3 November, 2018 UPDATE

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 03.11.2018, 18:32

Reception. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will be
meeting the British prime minister Theresa May on the 14th of November in
London, news agencies cite official sources as saying. On that same day,
Iohannis will attend Prince Charles’ 70th birthday party at the
Buckingham Palace, following an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II.

Visit. The Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila on
Saturday began a visit to the Sultanate of Oman in the first visit at this level
since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states in 1974.
Ms Dancila is to attend the opening of the Romanian embassy in Oman and of an
honorary consulate. She will also meet His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud al Said and will attend a business forum. Her
next stop in the region is Qatar.
The talks with high-ranking officials from the region aim to consolidate
bilateral relations, both diplomatic and economic, Dancila said. Her visit ends
on the 8th of November. During her previous tour of the Middle East
last month, she travelled to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. On
Friday, she met her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of
a regional meeting in neighbouring Bulgaria.

Sibiu. The Romanian health minister Sorina Pintea says
the city of Sibiu, in the centre, is not ready in terms of hospital standards
to host the European summit scheduled for next year. She promised that, apart
from the funds already allocated, the city’s emergency hospital will benefit
from additional financial support. 400 officials and more than 1,000
journalists are expected to attend an EU summit in Sibiu on the 9th
of May next year, during Romania’s 6-month presidency of the EU Council and the
first after the official date for Brexit.

Sentence.
Romania’s former tourism minister Elena Udrea and the former chief of the body
fighting organised crime and terrorism Alina Bica remain in arrest in Costa
Rica after the courts in that country denied their request to be released. They
have been in prison since 3rd of October when they were detained by
the local police at the request of Interpol following their convictions in
Romania for acts of corruption. For a while considered an influential member of
former president Traian Basescu’s entourage, Udrea received a final sentence for
6 years in prison for bribe taking and abuse of office. Alina Bica was
sentenced to 4 years in prison for aiding a criminal.

Frontex.
A Romanian border police vessel that ensured the patrol of the EU’s external
maritime border in the Aegean Sea has ended her three-month mission and has
returned to Romania. In this time, the crew has rescued 350 persons at risk of
drowning. They carried out 80 missions as part of the Poseidon operation under
the European Agency Frontex. The main goal of the mission is to provide
assistance to the Greek authorities in the surveillance and control of the EU’s
maritime borders and the search and rescue of migrants hoping to reach Europe
by sea.

World Cup. Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia are considering a
possible joint application to hold the World Cup in 2030, said the Bulgarian
prime minister Boiko Borisov after talks with his counterparts from Romania and
Greece and the president of Serbia. The countries in this region never hosted a
World Cup. Only the former Yugoslavia, which was dismantled in 1991, hosted the
European championships in 1976. Romania will host four matches as part of the
2020 European Championships on its National Arena stadium in Bucharest.

Handball. The Romanian women’s football champions CSM
Bucharest on Sunday face the Norwegian side Vipers Kristiansand in the 4th
leg of Championship League Group D. On the 20th of October, CSM
Bucharest defeated the Norwegian side away 29-27. In their first two League
matches, CSM defeated the Hungarian side Ferencvaros and lost to the German
side Bietigheim, but currently top the group.