June 28, 2014 UPDATE

A look at some of the main headlines in Romania today.

România Internațional, 28.06.2014, 13:01

Romania’s president Traian Basescu on Saturday signed the decrees for the ratification by Parliament of the association and free trade agreements between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia signed on Friday in Brussels. Also on Saturday, the government in Bucharest approved in an extraordinary meeting the bills for the ratification of these agreements. Parliament will meet at the beginning of July to ratify the documents.

Klaus Iohannis is the new leader of the National Liberal Party, the main right-wing opposition party in Romania. A mayor of the central city of Sibiu, he was elected at the party congress held on Saturday. Iohannis said he wished the National Liberal Party to be successful in the presidential elections in autumn and the parliamentary elections in 2016. The party congress also saw the signing of two political documents, one on the merger between the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, the second largest centre-right opposition party in Romania, and the other on the Liberals’ joining the European People’s Party in the European Parliament. Last February, the National Liberal Party walked out of its alliance with the Social Democrats and withdrew from the government.

The European Parliament congratulated Radio Romania for its support in informing the public about the European elections held in May. A message conveyed by the European Parliament writes that the public radio station in Romania had a significant contribution to increasing public knowledge about the European elections, providing constant news about the European Union, Romania’s position within the European Union and the role of the European Parliament, and broadcasting news of European interest on its national and regional stations.

The Transylvania International Film Festival continued on Saturday in the central city of Sibiu with the screening of All Is Lost starring Robert Redford. Every evening, a Romanian production is shown on a screen set up in Sibiu’s historical centre, along with recent titles such as Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel and Andrew Adamson’s Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away. Film lovers in Sibiu also have the chance to watch the winner of the 2014 Transylvania Film Festival, Stockholm, by the Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen and the winner of the festival’s Romanian Film Section, Corneliu Porumboiu’s documentary The Second Game.