President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă in New York
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is in New York for the opening session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday when US President Donald Trump is expected to deliver his traditional speech. However, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă is also in New York with a different agenda. Ms. Dăncilă is expected to meet US Energy Secretary Rick Perry before signing a € 500 million loan agreement with the World Bank. The money is supposed to ease access to the country’s health system in poorest regions. President Iohannis and his wife Carmen will also attend a reception on Tuesday evening when Mr. Trump and First Lady Melania will honour the visiting heads of state and government currently in New York for the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.
A Romanian in EC”s future media relations team
Dana Spinanţ is the future deputy chief spokesperson of the European Commission. The announcement was made by EC President-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Monday. Ms. Spinanţ will be the deputy of the French Eric Mamer who was nominated as chief spokesperson of the EC. Romanian Dana Spinanţ is currently director in charge of budget, communication and general affairs in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. Before that, she was a head of unit in charge of irregular migration (2015-2017) and of drugs policy (2010-2014). Prior to joining the Commission, Dana Spinanţ worked for 15 years in journalism.
Seven candidates for Romania”s presidency
Seven candidates are officialy running for president in Romania’s presidential elections due in November. The country’s Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) checked and validated candidacies of Klaus Iohannis (currently President of Romania), Viorica Dăncilă (Prima Minister and leader of the governing Social Democratic Party – PSD), Teodor Paleologu, candidate of the People’s Movement Party (PMP), Kelemen Hunor (leader of the Democratic Union of Ethinc Hungarians in Romania – UDMR), Dan Barna (leader of the Save Romania Union), Mircea Diaconu, an actor and former MEP, and Viorel Cataramă, a businessman rejected by BEC and then accepted eventually. Judges rejected six candidates for legal reasons. First round of Romania’s presidential elections is due on November 10 with a second round on November 24.
Censure motion delayed
Leaders of Romania’s opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) decided to delay until next week a censure motion against the government of Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă as talks between opposition parties in parliament were still going on. The document was already signed by MPs of the Save Romania Union (USR), the People’s Movement Party (PMP), the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), Pro Romania party, national minorities other than the Hungarian community and 20 MPs who left the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the junior party who recently left the governing coalition. PNL leader Ludovic Orban told reporters his party made the decision as it wanted to collect more than 233 signatures in support of the document. Meanwhile, three ALDE senators moved to the governing PSD while ten others went to the Pro Europe, a group in Romania’s lower house led by former PM Victor Ponta.
Alexandru Danga, RADOR
