutionality appeal filed by several banks who have been notified by their clients regarding the giving-in-payment of their real estate properties. We recall that under this law, people with outstanding credit debt can hand over their homes to the bank in exchange for having their debt written off.
EBCG – The European Border and Coast Guard is today being inaugurated on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, to better protect the EUs external borders and to boost unity when dealing with migration challenges. The European leaders have symbolically chosen this border for the setup of the new agency, which is a rework of the FRONTEX agency. The Bulgarian-Turkish border is an important point of crossing for the migrants heading to Europe via the Mediterranean. The new European agency is designed to assist countries with most migrant arrivals in the case of a massive flow of asylum-seekers. The new structure will have its own border police staff and will be able to use an additional 1,500 staff on standby provided by member states. The setup of the new agency was accelerated in order to play down criticism over the EUs lack of action in this matter.
TENNIS – Romanian tennis player WTA 5th ranked Simona Halep is today playing Shuai Zhang, 36 WTA, in the round of 16 at the WTA tournament in Beijing, totaling some 5,5 million dollars in prize money. In the only direct encounter with the Chinese player this year Halep lost 0-2 in the opening round at the Australian Open. In the event she qualifies to the quarterfinals, Halep will next play Johanna Konta of Great Britain, who knocked out Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the round of 16.
FOOTBALL – Romanias national team is training for the away games against Armenia, on October 8, and Kazakhstan on October 11, as part of the 2018 World Cup preliminaries. Last month Romania drew 1-all on home turf, the first match with German coach Cristoph Daum on the bench. In other Group E fixtures, Denmark won 1-nil against Armenia at home, while Poland drew 2-all against Kazakhstan away from home. Romania will also play Poland on November 11.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
