February 13, 2016

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 13.02.2016, 12:00

Romanian Prime Minister, Dacian Ciolos, will
be paying a visit to Brussels on Monday and Tuesday for talks with high EU
officials, including the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and
that of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. The Romanian official will be
presenting the priorities of his cabinet, its programmes of administrative
reforms as well as Romania’s readiness to get involved in current European
issues. Also high on the talks agenda are the issues of migration, European
Energy Union and energy security, the progress made by Romania under the
Cooperation and Verification Mechanism highlighted by the latest European
Commission report, as well as Romania’s prospects of joining the Schengen zone.
Ciolos will also be holding talks with the European Commissioner for
Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, with the European Vice-president for Budget
and Human Resources, Kristalina Georgieva, as well as with Romanian officials
heading various departments in European institutions.

Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, is
continuing his visit to Germany, where he is expected to speak about the Black
Sea’s strategic importance to NATO in an address at the International Security
Conference in Munich. Among the topical issues under discussion, are the Alliance’s
position towards the Russian Federation, the refugee crisis, the future of
NATO, terrorism, the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Africa and climate
changes. Before delivering his speech during the conference in Munich, which
involves the participation of many high-ranking officials from the EU
countries, president Iohannis has a meeting with Ukrainian president Petro
Poroshenko. The Romanian president on Friday met the Prime Minister of the Land
of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer. Among other things, the two officials tackled the
migration crisis at EU level.

Illegitimate,
the only Romanian feature film running in the Berlin International Film
Festival will today be having its first screening within the Berlinale Forum
section of the festival. Directed by Adrian Sitaru, the film presents the
incestuous love of two brothers. 18 feature films are presently vying for the
Festival’s Golden Bear prize, which is to be awarded on February 20th.
The festival’s jury is this year headed by American actress Meryl Streep, a
triple winner of the aforementioned prize. Romania is also represented at the
Festival by Roxana Stroe’s short reel A night in Tokoriki, which is
running in the Generation 14plus section, while actress Iulia Ciochina
and script writer Ruxandra Ghitescu are representing Romania in the Berlinale
Talents section. Last year Romanian Director Radu Jude was awarded the Silver
Bear for his feature film Aferim.

Romania’s national rugby side will today
be taking on Spain in Madrid in their second match of the European Nations’
Cup, the continent’s most important tournament after the famous Six Nations
Cup. Romania started off on the right foot with a 39-14 home win against
Portugal while Spain was outperformed by Russia 22-20. This month and in March,
the Romanian players will be playing Russia, Germany and Georgia. In autumn,
with Welsh selector Lynn Howells at helm, Romania participated in the World Cup
in England, where they got one victory against Canada and lost to France,
Ireland and Italy.

A third-seeded Romanian – Dutch pair made up
of Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer has qualified for the semifinals of the
double match in the ATP tournament in Rotterdam, a competition with 1.6 million
euros in prize money. Tecau and Rojer have clinched a two sets win against
Gilles Muller of Luxembourg and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. In the competition’s
semis Tecau and Rojer, who are the odds-on favourites, will be up against
Philipp Petzschner of Germany and Austrian Alexander Peya. In 2014 the
Romanian-Dutch pair had made it to doubles finals, which they lost to Mickael
Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.