Romania's new president to visit Odesa on 11 June
Source: a statement on the Romanian president's official website, as reported by European Pravda
Details: The statement outlines that during the summit, Dan will reaffirm Romania's commitment to continued support for Ukraine at all levels and its involvement in efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace, particularly through recovery initiatives.
He will also highlight the importance of maintaining unity and a coordinated approach across the region represented at the summit, in order to protect the European continent's security as a whole.
Particular attention will be paid to the Black Sea, especially in the context of safeguarding trade routes.
While in Odesa, Dan will also take part in the first-ever high-level trilateral meeting between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Together with his counterparts, he will discuss key infrastructure cooperation projects – primarily in the energy sector – as well as EU accession processes and security cooperation.
Background:
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić will also attend the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, marking his first visit to Ukraine.
Dan officially took office on 26 May and made his first foreign visit to Vilnius for the summit of the Bucharest Nine and Northern European countries.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Oil regains ground from 2-month lows ahead of Trump-Putin meeting
Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, regaining ground after a sell-off in the previous session, with the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin raising risk premiums in the market. Brent crude futures were up 28 cents, or 0.43%, at $65.91 a barrel at 0057 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 23 cents, or 0.37%, to $62.89. Both contracts hit their lowest in two months on Wednesday after bearish supply guidance from the U.S. government and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Trump on Wednesday threatened "severe consequences" if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine. Trump did not specify what the consequences could be, but he has warned of economic sanctions if the meeting in Alaska on Friday proves fruitless. "The uncertainty of U.S.-Russia peace talks continues to add a bullish risk premium given Russian oil buyers could face more economic pressure," Rystad Energy said in a client note. "How Ukraine-Russia crisis resolves and Russia flows change could bring some unexpected surprises." Another support for oil is that the expectation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut rates in September is at close to 100% after U.S. inflation increased at a moderate pace in July. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he thought an aggressive half-point cut was possible given recent weak employment numbers. The market is putting the odds of a quarter-percentage point cut at the Fed's September 16-17 meeting at 99.9%, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Lower borrowing rates would drive demand for oil. The dollar was hovering near multi-week lows against the euro and sterling on Thursday as traders ramped up bets for the Fed to resume cutting interest rates next month. Oil prices were kept in check as crude inventories in the United States unexpectedly rose by 3 million barrels in the week ended on August 8, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, against expectations in a Reuters poll for a 275,000-barrel draw. Also, holding oil back was an International Energy Agency forecast that 2025 and 2026 world oil supply would rise more rapidly than expected, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, increase output and production from outside the group grows.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump warns Russia of 'severe consequences' if Putin doesn't agree to stop war
President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened "severe consequences" against Russia if Vladimir Putin did not agree to stop his war on Ukraine. "There will be consequences," Trump said at the Kennedy Center in Washington as he took questions on his meeting on Friday with Russia's president in Alaska. Trump did not elaborate on what those consequences would be. When asked if they would include sanctions or tariffs, Trump only said he didn't have to say. The comments came after a virtual conference between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders. Trump described the conversation with the leaders as "very friendly" and European leaders said afterward Trump told them he would press Putin for a ceasefire. Zelenskyy, speaking in Berlin on Wednesday after the call, said he advised Trump and other officials that Putin is "bluffing" in pursuing peace. "I told my colleagues, the U.S. president and our European friends, that Putin definitely does not want peace. He wants the occupation of our country. And we all really understand that. Putin will not be able to deceive anyone. We need further pressure for peace. Not only American, but also European sanctions," Zelenskyy said. "We talked about the meeting in Alaska," Zelenskyy added. "We hope that the central topic of the meeting will be a ceasefire. An immediate ceasefire. The U.S. president has repeatedly said this. He suggested to me that after the meeting in Alaska we will have contact. And we will discuss all the results, if there are any. And we will determine the next mutual steps." Though details of Friday's meeting are still being ironed out, Putin and Trump are scheduled to meet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, a White House official confirmed to ABC News. Trump on Wednesday said it was not his call to not invite Zelenskyy to Friday's summit, and that he next wants to see a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin as well as the U.S. if necessary. "There's a very good chance that we're going to have a second meeting, which will be more productive than the first, because the first is -- I'm going to find out where we are and what we're doing," Trump said. Asked if he believes he could convince Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine, Trump said no and repeated the frustration he's expressed about Putin in the past few weeks. Trump at the same time suggested a second meeting won't take place if he doesn't get what he needs from Putin. "Now, there may be no second meeting because if I feel that it's not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we're not going to have a second meeting," Trump said. Zelenskyy is pushing for for a three-way meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, arguing it is "impossible to solve this without Ukraine." European governments have expressed their support for Ukraine in any coming peace negotiations, urging Trump to facilitate European and Ukrainian involvement in any such discussions. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that Trump "was very clear on the fact that the what the United States wants is to obtain a ceasefire during this meeting in Alaska." "The second element that was very clearly expressed by President Trump is that the territorial matters from Ukraine can and will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president," Macron continued. "This is the position that we support, and it has been very clearly expressed by President Trump, and so this heralds our meetings in the future." British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said "real progress" was made in the virtual meeting and said the coalition was ready to support Friday's meeting between Trump and Putin. Starmer also said the group is ready to implement plans if a ceasefire is reached, including security guarantees for Ukraine once the hostilities have stopped. During a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesperson Alexei Fadeev said Russia considers "the consultations requested by the Europeans as politically and practically insignificant." Fadeev also said Russia's stance on ending the war in Ukraine has not changed since Putin laid out his conditions last year: the full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that they still control, and Ukraine abandoning its plans to join the NATO alliance. Fadeev told reporters that the upcoming meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska will allow the two leaders to focus on discussing all current issues between their countries, from the Ukraine war to the normalization of relations. Long-range strikes by Russia and Ukraine continued overnight into Wednesday. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 49 drones and two North Korean-made ballistic missiles into the country overnight, of which 32 drones and both missiles were shot down or suppressed. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 63 Ukrainian drones overnight. ABC News' Kelsey Walsh, Natalia Kushnir, Anna Sergeeva, Yulia Drozd, Hannah Demissie, Morgan Winsor and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
No holiday for 42 million EU workers: Where is holiday the most unaffordable in Europe?
