November 1, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Mihai Pelin, 01.11.2014, 12:00
Radio Romania today celebrates 86 years of existence. On 1st November 1928 the first radio broadcast was aired by what we now know as the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. In the string of the events marking this occasion, Radio Romania’s choirs and orchestras convened on Friday under the baton of Tiberiu Soare for an anniversary concert, which also involved the participation of pianist Horia Mihail. At present the public radio is a structure consisting of three national and nine regional channels, including an international channel broadcasting in 10 foreign languages, in Romanian and the aRomanian dialect.
700 companies from 27 countries have convened in Bucharest to participate until Sunday in the International trade fair of equipment and products in agriculture, horticulture, viticulture and animal husbandry — INDAGRA. Currently at its 19th edition, INDAGRA is the most complex event of its kind aimed at promoting local agriculture and the country’s farming potential, traditional bio products as well as the Romanian wines. For the first time in its existence INDAGRA has hosted the 9th edition of the China — Central and Eastern Europe Summit, with cooperation opportunities and joint project proposals high on the agenda.
Romania’s electorate has only one day left to decide whom to vote for in the presidential election on Sunday when 14 candidates will by vying for the presidential seat. Over 18 million eligible citizens are expected to the polls, but if no candidate hits the required half-plus-one threshold out of the total number of votes, a second election round will be held on November 16th. 18,550 polling stations will be opened in Romania and 294 abroad. According to the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, 3.2 million Romanians are living outside the country, most of them in Italy, Spain and the United States. Under the Constitution, the president is elected for a five-year mandate. The latest presidential election took place in Romania on December 6th 2009.
Berlin, Paris and Kiev have called on Moscow not to recognize the outcome of the elections that are to be staged shortly by the pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine. The self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk boycotted the legislative election held in Ukraine last week, which was won by the pro-European groups and said they would hold their own election. The USA and the international comunity will not recognize the election in the breakaway regions of Ukraine but Moscow said it would. Moscow’s announcement has attracted a lot of criticism from Kiev and the West who said that Russia’s support for the election in the secessionist regions was undermining the peace process meant to put an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has so far caused the death of 4 thousand people.
The new European Commission, chaired by Luxembourg’s former Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, has formally started its mandate today. A 300 billion euros investment plan, the crisis with Russia, trade talks with the United States, the risk of the UK’s coming out of the European Union, are high on the new commission’s agenda. Jean-Claude Juncker replaces Portuguese Jose Manuel Barroso, whose 10 years at the helm of the commission were marked by the EU enlargement process, from 15 to 28 members, and by the Euro zone crisis followed by austerity measures and an upsurge in unemployment. In the new commission, Romania is being represented by Social-Democrat MEP Corina Cretu, commissioner for Regional Policy.
Romania’s national handball side will today take on the representative of Kosovo in Pristina in a game counting towards the preliminaries of the European championship in 2018. Romania secured a 36-24 win in a home game on Wednesday against Kosovo, a handball side at its first game in international competitions. This qualifying group also includes Italy, a team our handballers will be playing in June next year. The winner will qualify for the next stage of the competition. We recall that Romania must play in four qualifying groups in order to make it to the European championships, where it hasn’t played since 1996.
