16 September, 2019

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 16.09.2019, 14:00

Elections. The deadline for the
registration of the Romanian nationals living abroad who wish to vote in
November’s presidential elections expired on Sunday. Almost 39,000 people chose
to vote in person and some 41,000 by post, according to the website votstrainatate.ro
created by the Permanent Election Authority. The government in Bucharest last
week passed an emergency order setting September 15th as the final
date by which Romanian citizens living abroad were able to choose how they
wished to vote, by post or in person. The measure was taken to prevent long queues
at polling stations as has been the case at previous elections. Presidential
elections will take place in Romania in November, the first round on the 10th
and the decisive round on the 24th.

Conference.
The Romanian foreign minister Ramona Manescu is today attending in Vienna the
opening of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to a statement by the Romanian foreign ministry, Manescu will be
having talks with the Agency’s interim general director, the Romanian diplomat
Cornel Feruta, as well as with the representatives of the participating
countries. Romania’s delegation is expected to reiterate support for the
continuation and consolidation of the Agency’s role at a global level and to
present Romania’s nuclear programme, which meets the highest international
standards in terms of security and safety. The General Conference is the
highest decision making body of the International Atomic Energy Agency and has
met once a year since in 1957, in September, to analyse and approve the
organisation’s programme and budget. Decisions are also taken with respect to
issues of interest to the member states and the international community.

Diaspora. The minister
for Romanians abroad Natalia Intotero is in Italy
until the 18th of September, where she is meeting representatives of
the Romanian communities in this country. Discussions focus on the voting
process in the upcoming presidential elections. She has meetings scheduled in
Turin, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Cagliari, Catania, Cosenza, Naples and
Rome. Other issues discussed are human trafficking and the problems faced by the
Romanian community in various sectors. Italy is home to the largest Romanian
community abroad, numbering around 1,200,000 people.

EU. The Romanian minister delegate for European affairs
George Ciamba today attends a meeting in Brussels of the General Affairs
Council held under the Finnish presidency of the Council of the EU. Talks
tackle the multiannual financial framework, the preparation of the European
Council meeting on the 17th and 18th of October, the
consolidation of the respect for the rule law in the EU and the EU values in
Hungary, the Romanian foreign ministry said in a statement. A week ago, minister
Ciamba had talks with the Finnish presidency on the post-2020 multiannual
financial framework with a view to continuing negotiations on this dossier. He
conveyed his counterpart Tytti Tuppurainen
Bucharest’s support for advancing the negotiation process, to which Romania
also contributed significantly during its term as holder of the presidency of
the Council of the EU in the first half of the year.

Volleyball. Romania
face Greece today in a new Group A match at the Men’s European Volleyball
Championships hosted by the French city of Montpellier. Romania’s final group
match will take place on Wednesday against Portugal. So far, Romania have lost
all their three group matches, against France, Bulgaria and Italy. The four
best-ranked teams advance to the quarterfinals. Romania’s women’s side were
eliminated by Serbia in the quarterfinals at the beginning of the month.

Festival. The George Enescu International Festival, which is co-produced
by Radio Romania, is in full swing. Apart from concerts, the festival has also
hosted a competition in which 180 visual artists have reinterpreted in images
music composed by George Enescu. The winner of the competition is graphic
artist Adriana Pop from Cluj. The George Enescu festival began on the 31st
of August and will come to an end on the 22nd of September. This
year, it has brought together more than 2,500 of the world’s greatest musicians
in 84 different concerts and recitals. Events as part of the festival are held
in Bucharest and other cities in Romania as well as in Germany, France, Italy,
Canada and the Republic of Moldova.

Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu was defeated by Poland’s Magda
Linette on Monday in the first round of the WTA tennis tournament in Seoul,
worth 250,000 dollars in prizes. Three other Romanian players are in
competition in the women’s singles, namely Mihaela Buzarnescu, Patricia Tig and
Ana Bogdan.