28 February, 2019

A round-up of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 28.02.2019, 13:45

Summit. Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis today attends the Summit of the Bucharest Format (B9) held in Kosice,
Slovakia. The meeting is also attended by the heads of state of Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia and by
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Talks will tackle major themes on
the NATO agenda with emphasis on the security situation in the Alliance’s
neighbourhood, including the Black Sea area, and ways to combat the hybrid
threats and consolidate the Alliance in the current international context.
Also, the consolidation of the advanced allied presence, the support for the
eastern partners and those in the Western Balkans will be high on the agenda of
talks. The Bucharest Format was launched at the initiative of the presidents of
Romania and Poland. Bucharest hosted the first summit in November 2015,
followed by Warsaw in June last year.

NATO. The legislative process by which
Romania is to ratify the protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO
will be finalised soon, said Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila after
talks with her counterpart in Skopje, Zoran Zaev. Dancila gave assurances that
Romania fully supports North Macedonia in becoming NATO’s 30th
allied state as soon as possible, as well as its European path. Talks also
looked at bilateral cooperation. The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Wednesday
passed unanimously a bill to ratify the protocol on the accession of North
Macedonia to the North Atlantic Treaty.

Military. Some 500 military from
the US land forces deployed to Europe are arriving, together with their
equipment, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in south-eastern Romania.
According to a press release from the Romanian defence ministry, the US
military will be stationed in Romania for nine months, before being replaced by
other combat units, thus ensuring a consistent presence in Europe, based on
continuous rotation, as part of the United States’ commitment to ensure the
security of NATO’s eastern flank. The US troops will take part in multinational
exercises alongside military of the Romanian Land Forces. In another
development, more than 1,000 military will be taking part in the first
multinational exercise organised by the Romanian Navy in 2019 and entitled
Poseidon 19, to be carried out between the 1st and the 8th
of March in the Romanian territorial waters and the international waters in the
western part of the Black Sea. Participating are 10 Romanian vessels, four
military ships from Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and Turkey and two speed boats for
divers. The air exercises will be carried out by a Puma Naval helicopter, two
MiG 21 Lancer planes and two F-16 planes of the Romanian Air Force.

EU. Between 28th of
February and 1st of March, the Romanian communications minister
Alexandru Petrescu is chairing the informal meeting of telecommunications
ministers and the Third Eastern
Partnership Ministerial Meeting hosted by Bucharest. On this occasion, the EU
ministers for digital economy and their representatives are having talks with
their counterparts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of
Moldova and Ukraine about expanding the benefits of the digital single market
to include the east-European partners. The informal meeting is attended by the
EU telecommunications ministers and the European Commissioner for Digital
Single Market Andrus Ansip. Talks focus on artificial intelligence and the
Digital Single Market Strategy post- 2020.

Protest. The judges of the Bucharest
Tribunal are suspending their activity from today until 7th of March
to protest against an emergency order that has brought new changes to the
Romanian justice legislation. All ongoing cases will be postponed for seven
days, with the exception of urgent cases. Magistrates demand the repeal of the
emergency order in question and call for measures to suspend the activity of
the special department for the investigation of crimes in the judiciary until
the Court of Justice of the European Union rules on the challenge concerning this
department. The judges of the Bucharest Tribunal are thus joining the protests
staged in recent days by prosecutor’s offices, courts and magistrates’
associations from across Romania.

Handball.
Dinamo
Bucharest today face Sporting Lisbon in a return knock-out match as part of the
men’s handball Champions League. In the first leg, Dinamo lost 32:31 and are
facing a historic result if they catch up, which would make them the first
Romanian side to reach the round of 16 in the new Champions League format,
alongside top European sides. In the women’s competition, Romanian champions
CSM Bucharest have reached the Champions League quarterfinals with two group
matches still to play. CSM Bucharest rank second in the group after trophy
holders, the Hungarian side Gyor, who top the group and are undefeated after 19
Champions League matches.

Tennis. The
Romanian tennis player Mihaela Buzarnescu (world no. 31) lost on Wednesday to
the Canadian player of Romanian origin Bianca Andreescu (world no. 71) in the
eighth finals of the WTA tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. The competition is
worth a total of 250,000 dollars in prize money. Andreescu will next play
China’s Saisai Zheng (no. 40 in the world). Buzarnescu also lost in the
doubles’ competition, alongside Irina Bara, the top seeds being defeated by the
German-US pair Tatjana Maria and Christina McHale.