June 27, 2019

Romanian PM Viorica Dancila is on a working visit to Brussels; Romania's Constitutional Court has upheld the result of the May 26 referendum on justice legislation

Bogdan Matei, 27.06.2019, 14:00

BRUSSELS – Romanian PM Viorica Dancila is on a working visit to Brussels, where she met the European commissioner in charge of expansion, Johannes Hahn. The two spoke about major European issues as Romanias turn at the Council of Europe presidency is nearing its end. One such issue was the expansion policy, which is a priority in foreign policy, and the evolutions in the good neighborhood policy of the union. Romania was saluted for its effort to push forward the agenda in this regard in its six months at the helm of the EU.

BRUSSELS — Romanian Defense Minister Gabriel Les reiterated the importance of unity and indivisibility of allies as fundamental premises for the formulation of coherent responses to present threats. He was speaking at the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, where he emphasized the fact that investments at the national level and as part of allied projects must be a major cooperation space for the EU and NATO. In this context, allied ministers submitted national initiatives in the area of innovation, and debated threats generated by them at the level of NATO policies, the Defense Ministry in Bucharest informed in a press released.

REFERENDUM – Romanias Constitutional Court has upheld the result of the May 26 referendum on justice legislation. The debates were postponed on June 1, after the court registered a motion to dismiss the results of the popular vote. We recall that attendance at the polls was over 41%, way over the 30 percentage points needed to validate the results. At the same time, of the over 7 million Romanians participating, 6.5 million said yes answering the two questions which essentially defend the independence of the justice system and the fight against corruption.

FOOTBALL – Romanias junior football team plays tonight against Germany in the semifinals of the Under 21 championships, held in Italy and San Marino. The other semifinal is played between Spain and France. The finals are held on Sunday. The Romanians reached the next to last stage of the competition after winning in Group C, crushing Croatia 4-1 and England 4-2, also holding France to a blank draw. The qualification in the European semifinals also secures the presence of Romanian footballers to the Olympic games in Tokyo next year after 55 years of absence. Romania is in this tournament only the second time, after the 1998 Bucharest tournament.

TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the world’s number seven, plays today against German Angelique Kerber, 5th seeded, in the finals of the WTA tennis tournament in Eastbourne, Great Britain, an event with nearly one million dollars up for grabs. On Wednesday, the Romanian defeated Slovenia’s Polona Hercog 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Also on Wednesday, Halep and compatriot Raluca Olaru qualified for the semifinals of the doubles, defeating 2-6, 6-0, 10-5 the pair Alicja Rosolska (Poland) / Zhaoxuan Yang (China). In the semi-finals, the Romanians face off against the pair Kirsten Flipkens (Belgium) / Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA).

HEATWAVE — The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued travel warnings for Greece, France, and Italy. In Greece, the authorities say, there is a strong likelihood that forest fires may ignite, quickly spread by high winds. For Italy, a heatwave warning has been issued. Temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius or more in the northeast of Spain, while temperatures close to 40 degrees are expected in Germany and France. Extreme heat is also expected in Hungary, where a code orange alert has been issued for the west and the south.