Romania impeachment referendum

Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta has pledged not to continue his efforts to oust president Traian Basescu, after he survived an impeachment referendum. 

On Sunday, Ponta had called for Basescu’s resignation. However, his attempt to remove the president has drawn anger from the EU, and the required 50 percent turnout for the ballot did not materialise. 

Of the 46 percent of people who did vote on Sunday, more than 87 percent wanted Basescu out. Both the president and the opposition Democratic Liberal Party had urged people to boycott the ballot. 

Despite lack of support shown by the voting figures and Basescu’s falling popularity, some are glad he is still the president. 

Many speculate the rivalry between the prime minister and Basescu will continue. 

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Ex-Milosevic spokesman becomes new Serbia PM

Prime Minister Ivica Dacic was sworn in Friday, marking the first time the late Milosevic's Socialist party will dominate the government since ruling Serbia for a decade in the 1990s — an era of wars, international sanctions and economic downturn.

 During the Balkan wars Dacic was nicknamed "Little Sloba" for his admiration of Milosevic. But he has embraced a reformist course in recent years and European leaders congratulated him Friday, signaling openness to a democratically elected leader in a country that has made steady democratic strides since ousting Milosevic in 2000. 

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During a parliamentary debate on Thursday ahead of the vote that approved the new government, Dacic reiterated that Serbia will never recognize Kosovo, but stated that his government was ready to "immediately" reopen EU-brokered talks. "There has been enough blood in the Balkans," Dacic said.

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Dacic's Cabinet was approved with 142 votes for and 72 against in a 250-member assembly, ending nearly three months of political uncertainty that followed an inconclusive election on May 6. After the vote, Dacic said he was pleased with the wide backing he received. 

He promised not to stray from the EU bid, saying that he has already spoken on the phone with EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton."Serbia stands firmly on the EU path," Dacic said in a statement. 

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Oettinger warns of deindustrialization

Policies governing the European Union's drive towards a low- carbon economy should not lose sight of the need to retain the bloc's industrial base, Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in a newspaper column on Monday. 

 "Europe should think about adding a fourth goal to the three 20-20-20 energy-related ones up to the year 2020," Oettinger wrote in the business daily Handelsblatt. The bloc's goals are a planned 20 percent hike in energy efficiency, a 20 percent cut in CO2 emissions and reaching a 20 percent share of renewables in energy usage by 2020. 

"(Europe) ... should make (another) permanent goal a 20 percent industrial contribution to gross domestic product (by 2020)," Oettinger said. This share had sunk to 18 percent in 2010 from around 22 percent in 2000. 

"We need a strategy for the re-industrialization of Europe," he said. Oettinger said Europe was too dependent on energy imports - its main natural gas supplier is Russia and its oil comes mainly from the Middle East - and therefore had to ensure efficient energy production and usage, to help stand up to competitors such as the United States where gas prices have plummeted. 

Electricity would become the EU's main energy benchmark as it would expand its share in fuelling transport, Oettinger said, adding Europe needed a policy "that considered that security of supply and affordability of power are a decisive location factor in the global context," he wrote. 

Oettinger, a German national, echoed rising concern about runaway power prices in his home country, where subsidizing of fast-expanding green power is burdening industrial and household consumers. This has already caused a government rethink on, and subsequent cuts to, solar power. Environment Minister Peter Altmaier told the mass circulation Bild am Sonntag on Sunday he was skeptical about some important goals of Germany's energy U-turn, put in place last year in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In particular, Altmaier doubted whether power usage could be cut by 10 percent up to 2020, which the government had stipulated along with goals to get out of nuclear energy fast in favor of green power.

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Romanian President Impeached, Faces Referendum

Romanian lawmakers impeached President Traian Basescu in an overwhelming vote Friday, paving the way for a national referendum that could see the divisive and increasingly unpopular leader ousted from the powerful position he's held for eight years. The vote of 256-114 in parliament came as Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta have engaged in a bitter power struggle in the eastern European country of 19 million. The machinations, especially attempts to sideline the judiciary, have drawn statements of concern from the European Union and the United States. 

Basescu's opponents accused him of overstepping his authority by meddling in government business and legal affairs. The 60-year-old former ship's captain also was accused of making racist remarks about Gypsies and disabled people. 

Senate Speaker Crin Antonescu, who will serve as interim president now that Basescu has been effectively suspended from the role, said a popular referendum on Basescu's fate will be held July 29.Basescu was impeached in 2007 but survived a referendum. Still, his popularity has declined steeply, and he faces tougher odds this time. One major reason is that the Ponta-led government changed the law this week to make it easier to oust Basescu from office. Now, a simple majority of votes cast is needed to push him out. Before, a majority of all voters in Romania was required.

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Montenegró is a csatlakozás útjára léphet Jóváhagyták az európai uniós tagországok állam- és kormányfői pénteken Brüsszelben azt a döntést, amelynek értelmében megkezdődhetnek a csatlakozási tárgyalások Montenegró és az EU között. A tárgyalások megkezdését Herman Van Rompuy, a Tanács elnöke jelentette be az értekezletet lezáró nemzetközi sajtótájékoztatón. Megerősítette, hogy a tárgyalások hivatalosan már pénteken meg is kezdődnek. Ez elsősorban a most leköszönő dán elnökség kívánsága volt – így a megbeszéléssorozat még a "dán" félévben kezdetét veheti.
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 Euvonal.hu