A roundup of domestic and international news
Promulgation. Romania's President Klaus Iohannis has announced he has promulgated the law on judicial organization, after having exhausted all challenge procedures. Still, the head of state has called on the Romanian Parliament to reintroduce the law into the parliamentary circuit as of next autumn. The law is raising many question marks and includes unclear provisions, which lack coherence and predictability, the president has stated. He has also stressed that the justice laws, promoted and endorsed by the left-wing coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, would de facto push Romania far from the European values. We recall that last week, the Venice Commission, in its preliminary opinion, drew attention to the fact that, because of the changes brought to the justice laws, the independence of the Romanian prosecutors and judges becomes questionable.
Forecast. The National Prognosis Commission has revised Romania's economic growth rate for this year down to 5.5% from 6.1% in its previous spring forecast. The inflation rate has been revised up to 3.5% from 3.2% in spring.
Danube Region. Romania and Austria are to host the Secretariat of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, whose re-establishment was decided at a meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Danube Transnational Programme and the member states national coordinators of the EU Strategy, an event held in Split, Croatia. Beginning in September this year, Bucharest and Vienna will open two offices of this body. The EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a high-visibility political project and Romania's first large-scale initiative after joining the European Union. According to a press release published in Bucharest, Romania's presidency of the EU Council in the first part of next year is an opportunity to promote this important framework for macro-regional cooperation on the agenda of the Union and to ensure the necessary financial allocations for the priorities proposed for the EU Strategy for the Danube Region and the other macro-regional strategies.
Prices. In Romania, the price of natural gas for domestic consumers will increase by 6% as of August 1st, the National Energy Regulatory Agency announced on Thursday. Also on Thursday, the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovoci announced that the Government is discussing a draft decision regarding the flattening of the price of natural gas from the domestic production until June 2021. The minister has also stated that he would like the same thing for the price of fuels.
Culture. The Romanian Government on Thursday approved the funding of two big cultural projects, worth a total of 12 million Euros. The two projects are "E-culture: Romania's Digital Library" and "Historical Monuments, Strategic Planning and Optimized Public Policies". Under the E-culture project 550,000 cultural resources will be included in Romania's digital library, and an IT platform for the digital library and a catalogue titled 'culturalia.ro' will be created . Also, some 200,000 cultural resources will be included in the europeana.eu portal. The second project's outcome will be a cultural heritage code, as well as a national strategy concerning the preservation of historical monuments. The projects will benefit from European non-reimbursable funding.
Brexit. The European Commission has called on the EU countries to accelerate preparations for the situation in which Great Britain leaves the union without a clear agreement. The Commission has stated that the failure of negotiations would seriously affect government affairs and travels. The European Commission believes that preparations must be made at all levels, so as to cover all potential consequences, in particular with regard to borders, transport and data transfers.
Broadcasting. Radio Free Europe says it will resume news programs in Bulgaria and Romania in December this year in a bid to consolidate the media landscape in these countries. The station, which is funded by the United States Congress, will carry multi-media reports and analyses in Romanian and Bulgarian and will collaborate with the local media to expand existing projects that promote public accountability and debunk fake news. The station's Romanian language service opened in 1950 and ended in 2008, when Romania had already become a member of the European Union and NATO. Historians view as essential the station's contribution to the erosion and final collapse, in 1989, of the communist dictatorship in Bucharest. The station still has a Romanian language service in the Republic of Moldova. Radio Free Europe broadcasts to 26 million people in 20 different countries with restrictions on media freedom and where professional journalism is not fully developed.
Pop music. 18 singers from 15 different countries will be vying for the Grand Trophy of the Golden Stag Festival to be held in Brasov, central Romania, between the 29th of August and the 2nd of September. The initial line-up was 15, but organizers decided to expand it following great demand. Romania has three representatives, Dora Gaitanovici, Ovidiu Anton and Raluca Blejusca, while the Republic of Moldova is represented by Lidia Isac. The Golden Stag Festival this year celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special edition and 65,000 Euros worth of prizes. The festival will come to an end with a Romania Centenary show featuring traditional Romanian music and contemporary reinterpretations of his genre.
Football. The Romanian football squad Viitorul Constanta on Thursday qualified for the second round of Europa League's preliminaries, after a 0-0 draw in the match against Racing FC Union Luxembourg. In the first match, away from home, the Romanians had won 2-nil. The other teams representing Romania in Europa League are the vice-champion FCSB (formerly known as Steaua Bucharest), which will play in the second round against the Slovenian squad NK Rudar Velenje and the cup winner CSU Craiova, which will play straight into the third preliminary round. Romania's champions CFR Cluj will take on the Swedish team Malmo FF in the second preliminary round of the Champions League.
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