On the occasion of celebrating, in 2018, 70 years of continuous diplomatic relations between Romania and Israel, the Bucharest Municipality, through the Administration of Monuments and Touristic Patrimony, in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in Romania and the Reut Foundation, organized on Monday, December 3, the inauguration ceremony of the public forum monument “Leul-simbolul orasului Ierusalim” (“The Lion – the Symbol of the City of Jerusalem” – e.n.), in the Leul Ierusalimului Square of Bucharest. The bronze monument of public forum is based on the collective opera with the same name that was made for charity purposes by young Israeli artists in order to obtain funds for people with disabilities, which was donated by the Local Council of Jerusalem through the Reut Foundation (formerly known as the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation) to the Bucharest Municipality, as a sign of friendship in a celebration moment. Given that the latter was made to be exhibited in a protected place, and also taking into account the Bucharest’s weather conditions, as well as the specialists’ recommendations, it was decided that the monument of public forum “Leul – simbolul orasului Ierusalim” will be made of bronze, in the bas-relief technique, by the plastic interpretation of the sculpture’s surface, highlighting the signs and symbols painted on the surface of the model statue.
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The exhibition “Communist Repression in Romania (1945-1965) – The Common Denominator: Death” opened in Alba Iulia on Friday in cooperation with the National Museum of the Union presents documents from 26 cases of the 40 investigated by the institute between 2006-2018 and which refer to 40 people executed by shooting or killed during armed confrontations. Archaeological searches and excavations have been conducted to find the bodies of anti-communist opponents who were executed without trial or were killed during armed clashes with representatives of the repressive institutions of the communist state, between 1948 and 1958. The exhibition also presents research conducted at the burial sites of political inmates who died in detention. These actions were carried out based on on-site investigations initiated and documented by Institute experts or following requests from the relatives and survivors of the victims. The exhibition also includes various objects and clothing accessories found on the murdered people, as well as posters with photographs taken during archaeological excavations, family photos and photos from the archive of the former Securitate. The team of archaeologists who carried out the archaeological investigations – Gheorghe Petrov, Paul Scrobot, Gabriel Rustoiu, Horatiu Groza – were also present at the opening of the exhibition. Attending on Friday evening in Alba Iulia the opening of the exhibition “Communist Repression in Romania (1945-1965) – The Common Denominator: Death”, Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar said that it is important that we “are informed about the facts in our history” and act so that such horrors never happen again; Lazar declared himself “shocked” by the atrocities committed by the former Securitate political police presented at the event hosted by the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia. “Regrettably, the past generations have suffered. I, who thought I could claim knowing a lot of history, both as a law professional and as a lover of history, am now shocked seeing this exhibition that sheds light on pages from our homeland’s history that were unknown. (…) It is important that we are informed about the facts in our history and do whatever we can for such things to never happen again. We have always been convinced that others have come and committed acts of barbarism on our soil, but we can now see that fellow nationals who at some point were in certain positions have committed acts that are truly shocking for us,” said Augustin Lazar. He voiced his opinion that the public presentation of the results of this research allows the young generation to “see what has been, what is, and better imagine what the future of Romania should look like.” In his turn, Radu Preda, executive director of the Institute for Investigation of Communism Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IICCMER), said that “it is not by accident that tribute is being paid, even memorial, to the victims of communism; it would be the more so important if they were also done legal justice.” Historian Marius Oprea said that in the over 56 archaeological campaigns organized by IICMER at 40 sites, “39 dead have been found in isolated places in forests and another 59 in the burial places of the former political penitentiaries at Targu Ocna, Aiud and of the Periprava camp.” 
