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| The Week in Review |
| (2011-10-15) |
| Last updated: 2011-10-17 14:00 EET |
Bucharest has hosted the annual NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
350 members of parliament from the 28 NATO member countries and delegates from associated and observer countries met for four days in Bucharest for their annual conference on international security. The most sensitive topic on the table was the European anti-ballistic defense shield, and Russia’s repeated calls for guarantees that it is not targeted against it. All the players involved, the US, NATO, as well as Romania, a country that will host elements of the defense shield, have said that the system is purely defensive, meant to counter the Iranian ballistic missile threat.
Here is President Traian Basescu speaking about this issue: “The speculations being circulated and some people’s wish to amplify and question Romania’s good faith only show a lack of willingness to cooperate. Romania is installing a defensive system”.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also commented on the issue:
“We have two independent missile systems: a Russian system and a NATO system, two different systems, but with a common purpose, and we would be prepared to make that common purpose visible through the establishment of two centers that would constitute the framework for the exchange of data, preparation of common exercises, the elaboration of joint threat assessments, and we do believe that such cooperation would make the whole system more effective from a military point of view, and at the same time it would clearly demonstrate to the Russians that our missile defense is not directed against Russia. Russia has requested guarantees; my answer is that the first guarantee it would ever get would be to actually cooperate with us, because that would provide transparency, and you could see with your own eyes that it’s not directed against you.”
According to Rasmussen, the American anti ballistic missile shield, which will belong to the Alliance after the Chicago summit of 2012, is a commitment to security. The NATO official said that he expected other states to join the defense system, just like Romania, Turkey, Poland and Spain.
Bucharest has hosted the first joint session of the governments of Romania and Bulgaria.
Bucharest on Wednesday hosted the first joint session of the governments of Romania and Bulgaria, where the two signed a number of agreements in various areas, such as transportation, the environment, energy, infrastructure and tourism. The two prime ministers, Emil Boc and Boiko Borisov, signed a joint statement for Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area, in which they called on the EU to examine the issue at the European Council this month and find an acceptable solution for the two countries to join the free circulation zone as soon as possible.
The European Parliament passes a new resolution supporting Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession.
The European Parliament has passed by a wide majority a resolution supporting Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area. Even though it has no legal bearing, the parliament urges all member states to accept the entry of the two states in the free circulation area, to avoid national populism, and to make the decision exclusively based on agreed upon criteria. According to the document, the second after the one in June, both countries comply with technical criteria. Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession, initially scheduled for March this year, was postponed once again in September after Holland and Finland opposed it. They accounted for their decision by claiming that the two countries did not do enough in reforming their legal systems and fighting organized crime.
Ion Diaconescu, a key figure in the anti-communist resistance, has passed away.
Power and Opposition politicians, cultural personalities, friends, party colleagues and former fellow prisoners have paid tribute to Ion Diaconescu, a former anti-communist fighter and a leading figure of the right wing in post-communist Romania. The former Christian Democratic leader passed away on Tuesday, at 94 years of age. Political friends and opponents alike said Ion Diaconescu would remain a symbol of anti-communist dissidence and a landmark for the morality of the Romanian society. He joined the National Peasant Party in 1936. He was arrested in 1947 and was detained in communist prisons for 17 years. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Diaconescu contributed to the re-launching the National Christian Democratic Peasant Party, which he ran between 1995 and 2000. Between 1996 and 2000, he headed the Romanian Democratic Convention, a right-wing alliance in power at that time. Diaconescu always pleaded for the full restitution of property, the removal of former communist activists from all public offices, the return to monarchy and a moral reform of society.
Russian corporation Gazprom Neft wants to do business in Romania.
The Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc Thursday received a delegation of the Russian group Gazprom Neft, the oil division of the energy giant Gazprom. The company announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of Euros in Romania by 2015. The talks took place after the Romanian Economy Minister, Ion Ariton, made a visit to Moscow recently, where he talked to managers of Gazprom, Lukoil and Mechel. The latter two companies are already operating in the Romanian market.
Romanian athletes win international competitions in table tennis and fencing.
The Romanian women's table tennis team Wednesday won silver in the European Championship in Gdansk (Poland), after they were defeated in the final by the Netherlands, 0-3. The Romanian tennis players thus repeated the performance of last year's European Championship, when the Dutch athletes outperformed them in the final. Meanwhile, Romanian fencers Ana Maria Branza and Anca Maroiu won bronze medals in the individual event of the World Fencing Championships in Catania, southern Italy.
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