"We do not share the same views, in my opinion at this moment, an approchement between Romania and the Visegrad group is not realistic, not to mention that within the Visegrad group there are basically two camps that are increasingly divergent with regards to the future of the European Union,and the way things go in the EU in general," Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday.

Romanian PM Mihai Tudose said in Varna, Bulgaria on Tuesday that he believed that Romania and Bulgaria would be part of the Schengen area within a year, as the two states offer the European Union one of the most secure border police, according to News.ro news agency. At the same time, according to Agerpres, Tudose said that Romania and Bulgaria are "two oases of stability and safety for the citizen on the street".

Minority ethnic groups, security energy and infrastructure were among the issues discussed by Hungarian minister Peter Szijjarto and his Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu in a meeting in Cluj on Monday. It has been said that the Hungarian government considered it possible to create a fast rail link to connect Budapest and Bucharest via Cluj. The two ministers also said it was in the interest of each side that Romania should have tighter ties with the Visegrad countries, according to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet, quoted by RADOR agency.

In an interview with the Romanian public TV station, Cardinal Sandri, the Vatican’s Prefect for Oriental Churches, has praised he Ukrainian Greek-Catholic clergy for “working for progress and freedom of a sovereign country in Europe”.

The official ceremony due to mark the start of works at the Deveselu installation, the Romanian leg of the US missile shield, takes place on Monday. It is due to be attended by President Traian Basescu, Defense minister Mircea Dusa, Foreign Ministry state secretary Bogdan Aurescu, NATO deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and US Deputy Secretary of Defense James Miller.

Tuesday, 17.09.2013. Olympiakos vs Paris Saint Germain in football for Champions League. After the game, somewhere in the metropolitan area of Athens - Attica, at Amfiali, people start quarreling. Soon some tens of them start chasing 4. All of a sudden, a car arrives, driving opposite through a one way direction street. One of its passengers catches one of the 4 and after a fight he stabs him 3 times. The poor man died in few minutes' time, in the hands of his girlfriend, waiting for the ambulance to pick him up.

Romanian President Traian Basescu has demanded "imperatively" a significant rise in allocations for direct payments to Romanian farmers, during his talks with European Council president Herman Van Rompuy on Thursday, European sources told HotNews.ro. The talks come as EU leaders start marathon talks in an attempt to reach a compromise on the EU's 2014-2020 budget, with Germany and others saying they would not dismiss the possibility of failure.
UPDATE A new proposal pushed by Herman Van Rompuy is even more radical than the previous one, which called for an E80 billion cut. European sources told HotNews.ro that the head of the European Council has now proposed a EU budget cut of E200 billion - the amount demanded by Britain. The reduction would be applied to European Commission proposed budget of E1,047 billion.

Romania's prime minister Victor Ponta said in a press conference on Thursday that European Council president Herman Van Rompuy's proposal to reduce the money allocated for Europe's common agricultural policy and cohesion funds in the EU 2014-2020 budget was unacceptable. He said Romania may go as far as to use its veto right in the case.

"Romania needs to build on this record of success, to implement the remaining reforms under the benchmarks and to establish a clear, sustainable and irreversible track record of tackling corruption", UK Ambassador to Romania Martin Harris writes on his blog. "Romania's politicians, of all parties, have a particular responsibility. The Parliament needs to put its own house in order. It is extraordinary that convicted felons can still sit as MPs", he writes.

Europe is essential to every Member State's position in the modern world, "but I do not think we are heading in one single direction, for example to become a United States of Europe", says Lord Alan Watson, a member of the House of Lords.

A litigation between Romania and Bulgaria over a Black Sea area, announced by Romania Foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu on Tuesday evening, relates to an area of about 400 square kilometers. What is the stake of bringing the issue back to light, as diplomatic negotiations about it started as early as 1994? Bulgaria is negotiating with ExxonMobil to leave the area for ExxonMobil attempts to discover hydrocarbon deposits, diplomatic sources have told HotNews.ro.

The Schengen enlargement has been included on the agenda of the European summit on March 1-2, according to a letter of the European Council president published in Brussels on Wednesday. The issue - which practically means the Dutch opposition to the Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria - was introduced unexpectedly on the agenda of a summit which was to focus mainly on the Fiscal Treaty. The change comes a day after Romania flexed its muscle on Serbia at negotiations over giving the Balkan country the statute of a EU candidate country. The only Romanian official to connect the two issues, Schengen and Serbia, was Romanian Environment minister Laszlo Borbely.

Romanian President Traian Basescu met the heads of diplomatic missions to Bucharest on Thursday. In his first speech since demonstrations against him and the government started in Romania last week, he said nothing about the protests but focused on the country's international affairs priorities. "2011 was a difficult year in which the economic, financial, humanitarian and sometimes political crises challenged governments and the people", he said.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Friday that a Dutch decision to oppose Romania' and Bulgaria's Schengen accession was an "abuse". "Romania has Albita [Eastern border point], they have Rotterdam. The gate for trafficked cigarettes, alcohol and drugs is not Albita", the Romanian head of state said in Brussels, where he attends the European Council.

The most important thing in Cuba is still the necessity to find ways to survive, mostly by taking part in illegal activities ranging from corruption through sex trafficking to various kinds of illicit deeds not thought of by even the most experienced observers.

Cuban workers are virtually defenseless. The reason is that the labour law offices in Cuban work centres, which are supposed to defend worker's rights, are but an extended arm of the government and the Communist Party.

Romania and Israel are interested in developing joint infrastructure, energy and agricultural projects, Romanian PM Emil Boc said in a press conference with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, on the margins of an inter-governmental meeting in Jerusalem. Iran, Middle East relations and links between Israel and Romania featured prominently during the talks.

Libya, Afghanistan and the missile defense shield were the key issues covered in top NATO and Romanian officials at the Alliance's Parliamentary Assembly on Monday. While Europe had strong military forces, the gap between the US and its allies has widened for the past years and in Libya, European allies and Canada had most troops contributions but based their activities on US command capacities and essential units, said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. On the missile defense, Romanian President Traian Basescu said for his part that his country has never asked for or received anti-missile guarantees from anybody and had an obligation to obtain them by themselves through partnerships with allies.

The Republic of Moldova has a strategic interest in the AGRI project due to bring natural gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Romania, Moldova prime minister said in an interview with HotNews.ro. He also said that early elections would be catastrophic for his country, 5+2 negotiations over Transdniester and dismissed the possibility to bring the communists in the Moldovan government.

Spoken by spouses, by relatives, by children barely recalling their mother of father who died ten years ago, the names of the thousands of victims of the 9/11 terrorists attacks are the many names of America today. They are the names of America because America has shown again, by remembering the most grievous of tragedies in its recent history, that it knows to honor its dead, average people or heroes with impressive stories. They are the names of America because the force of this nation consists, among others, of the miraculous gift of no-names to give birth to heroes any given time. They are the names of America, those who united a whole nation these days in a very special effort of mindfulness: by properly honoring the past, their eyes on tomorrow.