July 3, 2023 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.07.2023, 20:15

ACCESSION The Spanish presidency of the European
Union has included on the list of its priorities the issue of EU enlargement.
In the first joint conference of the Spanish government and the European
Commission, staged in Madrid on Monday, the head of the community Executive,
Ursula von der Leyen says the accession of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova
is only a matter of time and there is no question mark on the will of the
Europeans. In another development, the Spanish ambassador in Bucharest, Jose
Antonio Hernandez Perez-Solorzano says his country supports the accession of
Romania to the Schengen area. At the press conference at the European
Commission Representation, which marked the beginning of the Spanish presidency,
the diplomat said the issue of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen
will be included on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council most
likely this autumn. In turn, Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu says the
Schengen zone will be stronger when Romania is a fully-fledged member.

RESIGNATION
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has announced he took note of the resignation
of Eduard Hellvig, the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and he decided he be awarded the ‘Romanian
Star’ National Order in rank of Commander. Hellvig tendered his resignation on
Monday arguing that it isn’t good for democracy to have one person exposed to
classified information for a long period of time. He believes that the Romanian
Intelligence Service has changed significantly during his term in office and is
now able to react more effectively to the present day challenges in order to
protect Romania. According to Catalin Drula, of the opposition USR, Eduard
Hellvig’s mandate has failed since, in his opinion, the civil control over the
institution did not exist. Eduard Hellvig was appointed the SRI director in
2015.

TENNIS
Romanian tennis player Ana Bogdan has outperformed Russian Liudmila Samsonova
in two sets in the inaugural round of the Wimbledon tennis competition, the
year’s third Grand Slam tournament. Other three Romanians are on the main draw in
London and will be playing on Tuesday, when Irina Begu will be up against Canadian
player, Rebecca Marino, Sorana Cirstea will be playing Tatjana Maria of Germany
and Jaqueline Cristian will meet Italian Lucia Bonzetti. The Canadian player of
Romanian extraction, Bianca Andreescu, will take on Anna Bondar of Hungary in
the first round.

TRIP The Romanian Navy training brig
the Mircea on Monday set sail from the Constanţa Military Port on
the Black Sea on an international training journey. It has on board 67 cadets of
the Mircea the Old Naval Academy and 12 foreign cadets from
partner academies in Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Latvia, Spain and
Italy. The training trip will last 28 days, during which the brig will moor in
three ports: Piraeus in Greece, Taranto in Italy and Izmir in Turkey. In all
these ports, the sailboat will be open for visits. The brig is to return to Constanta
on July 31.

(bill)