January 27, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 27.01.2025, 13:55
ART THEFT Recovering the golden helmet of Cotofenesti and the three Dacian bracelets of Sarmizegetusa Regia, stolen on Friday night from the Drents Museum in the Dutch city of Assen, is a priority, the Romanian authorities say. The prime minister’s office is checking the culture ministry’s documents under which the artifacts had been sent to the exhibition, and the culture minister Natalia Intotero will meet with the royal family and the prime minister of the Netherlands to convey Bucharest’s firm message that the heritage pieces be recovered as quickly as possible. Romania’s PM Marcel Ciolcu has set up a task force comprising interior ministry, justice and culture ministry officials as well as Romanian police, to manage the retrieval of these items of immeasurable historical value.
BUDGET The leaders of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in the ruling coalition, should meet today for talks on the state budget bill and on means to reduce the deficit to no more than 7% of GDP this year. The original deadline was today, January 27, but the bill could be postponed, as recent trade union protests prompted the ruling parties to announce they are looking for legislative solutions to alter the order underlying the budget law. The alterations, which will be operated in Parliament in the first half of February, concern payment of overtime on weekends or public holidays for employees in the defence, public order and national security system. The coalition would have wanted the budget bill to reach the government this week for approval, and to be sent to Parliament early next month.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS The EU foreign ministers convene today in a Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meeting, with the main topics on the agenda including the war in Ukraine, the Middle East crisis and relations with the US after Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The FAC meeting in Brussels is the first in this format organised under the Polish EU Council presidency, which began on 1 January, and will be chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. It is also the first such meeting attended by Emil Hurezeanu as head of the Romanian diplomacy. The EU ministers will also have informal conference call with their Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Sybiga.
AGRICULTURE The Romanian minister of agriculture, Florin-Ionuţ Barbu, takes part on Monday in the first AgriFish Council meeting of this year, held in Brussels. According to a news release issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), the agenda will concern the programme of the Polish presidency, unfair trading practices and strengthening the position of farmers in the food supply chain, trade and performance verification. The Polish EU Presidency will present its work programme and set out the main priorities in the field of agriculture and fisheries for the next six months. In turn, Member State officials will analyse the necessary revision of the performance verification procedure under the financing rules of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Romanian agriculture ministry explained.
BACCALAUREATE High school senior students in Romania are taking the oral tests in the first session of this year’s Baccalaureate exam starting today. The assessment of communication skills in Romanian takes place until Wednesday, with the oral tests in ethnic minorities’ native languages held over three days, starting on January 29. The foreign language oral tests are scheduled between February 3 and 5, and digital skills will be tested between February 5 and 7. The organisation of these tests during the school year has been criticised by some students, teachers and education experts, especially because high school students must also attend classes during the exam days. The written tests in the Baccalaureate exam begins on May 30 and end on June 30, when the final results are to be announced.
BELARUS The incumbent president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko won the presidential election with 87.6% of the votes, according to an exit poll which also says his 4 opponents received 1-2% of the votes. International media say the elections are intended to give a seventh consecutive term to the authoritarian Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and viewed as the most compliant ally of Putin’s Russia. On the eve of the election, the EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas stated that the regime in Minsk has “no legitimacy” and called the “sham election” an affront to democracy. In turn, MEPs demanded that the results of the Belarus election not be recognized, especially since the previous elections, in 2020, which were very likely rigged, were followed by ruthless repression of protests. According to the UN, more than 300,000 Belarusians out of a total population of nine million have fled their country for political reasons, mainly to neighbouring Poland. There are reportedly over 1,200 political prisoners in Belarus. (AMP)
