June 11, 2016

French President, Francois Hollande, will pay a visit to Romania in September, Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has announced.

Newsroom, 11.06.2016, 12:00

OFFICIAL VISIT – French President Francois Hollande will come to Romania in September, Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has announced. Ciolos, who paid a visit to Paris, attended, together with President François Hollande, the opening ceremony of the European Football Championship and the opening game, between the host country and Romania. Earlier on Friday the Romanian PM and his French counterpart Manuel Valls signed an updated roadmap for the strategic partnership between Romania and France. A day before Dacian Ciolos had taken part in a special meeting of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which Romania intends to join.

MILITARY DRILL – Romanian and American Navy Forces will carry out, as of Monday, joint military drills in the Black Sea, to practice standard procedures, with a view to developing interoperability between the two countries’ fleets. The Romanian side participates in the drill with the frigate Queen Mary, one corvette, two minesweepers and a Puma Naval helicopter, while the American partner will participate with the USS Porter destroyer.

COMMEMORATION – The Romanian Cultural Institute commemorates, in the Cernauti region in Western Ukraine, at the border with Romania, 75 years since the first deportations carried out by the Soviets in the eastern Romanian territories annexed by Moscow in 1940 following an ultimatum. To mark this event, the play “20 Years in Siberia”, will be performed on Saturday and Sunday at the National Theatre in Bucharest. The play was written after a book by Anita Nandris-Cudla, a Romanian peasant from Bukovina who described the terrible years she had spent in the Soviet Gulag. Once Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and the Herta region annexed by the Soviets, the Romanian population was subjected to deportations, arrests and forced relocations, which lasted until 1956. The first wave of deportations took place on the night of June 12, 1941 and affected over 32 thousand people, among whom personalities of the political, cultural and economic life of that time.

STRIKE – Air France pilots are on a 4-day strike as of today, which may disrupt plans for thousands of football fans on the second day of the Euro 2016 competition. Air France has already cancelled around 30% of the flights, but has announced it would prioritise journeys to cities that were hosting tournament matches. The pilots union wants the government to scrap new labour laws that will make it easier to hire and fire people. Also, rubbish will not be collected in Paris until Wednesday, while train services have only recently resumed after a nine-day strike. Strikes have also been announced in neighbouring Belgium.

THEATER FESTIVAL – The Romanian city of Sibiu is hosting, as of Friday, the International Theatre Festival, one of the biggest events in the world devoted to performing arts. The 23rd edition of the festival has brought together over 2800 artists from 70 countries, who will participate in some 450 shows and cultural events. The manager of the theatre in Sibiu and also the festival’s director, Constantin Chiriac, has announced that nine million euros have been made available for this year’s edition. The Grand Square in Sibiu has turned into a huge stage for acrobats, performing on platforms suspended above the square by means of a huge crane. The theatre marathon starts with actors from England, Spain, Poland, the Republic of Moldova and Romania, while street performances are the attraction of the pedestrian area in the citys historical centre.

EURO 2016 – On Friday night, in Paris, Romanias national football squad was defeated by the French side 1-2, in the opening of the 2016 European Championship. Encouraged by more than 20,000 Romanians who watched the game from the stands of Stade de France, the Romanian players started in force and on 3rd minutes were about to score. For the next hour they managed to keep up with the aggressive game of the host team, who are the first seeds at the championship. Giroud scored the first goal in the 57th minute. After eight minutes, Stancu stroke the balance through a penalty shootout, but Payet scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Euro 2016 continues today with the match between Switzerland and Albania. The next leg of the group will pit Romania against Switzerland and France against Albania on Wednesday. On Saturday, in group B, England takes on Russia, and Wales plays against Slovakia.

(Translated by Elena Enache)