November 24, 2013
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 24.11.2013, 00:04
BUDGET – The Romanian expert parliamentary committees have approved the draft budget for 2014, which will be submitted to the debate of the joint budget-finance committees. PM Victor Ponta wants the draft budget law to be voted in Parliament by mid December, so that the budget could be applied as of January 1st 2014. Certain fields such as social security, agriculture, healthcare, defense and culture have received supplementary funds. The opposition criticizes the draft budget law, claiming that the majority Social Liberal Union is not willing to consider the amendments proposed by the opposition.
STRIKE — The Sanitas Federation trade unionists in Romanian announced they would go on a 2-hour token strike on Monday morning to draw attention to the under-financing of the healthcare system. The trade unionists are asking, among other things, for 6% of the GDP to be allocated to the healthcare sector. After several rounds of talks with health minister, Eugen Nicolaescu, which had no concrete results, the trade unionists said they were open for resuming dialogue.
COOPERATION — The Chinese PM Li Keqiang will pay a visit to Bucharest early next week to talk with the Romanian officials about the development of bilateral relations. The Chinese PM will also participate in the China- Central and Eastern Europe Economic and Trade Forum to take place on November 26th in Bucharest. The meeting will be attended by almost 1,000 representatives of the private and public sector from many European countries.
IRAN – On Saturday night the world’s great powers — France, Great Britain, the US, Russia, China and Germany- and Iran reached an agreement in Geneva on the Iranian nuclear file. The interim document is considered by all sides a step forward towards solving a prolonged crisis. The American secretary of state, John Kerry, said the agreement would make the world a safer place, pointing out that the text of the agreement did not make any reference to Iran’s right to enrich uranium. The statement follows his Iranian counterpart’s declaration according to which the agreement concluded in Geneva stipulated that Iran could continue to enrich uranium.
GAUDEAMUS BOOK FAIR — Tens of book launches have been scheduled for today in Bucharest at the 20th edition of the Gaudeamus international book fair organized by Radio Romania. Book lovers will have the opportunity to meet the French writer Andre Makine, winner of the Goncourt Prize. The guest of honor of this year’s edition of the book fair is the Group of European Nordic Countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Gaudeamus is considered one of the most important events on the book market in Romania.