More than 100,000 people are expected to gather at Alba Iulia – the flagship city of the Greater Union where the union of Transylvania and Romania was proclaimed 100 years ago – for the December 1 celebrations, city mayor Mircea Hava announced this week, as he presented the official program of the events to take place on Romania National Day. “The celebrations for the National Day of Romania start in the evening of November 29 with a folk show at the Trade Unions’ Culture House. Military wreath-laying ceremonies will be observed in the morning of November 30, at the memorials to the Union’s political architects Ion I.C. Bratianu and Iuliu Maniu, King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria, and precursor to the Union – Voivode Michael the Brave; the national flag will be hoisted in the Tricolor Square. Wreaths and flowers will also be laid at the tomb of Samoila Marza, the only photographer of the events of December 1, 1918. Flag bearer Ion Arion, a Greater Union martyr who was shot dead on November 30 as he waved the tricolor out of the window of the train bound for Alba Iulia, will also be honored. Other highlights of the day are the launch of art volumes, the unveiling of the busts of Thomas Woodrow Wilson and Emmanuel de Martonne, pop and classical music concerts. On December 1, a religious service will be celebrated as of 7:00 hrs at the Coronation Cathedral of Alba Iulia. The Union March starts at 8:00 hrs, with tens of thousands from Romania, the Republic of Moldova and the diaspora expected to attend the 6-km long procession with flags of 1918 Romania, tricolor insignia and singing patriotic songs. The Resolution of the National Assembly of Alba Iulia will be read as of 10:30 hrs at the Union Hall of Alba Iulia – the symbol and temple of the Greater Romania, where the delegates of the Transylvanian Romanians voted for the unification of Transylvania with Romania. The welcome of the envoys of the Seat Cities in front of the Union Hall is due as of 10:45, with emotion-filled period-specific messages to be delivered, reviving moments from 100 years ago. The consecration of the National Unity Monument – a 22m high stone construction consisting of four arched crosses joining at the top, as a symbol of the united four historical provinces – will take place as of 12:30 hrs. The monument and the surrounding park are still under construction, but mayor Mircea Hava assured the works will be completed by December 1. The military ceremony from 15:00 hrs will see the participation of approximately 1,000 troops and 200 hardware – wheeled armored amphibious carriers, war machines, missile launchers, military trucks, special intervention vehicles; F-16 fighter jets, MIGs and helicopters will perform a flypast. President Klaus Iohannis is expected to attend the ceremony. There is also mealtime for the masses with a record high of about 40,000 servings that will definitely include the traditional meat-stuffed cabbage rolls. Folk music concerts and patriotic songs are also on the bill, and the evening will end with a fireworks show and a recital of pan flute and organ. The day of December 2 has a show for children scheduled and the reenactment of the moment the Romanian Army entered Alba Iulia. The day will end with a host of concerts. Deputy mayor Voicu Paul said that for those who will come by car the mayoralty has roughly 8,000 free of charge parking places ready near the city entrances and that a bus shuttle service will pick up the people every quarter of an hour, with volunteers offering guidance.
French Ambassador Michele Ramis, German Ambassador Cord Meier-Klodt, and Bulgarian Ambassador Todor Churov, on Sunday, participated in a joint ceremony where they paid tribute to the heroes of the First World War, on the occasion of the November 11 Truce Centennial. The ceremony, during which they paid a tribute to the French, German and Bulgarian soldiers who died on the battlefield, as well as to all the civilians who were victims of the Great War violence, started with a ceremony where they laid wreaths at the square of the French Heroes at the Bellu Cemetery and continue with similar ceremonies for the German and Bulgarian soldiers at the Pro Patria Cemetery. Participating in the event were, among others, Deputy PM Ana Birchall, presidential adviser Sergiu Nistor, representatives of the Ministry of National Defence and Princess Maria. Also in attendance were ambassadors of several countries in Bucharest, among which the Ambassador of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of several religious cults. The French Ambassador, Michele Ramis, showed in her speech that this year’s ceremony has a special signification. “Today’s ceremony, organised by three countries that were once enemies is the best symbol of reconciliation. Europe, after learning its lesson from this bloody battles, knew how to build a space of peace, thanks to a strong political project that strengthened the collective security system created by UN and then NATO. As the European Union is struggling now with a profound crisis and wonders about its future, with so many external threats existing against its interests and values, the celebration of the Centennial should be one of hope. Thus, the first half of 2019 will be crucial, especially as the European citizens will be asked to designate new representatives to the European Parliament and, through their vote, to shape the future of Europe. And also for Romania, which in 1918 became a country that united different territories and communities, will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union and will be able to prove the role that it wishes to play in Europe,” stated Michele