June 17, 2019 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 17.06.2019, 19:28

CONCLUSIONS The EU Council on Monday adopted a series
of conclusions concerning the EU’s commitment towards regional cooperation in
the Black Sea area during the proceedings of the Foreign Affairs Council in
Luxembourg where Romania was represented by its Foreign Minister Teodor
Melescanu. The Council has reiterated its long-term commitment to promoting
prosperity, stability and resilience in the Black Sea area. The Council has
underlined the increasingly strategic importance of the Black Sea region for
the EU calling for the union’s firmer involvement in regional cooperation
having as foundation the Black Sea Synergy. At the same time the Council
remains concerned about the security challenges in the Black Sea. In this
context, it reiterates that international law observance, including the
principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the UN
Convention on the law of the sea, including the freedom of navigation as well
as observance of the EU’s political decisions and its non-recognition policy
for Crimea are instrumental in the EU’s approach to regional cooperation in the
Black Sea.

MOTION MPs in Bucharest on Tuesday are
expected to debate upon and vote a censure motion the opposition tabled against
the PSD-ALDE coalition government. According to the document, Romania urgently
needs a government with a pro-European vision focused on the country’s
development priorities like education, health, public investment and attracting
European funds. The signatories of the motion – the National Liberal Party, the
Save Romania Union, the People’s Movement Party and the Democratic Union of
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, say the executive led by the Social-Democratic
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila must be sacked for the way in which they staged
the European Parliament election abroad and for repeatedly trying to issue
emergency ordinances in the justice field. The ordinance needs 233 votes to
pass and the initiators also needs the support of ProRomania Party led by the
country’s former Social Democratic Prime Minister Victor Ponta, from the
national minorities as well as votes from the ruling coalition. The incumbent
Prime Minister, who is also the interim president of the Social Democrats, has
called on the latter to attend the debates to ensure the quorum but to abstain
from voting.

MAYOR Romanian-born musician Octavian Ursu
has become the Christian-Democratic mayor of the German city of Gorlitz after
defeating in the second round of the local election Sebastian Wippel a former
policeman, representative of the Alternative for Germany. The Romanian mustered
55% of the votes in the second round of the election. Ursu, 51, graduated from
the Music Conservatory in Bucharest and left for Germany where he got hired at
the Gorlitz philharmonics as a soloist. In 2009, he enlisted with Angela
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and in 2010 he took over the municipal constituency
in Gorlitz. In 2014 he got elected in the legislature of the Federal State of
Saxony. The Romanian got support from celebrities from Germany and abroad who
signed a petition urging the citizens to vote against ‘hatred and hostility,
isolation and discord. Famous movies like ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and ‘Monuments
Men’ have been shot in Gorlitz.

CARS
Over two thirds of the cars registered in Romania in the first five months of the
year are second-hand purchases. According to the National Directorate for
Licenses and Registration out of the 240 thousand vehicles registered in
Romania since January until the end of May, only 60 thousand are new vehicles.
Nevertheless, the number of new vehicles registered in this period is 20%
higher than the similar period of 2018. The so-called Rabla programme has
significantly contributed to this increase as under this programme 30 thousand
people have so far benefitted from bonuses to scrap their old vehicles. The
Romanians’ mostly preferred brands are the local Dacia, followed by Volkswagen,
Skoda, Renault and Ford. At the end of last year Romania had over 8 million
vehicles registered, 7% higher than in 2017.

(translated by bill)