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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW (29.01- 4.02.2007) |
| (2007-02-03) |
| Last updated: 2007-02-03 17:45 EET |
|
First let’s take a look at the past week’s highlights: - On Wednesday President Traian Basescu spoke before the European Parliament for the first time since Romania joined the EU - Romania and Poland are allies both within NATO and the EU, said Polish President Lech Kaczynski at the end of his visit to Bucharest- French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has paid an official visit to Bucharest -The Democratic Party has announced it will run on separate lists in the May 13th election for the European Parliament - The cofounder of the Microsoft IT giant, American billionaire Bill Gates, on Thursday inaugurated the Global Centre for Microsoft Technical Support in Bucharest. Romanian president Traian Basescu on Wednesday spoke before the European Parliament for the first time since Romania joined the EU. In his speech delivered in Brussels, President Basescu underlined that accession was not synonymous with integration and Romania had still a lot to do to bridge the gap separating it from the rest of the European countries. In his opinion, integration should be backed up first and foremost by the country’s economic growth, by efficient institutions, a credible and independent judiciary, upright civil servants, an infrastructure in line with European standards and a clean environment. The Romanian President reiterated Bucharest’s support for the moves by the EU’s German presidency related to the European constitution, the energy policy and the neighbourliness policy. He said he advocated the defusing of the constitutional crisis and a joint European energy policy. President Basescu underscored that Romania, which is securing 2,070 kms of the EU’s external border, would contribute to bringing the Union nearer to its neighbours in the West Balkans and the ex-Soviet space. The Romanian head of state met with the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who called on Romania to adapt to the EU requirements and carry on with the reforms. Moreover, Barroso urged Bucharest to improve its capacity to absorb community funds worth 32 billion euros, which Romania will receive in the coming years. Romania and Poland are allies both within NATO and the EU, but the two countries’ alliance goes further back, said Polish president Lech Kaczynski, fresh from the meeting he had in Bucharest on Friday with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu. The Romanian president pointed out that Bucharest and Warsaw generally agreed on common issues regarding the EU. The two officials talked about the EU Constitutional Treaty, which Romania ratified together with another 17 European states. President Basescu said that, in order to unblock the Treaty, the stance taken by France, Holland, Poland and other states that have not yet ratified the treaty, should be taken into account. The two presidents also talked about regional co-operation and the situation in the Serb province of Kosovo, the West Balkans, Ukraine and the Black Sea area. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who paid an official visit to Bucharest, agreed with his Romanian counterpart, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, that Romania and France would work together on the big European political issues and would meet regularly to look into projects of common interest. An accord was also concluded on protecting and repatriating unprivileged Romanian children residing in France. These are children running the risk of abuse, exploitation and delinquency. Also on the agenda of the talks were economic issues, given that France is Romania’s third largest trade partner and investor. “Fare well, but I’m sticking with you” is how we could entitle this week’s episode in the series of differences creating a rift between the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Party, making up the ruling governing coalition in Romania. The Democratic Party announced it would run separately in the May the 13th elections for the European Parliament. As initiators of this separation, which they claim is merely temporary, the Democrats invoked the argument of belonging to a different European family than the Liberals. Here’s Democrat leader, Emil Boc: “The decisive and fundamental argument was the Democratic Party’s membership of the European People’s Party group and the wish to consolidate the status of the Democratic Party as a full fledged member of the European People’s Party. The protocol of the alliance allows us to make any decision, and the alliance will go on”. In reply, Liberal leader PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu labelled the Democrats’ gesture as “a blow under the Alliance’s belt” saying that it has gone into clinical death. Nevertheless, both the Liberals and the Democrats say that in the future domestic elections they will stick together to promote the orange alliance. The co-founder of the Microsoft IT giant, American billionaire Bill Gates, inaugurated the Global Centre for Microsoft Technical Support on Thursday in Bucharest; the centre will provide assistance to customers from Romania and other European states. The richest man in the world said he was very happy to visit Romania for the first time and participate in the opening of a centre that would help customers solve important issues. He added that Romania’s entry into the EU gave hopes for increasingly substantial investments, especially in a key sector like IT. Bill gates noted the exceptional skills of Romanian IT experts and drew attention to the 300 Romanians who work for Microsoft’s central office in the US. The opening of the centre coincided with the 10th anniversary of Microsoft’s activity in Romania. On that occasion several software programmes were launched, like Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Part of the security components of the new Microsoft Vista software are based on a 100% Romanian product, Bitdefender, an anti-virus soft used by about 40 million users from 180 countries. Romania’s co-operation with Microsoft started a long time ago, given that back in 2003 the IT giant purchased from Romania the RAV anti-virus application.
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