14th September 2011
How good to be in Bucharest now that the ‘George Enescu’ festival is here! When I first saw the programme for this year’s twentieth festival, I could not quite believe my eyes. It looked like one of those conference programmes which promise the President, three Ministers and the British Ambassador, but when you turn up […]
13th September 2011
Joint blog by Catalin Predoiu, Romanian Minister of Justice and Martin Harris, British Ambassador to Romania 2011 has already proved to be a great year in Romania-UK relations with the visits of President Traian Basescu and Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi to London. Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu’s visit last week, as the guest of the Justice Secretary Ken […]
8th September 2011
Today, September 8th, is International Paralympic Day. The main celebrations will be hosted right in the centre of London, in Trafalgar Square. The UK was the birthplace of the paralympic movement, and so the games will be coming home when the Olympic and Paralympic Games are held in London in 2012. There will be a […]
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11th August 2011
I would make one main observation about last week’s report on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The mechanism is working. Thanks to the combined efforts of Romania’s authorities, the European Commission and member states like the UK who have contributed with projects and expertise, Romania has made important progress over the last year in […]
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27th July 2011
Today, 27 July, there is one year to go before the Olympic and Paralympic Games are held in London in 2012. President Rogge of the International Olympic Committee will be in London to issue an invitation to Romania and all other countries in the world to send their teams to compete in the London Olympic […]
19th July 2011
Guest blog: Deputy Head of Mission Esther Blythe attended last week the start of a three-day workshop hosted by the Romanian Foreign Ministry for Tunisian and Egyptian officials on the experience of democratic transition – focusing in particular on the practical challenges of managing the first post-transition elections. Here is what Esther thought of the […]
11th July 2011
I was in Bulgaria last week, comparing notes with colleagues in our Embassy in Sofia. Asset recovery is an issue in both Romania and Bulgaria at the moment. The Bulgarian government has developed a new draft law on Asset Forfeiture which is now being debated in the Parliament. Last month the European Commission for Democracy […]
7th July 2011
Guest blog: My wife, Linda McLachlan, visited recently a pet therapy project taking place in Voluntari, on the outskirts of Bucharest. The idea behind it is simple yet impressive – bring vulnerable children and mistreated animals together to help each other overcome their unfortunate past experiences. ‘It’s long been argued that you can judge a […]
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30th June 2011
Britain’s new Bribery Act comes into force tomorrow, 1 July. From tomorrow, British nationals and British companies are subject to new rules which tighten and extend legislation governing their activities overseas. The Bribery Act makes it illegal to give or receive a bribe anywhere in the world. It also requires companies to take steps to […]
25th June 2011
When President Basescu and David Cameron met in Downing Street on 6 June they agreed to work together to promote new growth in the European economy, including by reducing the regulatory burden on business. We took the first steps to implement this agenda at the European Council yesterday. Romania and the UK worked together to […]