Ramis. The French Ambassador also mentioned that the friendship between Romania and France, “built in suffering” in the years 1916-1918, must today serve the European project and the common NATO membership. “The same as their German and Bulgarian comrades, the Romanian and French soldiers are deployed today in many theatres of operations, where they risk their lives to defend our values and help the countries in crisis. (…). The purpose of this ceremony is to remind us the past and help us build the future, a more prosperous and more peaceful future for the next generations. It is important that the pupils, especially the ones in the German and French schools participating in this ceremony, know that peace is not a natural state, that it needs to be built, and that the European Union has protected us from major conflicts for almost 70 years, which means that it is our turn now to maintain the European Union,” said Ramis. In his speech, the German Ambassador, Cord Meier-Klodt, underscored that, starting with the year 2015, Germany, France and Bulgaria commemorate together, in Romania, the victims of war and violence. “This is unique in the world. We are commemorating together the victims of the 20th century’s catastrophes, the victims of war and civil war, racial hate, persecution, exile, expulsion and terror. A commemoration that reminds us, before anything else, of our common responsibility to do everything to prevent such events from happening again in Europe. This year we commemorate the end of the First World War and we celebrate the creation of modern Romania, which is why this ceremony (…) is a very symbolic one. We worryingly discover today that this project of peace, which is unique in the world, our common Europe, is no longer a project that speaks for itself. Populist, nationalist and anti-European movements in our countries, and I say this in plural, are reminiscent of the years before the catastrophe in the 20th century, which caused Europe to enter, like in a state of trance, in a terrible war. History does not repeat itself, this is true, but, unfortunately, the patterns of behaviour are similar sometimes and they can trigger once again such catastrophes that no one wants. We need to be aware of these things in order to be able to fight them together, today. We owe it to the young generation and we must also transfer this responsibility to it,” said Cord Meier-Klodt. In his turn, the Bulgarian Ambassador, Todor Churov, specified that the commemoration wouldn’t have been possible without the historic reconciliation of France and Germany and without the project of the European Union. “We have gathered here today to pay tribute together to the Bulgarian, German and French soldiers, buried in the Pro Patria and Bellu cemeteries. This wouldn’t have been possible without the historical reconciliation of France and Germany, which took place and the Reims Cathedral on July 8, 1962. This wouldn’t have been possible without the integration process that is called European Union, thanks to which our continent has developed peacefully. (…) Our firm belief is that we must remain tolerant with each other and show respect to the history that we share, regardless of the differences in interpretation,” Todor Churov said. The three ambassadors laid wreaths to the French heroes square at the Bellu military cemetery and at the monuments built to commemorate the German and Bulgarian soldiers at the Pro Patria cemetery. Moreover, they laid wreaths on behalf of the President, Government and the Royal Family, the National Defence Ministry, the Bucharest City hall, the embassies of the US, Canada, Russian Federation, Italian Republic, Austria, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Madagascar.
On the occasion of the National Unity and Armed Forces Day, Mutua Basis Assistance, the largest Italian Mutua for the number of members, laid a flower wreath to the Italian Heroes Monument in Ghencea Cemetery of Bucharest. Mutua Basis Assistance is also present in Romania thanks to Giulio Bertola, an Italian entrepreneur with many successful case histories of internationalization as well as being very sensitive to the support and protection initiatives for the Italian community in Romania. Bertola, in fact, has a great associative experience, a statutory and organizational structure of the mutua, obtained in more than twenty years of presence in Romania, as an active member in Confindustria Romania of which he was also founder, as a Vice-president, from 2008 to 2011, of the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Romania (CCIpR) and currently also as a Delegate for External Relations of Confindustria Est Europa (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Belarus, Macedonia, Ukraine and Bosnia). Dr. Bertola, on November 6, Mutua MBA laid a flower wreath at the Italian Heroes Monument in the Ghencea Cemetery. Does it have a particular meaning? Certainly, MBA Mutua, from a few months, has decided to divulge the culture of mutualism in Romania, to the Italian and Romanian families, and it’s an initiative with a certain history, just think of what happened in this country, at the end of the 19th century, when an Italian, by the name of Luigi Cazzavillan (1852-1903), partisan fighter, founded a sort of mutual aid to assist a community of 500 Italians in Bucharest. In the military cemetery of Ghencea more than 2,000 Italian soldiers are buried, fallen during the First and the Second World Wars, the massive stone crosses engraved with names and surnames of Italians are very touching and even nostalgic but, at the same time, they give even greater value to all the virtuous actions that we carry out today, as