March 24, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Valentin Țigău, 24.03.2014, 12:00
The situation in Crimea is the most significant security threat for Romania after 1989, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said during a television programme. However, the Romanian official added that this situation represents an opportunity for the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority, to come closer to NATO and the EU. Kiev announced on Monday that Ukraine decided to pull out its troops from Crimea, but Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia says the risk of a war between Russia and Ukraine is increasing due to the massive military buildup at the eastern border. ‘Russia may have opened Pandora’s Box with its attempt to redraw national borders in Europe’, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the end of his visit to Ukraine. In another development an IMF mission has called on Kiev to impose austerity measures, with emphasis on cutting natural gas subsidies. Ukraine needs at least 15 billion dollars in loans so that it may avoid bankruptcy.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has today announced that over 230 thousand pensioners will get pensions higher by 14 euros by the end of March. The rise comes following the latest adjustment and the extra points that have been added to the pensions of those who retired after 2011. The Prime Minister has admitted though that the pensions are still small and cannot cover the needs of the pensioners, but the economy must recover after the recession between 2009 and 2011.
In Bucharest, the opposition National-Liberal Party and UDMR, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, currently part of the ruling coalition have today made public the lists with their candidates running in the EU Parliament election due on May 25th. The ruling alliance, made up of the Social-Democrats, the Conservatives, the National Union for the Progress of Romania as well as the Democrat-Liberals in the opposition have already made public their candidates. Romania has 32 seats in the European Parliament, one less than in the current outgoing legislature. Romania is one of the 12 states of the Union that has to give an MEP seat to newcomer Croatia.
Amid profound distrust in the socialist government, the far-right wing in France, represented by the National Front on Sunday got an unexpected 7% in the first round of the municipal election, France Press reports. According to a poll published by French daily Le Parisien, the right will get a slightly higher progress, standing at 48%, while the left, with 43%, will be facing an election setback. Absenteeism has reached a record high of 35%, France Press reports.
Serbia has today commemorated 15 years since the NATO bombardments on its territory, aimed at forcing Belgrade to cease its reprisals against Albanian separatists in Kosovo. On March 24th 1999, without an agreement from the UN Security Council, NATO warplanes launched their first bombs on Serbia; the operation ended in June with the pullout of Serbian troops from Kosovo, a territory later placed under UN administration. According to Belgrade almost 25 hundred civilians were killed and 12500 wounded. In 2008, Kosovo proclaimed its independence, which was later recognized by 100 states. Romania is among the countries that haven’t recognized the independence of this province. In 2013 Serbia and Kosovo signed a historic accord, brokered by Brussels, for normalizing their relations.
