October 25, 2013
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România Internațional, 25.10.2013, 12:34
Romanian football side Pandurii Targu Jiu was outperformed on Thursday three-nil by Italian eleven Fiorentina in an away match counting towards the third leg of the Europa League’s group E. After three games Pandurii have only one point in a group, which also includes the Portuguese from Pacos Fereira and the Ukrainian side Dniepropetrovsk. Romania’s football champions Steaua Bucharest has also one point, they got on Tuesday night against the Swiss from FC Basel in a Champions League match.
Military and religious ceremonies are staged all over Romania and at the barracks of our troops deployed to various operation theatres abroad every year on October 25th to celebrate Romanian Army Day. Defence minister Mircea Dusa is in Carei, in the northwest, the last part of the Romanian territory to be freed from the occupation of Nazi and Hungarian troops. October 25th is also the birthday of Romania’s former sovereign king Mihai the 1st, who at 92 is the only surviving head of state since World War Two.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta is holding talks in Bucharest with financial experts from a troika made up of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission about fiscal measures and the budget next year. The joint financial delegation is in Bucharest to assess the latest agreement concluded with Romania in September. Under this precautionary agreement, Romania gets access to 4 billion euros, of which 2 billion from the European Commission. Until November 5th, the financial experts will meet officials and representatives of the political parties, trade unions, business associations, banks and civil society organizations.
The controversial code of insolvency, adopted by the Romanian government in early October has come into effect today. The Constitutional Court is to discuss on October 29th an Ombusdman notification, which contested some of the code’s provisions. The code was the subject of a simple motion tabled by the two main opposition parties, the center-rightist Liberal-Democrats and the populists People’s Party. The initiators have termed the new code as an unprecedented attack against the liberty of press and the business environment. The motion has been turned down by the deputies and Prime Minister Victor Ponta says the law was meant to effectively fight fiscal evasion and unpaid state budget revenues.
In a phone talk with Romania’s president Traian Basescu, US vice-president Joe Biden has appreciated Romania’s involvement in political and military projects concerning international security. In turn, the Romanian president said the bilateral relations represent one of the best guarantees for Romania’s security and for the regional stability. President Basescu and Vice-president Joe Biden have also tackled the participation of the Romanian military in Afghanistan and the installation of elements of the US anti-missile shield on the Romanian territory. We’ll revert to the topic after the news.
On Sunday, October the 27th, Romania will revert to Standard Time or so-called wintertime. Clocks are to be set an hour back, four o’clock will thus become three o’clock. This is meant to offset daylight savings time in spring, when clocks are adjusted in order to make the most of daylight and curb electricity consumption. The move will not alter the present railway timetable, and trains will arrive and depart according to the standard time schedule. 70 other countries are also reverting to standard time. The method was first applied in 1916 by several countries in Europe, and was adopted by Romania in 1931.
Heads of state and government from EU countries are today, on the second day of the autumn proceedings in Brussels, debating on several major issues such as migration and the supervision of the EU’s foreign borders, three weeks after a boat with immigrants shipwrecked close to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Yesterday, the European Council president Herman van Rompuy, announced the decision of Germany and France to hold private talks with the United States for an accord on the activity of secret services. The initiative comes after the US secret services were discovered to have been monitoring the phone talks of German chancellor Angela Merkel as well as millions of phone calls in France. Romania is being represented at the EU summit by its president Traian Basescu.
