April 10, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 10.04.2023, 14:03

DEFENSE – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has summoned a meeting of the country’s Higher Defense Council on Tuesday. The security situation in the Black Sea region, triggered by Russia’s aggression on Ukraine and the foreign interferenece in Moldova’s democratic process are on the agenda. The development of the Romanian military aviation will also be discussed.

DIASPORA – Romanian PM Nicolae Ciuca is attending today in Timisoara, western Romania, the opening ceremony of the conference “Smart Diaspora 2023 — Diaspora in higher education, science, innovation and entrepreneurship.” The event includes 38 workshops which around 400 participants from the Diaspora, 550 from Romania and 300 from the member universities of Timisoara Universitara Alliance, are expected to attend. Workshops will be held for four days on topics such as education, psychology, global economy, governance, smart cities, intercultural communication and many others. The guests from the Diaspora come from more than 30 countries, most of them in the EU, but also from the US, Britain, Moldova, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

EDUCATION — The new education laws have reached the Chamber of Deputies for debate. In the case of pre-university education, new mandatory exams have been introduces for the 2nd, 4th and 6th grade students at Language and communication and Math and sciences, while the project for higher education provides for an extension of doctoral studies to 4 years, from 3 at present. The leaders of the ruling coalition (PSD-PNL-UDMR) have promised to adopt the new education laws by the end of the current Parliament session.

HOLY WEEK — Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers all over the world, including Romania, a mostly Orthodox country, have entered the Holy Week, the last week before Easter. Holy Week liturgies are attended by large crowds. Romanian pilgrims have already arrived at the holy places in Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, for the religious service on Easter Sunday, according to the RRI correspondent in Israel. This year, Catholic and Protestant Christians celebrated Easter a week before the Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers. On Sunday, during his traditional Easter message, Pope Francis condemned, before the large crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square of the Vatican, the numerous obstacles in the way of world peace and called on the international community to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine and to all other bloody conflicts in the world.

REPORT – Romania’s trade balance deficit decreased by 5% in the first two months of the year as compared to the same period of 2022, to almost 4.4 billion euros, the National Statistics Institute has announced. In January and February 2023, exports went up by 9% while imports increased by 5.4% as compared with January 1st — February 28th, 2022. The value of trade within the EU represented almost 74% of exports and 73% of imports. (EE)