In 2023, 15% of employed people in the EU were unable to afford a one-week holiday away from home. While this percentage might not appear very high at first glance, it represents around 42 million workers. In each of the EU's "Big Four" economies (Germany, France, Spain and Italy), over 5 million workers were unable to afford a week-long holiday according to Eurostat data published by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). 'Taking a break with family or friends is important for our physical and mental health, and it is a basic part of the European social contract,' said ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch, criticising the situation. Holiday poverty among workers continues to rise Holiday poverty among workers is on the rise across the EU, marking the third consecutive annual increase. In 2022, 40.5 million employed people reported being unable to afford a one-week holiday away from home. That number rose to 41.5 million in 2023—an increase of over one million workers in just a year. The share of affected workers grew from 14% to 15%. 'The findings are the result of an increasingly unequal economy, in which workers are forced to give up their holidays due to rising costs for accommodation, transport and food, combined with declining purchasing power and speculation', the ETUC stated. Related The cost of love: Europe's most expensive and cheapest cities for a date Cost of living: Which are the cheapest and most expensive countries in Europe? East-West gap in holiday affordability for workers The data reveals a strong disparity in holiday affordability across the EU, particularly between Eastern/Southern Europe and Western/Northern Europe. Romania tops the list, with 32% of workers unable to afford a one-week holiday. Close behind are Hungary (26%), Bulgaria (24%), Portugal and Cyprus (both 23%), and Slovakia (22%). The Nordic countries—Finland, Sweden and Denmark—along with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Slovenia, report the lowest levels of holiday poverty, ranging between 5% and 7%. Czechia, Austria, and Belgium reported holiday poverty rates at or below 10%. Despite their economic weight, even the EU's largest economies report concerning levels of holiday poverty. Among the EU's Big Four, Spain (18%) and Italy (17%) exceed the EU average of 15%. France (12%) and Germany (11%) fall below the average, but both still remain above 10%. EU's Big Four: Over 5 million workers in each country can't afford a holiday Absolute figures speak louder than percentages. Over 5 million workers in each of the EU's Big Four were unable to afford a holiday in 2023. In Italy, the number stood at 6.2 million, followed by 5.8 million in Germany, 5.6 million in Spain, and 5.1 million in France. Over 3.5 million workers in Romania and Poland also couldn't afford a holiday. This figure was more than 1.5 million in Hungary and Portugal. In Austria and the Netherlands, over 550,000 workers couldn't afford even a one-week holiday despite being employed or having a business. 'After working hard all year, it is the least working people should be able to expect to afford and should not be allowed to become a luxury for the few,' Lynch said. 'However, these figures show that Europe has a quality jobs emergency and that our social contract is continuing to crumble as the result of growing economic inequality.' Related China rare earth exports to the US surge 660% after trade agreement The Big Question: Do companies need to re-evaluate how they set climate goals? Is holiday poverty linked to income? There is a moderately strong negative correlation between the share of workers who cannot afford a one-week holiday away from home and annual net earnings. This means that as net earnings increase, the proportion of workers unable to afford such a holiday tends to decrease. However, since the correlation is moderate, it also indicates that in some countries, this relationship is not strong or does not follow the overall trend as closely. For example, Ireland (€43,897) had one of the highest annual net earnings in the EU in 2023, yet holiday poverty remains comparatively high. In contrast, Slovenia has a low level of holiday poverty among workers, even though the incomes are similar to countries where more people struggle to afford a holiday. Related Win for the crypto industry: US passed the first major bill to regulate digital assets Strong correlation between workers and general population By comparing workers (aged 15-64) and the general population aged 16 and over, Euronews Business found a strong correlation: the higher the rate of workers who cannot afford a holiday, the higher it tends to be in the overall population. In 2023, among the general population, the share of people unable to afford a one-week holiday ranged from 11% in Luxembourg to 60% in Romania, while the EU average stood at 29%. This suggests that the rate among the general population is nearly double that of workers. Experts speaking to Euronews Business had noted that differences between countries are largely tied to the strength of their economies. The level of disposable income plays a key role, as it directly affects people's ability to spend on holidays—particularly when looking at figures for the general population. The ETUC calls on national governments to fully implement the Minimum Wage Directive and urges the European Commission to ensure that the Quality Job Package due this year includes legislation to rebalance the economy—making respect for collective bargaining a condition for access to public contracts. Solve the daily Crossword