Italians, to protect our compatriots, entrepreneurs and others. The Italian soldiers rest near the Romanian soldiers, as an evidence of a common journey begun in tragic moments in history, for this reason I think it is a duty, to live responsibly and above all concrete the most intense and significant moments of our presence in Romania. After 130 years, today, in 2018, it is as if I had taken the testimonial from Cazzavillan in order to continue the mutual project in favor of our large community but this time with a particular focus on the most important partnership between Italy and Romania, the human one, represented by the new Italian-Romanian generations. How did you come up with the idea of bringing an Italian Mutua in Romania? I decided to bring an Italian Mutua to Romania starting from the need to find a form of security in the health care sector in favor of our entrepreneurs and their families, often Italian-Romanian families, and then for all the Romanian citizens. Mutua is a concrete response to the anxieties of those who avoid enrollment in the AI.R.E in order not to lose the right to public assistance in Italy, thus remaining in a limbo of irregularity. After a careful analysis I opted for the most important among them, MBA Mutua, the first in Italy for the number of members, also known for the large institutional conventions. Then it was a great surprise for me when I learned that MBA Mutua is also the health fund of the largest Italian Confindustria, Assolombarda, and as an association person, I was very excited to find out this. But, in Romania as in Italy, there are already the insurance companies that offer health insurance policies. Of course, the insurance companies have an indispensable and very useful activity, even with very good products, but they often cannot be accessible for a common family, thus becoming a health insurance only for a certain group of very wealthy people. MBA Mutua is complementary, non-profit, and brings the family closer to a quality private health assistance with a very affordable price, the same for every family unit, regardless of the number of its members, their state of health and their age, recognizing to them the right to health care even for the persons with previous serious illnesses, which often is the reason of exclusion from an insurance policy. An extraordinary evolution therefore in planning the health assistance to the families according to the associative concept, establishing a relationship Mutua-Member and not the traditional Insurance-Customer one. 
President Klaus Iohannis was among the over 70 world leaders who attended on Sunday at the Arch of Triumph in Paris the ceremony of the Centennial of the Armistice that put an end to the WWI hostilities. US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spain’s King Felipe the 6th, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker were among those who attended the ceremony. President Iohannis was accompanied by his wife Carmen. After they were welcomed to the Elysee Palace by French President Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte, the world leaders arrive to the Arch of Triumph by buses. They walked the remaning hundreds meters on Champs Elysees to the Arch of Triumph. The US President came straight to the ceremony. Before arriving to the Arch of Triumph, a Femen militant, topless, got close to Donald Trump’s convoy. Russia’s President also came straight to the ceremony of the Armistice Centennial. In the beginning of the celebrations, an aircraft escadrille coloured the sky in the colours of France’s flag. The Armistice Centennial ceremony included several moments among which military honours, the troops review, the performance of the national anthem of France – “La Marseillaise” by the Army choir, the performance of some pieces composed by Sebastian Bach and Maurice Ravel by cello player Yo Yo Ma and violin player Renaud Capucon, as well as some pieces such as “Blewu” by Angelique Kidjo and Ravel’s Bolero by the European Union Youth Orchestra, some pupils reading some testimonies written on the day of the armistice in 2019, the speech delivered by President Macron and moments of silence. The world leaders will also participate on Sunday in the lunch extended by France’s President and in the Paris Peace Forum. This forum is an initiative of the French President designed to generate concrete projects in the spirit of multilateralism and contemporary cooperation in support of peace. On Saturday, President Klaus Iohannis attended an event hosted by the Embassy of Romania in Paris dedicated to the Romanian contribution to the development of science and technology in the Centennial Year of Romania’s Greater Union. Moreover, the Romanian President and his wife Carmen attended the events organised by the French Presidency at the Orsay Museum on Saturday and visited the ‘Picasso Bleu et Rose’ exhibition, and took part in a dinner extended by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in honour of the heads of state, government and international organisations. One hundred years ago, on 11 November 1918, the cannons on all WWI fronts were silenced, after 5 years of bloody combat, at the coming into force of the Armistice signed by Germany and the Entente representatives in a train wagon in Compeigne, France. The Armistice Day is commemorated each year on 11 November to celebrate the peace treaty signed between the Entente and the Central Powers in Compiegne, France, an event that marked the end of the hostilities on the West Front in WWI. Initially, this truce ceased after a 36-day period. The treaty on the definitive cessation of hostilities was formally signed in Versailles in 1919.