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| The Week in Review 16-21/05/2011 |
| (2011-05-20) |
| Last updated: 2011-05-23 13:58 EET |
Possible fractures in the government coalition in Bucharest
Tensions occurred in the governing coalition between the Liberal Democrats and the Ethnic Hungarian Union when the lower chamber of the Romanian parliament slipped through a bill which exempted schools from teaching geography and history in ethnic minority languages. The Hungarian political body accused their Liberal Democratic partners of negligence, and asked the party leadership to direct the Senate to counteract this measure.
The Hungarian discontent on this issue was caused by the fact that they believe the Romanian parliament procrastinates when it comes to bills they consider essential to their platform, and on which the continuation of this coalition hinges as far as they are concerned. Polls indicate that the Social Democratic and National Liberal opposition coalition might get half of the popular vote if elections were held today.
This may motivate the ethnic Hungarian formation to withdraw their support from the Liberal Democrats, which might place them in a possible Social Democratic slash National Liberal government in the near future. The president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, does not wish to create a political crisis in Romania, and therefore stated that his organization is not leaving the government coalition.
Romania has temporarily closed down its embassy in Tripoli
As the security situation in Libya deteriorates, Romania has decided to temporarily close down its embassy in Tripoli and to recall home its entire staff. At the same time, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a recommendation to Romanian citizens to avoid any trip to Libya for any reason.
At the same time, it has issued a statement aimed at its citizens already in that country to leave it at the earliest opportunity. The Romanian citizens on Libyan territory were directed to ask for diplomatic services from other EU member states representations, from countries such as Hungary and Cyprus, who still hold functioning offices in Tripoli.
They can also rely on assistance from the International Red Cross, or they can contact the Consular Relations Department of the Romanian Foreign Ministry.
Ukrainian foreign minister Konstantin Grishenko visits Bucharest
After two years, Romania and Ukraine on Wednesday resumed foreign minister level talks on sensitive issues that earlier led to a cooling of bilateral relations. Ukraine’s foreign minister Konstantin Grishenko arrived in Bucharest at the invitation of his counterpart Teodor Baconschi for talks with Romanian officials about the creation of equal European rights for both the Romanian ethnic community in Ukraine and the Ukrainian ethnic community in Romania.
Talks also tackled the stage of negotiations on the situation at the Krivoy Rog plant, where Romania has invested a significant amount of money. Another issue discussed was the agreement between Bucharest and Washington on the installation of interceptors in Romania as part of an American missile defence system. The Ukrainian minister said his country wants to hold talks on this issue both with Romania and the US.
Romania wants Serbia to treat its Romanian ethnics better
The Parliament in Bucharest will not ratify the agreement on Serbia’s association to the EU unless Belgrade agrees to talks on the rights of the ethnic Romanians in Serbia. This statement was made by the head of the foreign policy committee in the Romanian Senate, Titus Corlatean, during talks with representatives of the Romanian community in the Timoc Valley, Serbia, who speak about pressures and intimidations from the Belgrade authorities.
Titus Corlatean: “We preferred to hold talks through a parliamentary channel, but this dialogue has been denied to us so far. We will raise this problem during the talks about the ratification of Serbia’s stabilisation and association with the European Union. I would like to make one thing clear, namely this agreement will not be ratified unless the Serbian authorities become available to dialogue and more receptive to the problems and needs of their own citizens even they belong to a different ethnic group, in this case Romanian.”
The approximately 350,000 Romanians in Timoc live in 154 entirely Romanian villages and 48 mixed villages, have two churches but no school and have no access to education in the Romanian language.
Bucharest continues efforts to speed up the process of joining the Schengen area
Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Baconschi, has made an official visit to Budapest, at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart, Janos Martonyi. The two officials have approached such issues, as Romanian-Hungarian cooperation, laying special emphasis on joint projects regarding energy infrastructure and transports.
They also tried to identify ways to boost two way trade exchanges and to diversify mutual investment. Janos Martonyi has given assurances that Hungary , which is holding the EU rotating presidency, makes efforts to obtain a favorable decision for Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession, which had been initially scheduled for this past March, but which was postponed because of some objections brought by several member states.
In order to reach this goal, namely to join the Schengen area, the Romanian government has decided to set up a Coast Guard. Interior minister, Traian Igas, says Romania is thus in line with the European practices regarding sea borders.
Eurostat issues worrying statistics on the Romanian economy
April was the ninth consecutive month when Romania registered the highest annual inflation rate in the EU, namely 8.4%, estimates made public by the European Statistics Office, Eurostat, show. Romania ranks first also in terms of the median price hike in the past year, of 7.2%. As regards the trade deficit in the first two months of the year, Romania ranks 10th, with 600 million Euros.
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