June 6, 2018

Click here for a roundup of news from Romania

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Ştefan Stoica, 06.06.2018, 13:34

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – Romanias Constitutional Court has notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission and the president of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts of what it called “the virulent attacks launched against the Court, through which representatives of public authorities and of some parliamentary parties have discredited and deligitimised the institutions authority. Romanias Constitutional Court claims that the compulsory character of its rulings would thus be questioned and that the population and the countrys president would be urged not to respect and enforce the recent ruling by the court which took note of the existence of a legal conflict of a constitutional nature between the Justice Ministry and the President of Romania. Notified by the relevant minister, Tudorel Toader, the Court ruled that the head of state, Klaus Iohannis, should revoke the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, DNA, Laura Codruţa Kovesi. We recall that president Iohannis had rejected as ungrounded the proposal made by the Justice Minister to revoke the DNA chief prosecutor. Yesterday, Klaus Iohannis said he would make a public statement on the revocation issue only after he receives the Constitutional Courts motivation, likely to be issued on Thursday. He underlined that he would observe the rule of law and would take care that prosecutors remain independent, in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution. The decision by which Romanias Constitutional Court imperatively calls on the head of state to revoke Kovesi has stirred criticism and fuelled speculations that, given its current membership, the court would allegedly be politically influenced when issuing its verdicts.

PORTUGAL – Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă has today started a two-day official visit to Portugal for talks with her Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa and president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The visit is aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation, laying special emphasis on economic relations, with a view to capitalising on the commercial and investment potential, in the field of defence and security policies. Special attention is also paid to research and innovation, public healthcare, medicine as well as academic cooperation. The agenda of the Lisbon talks also covers such issues as cooperation at European level, also in the run up to Romanias taking over the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019.

RePatriot – A program to support local authorities in their effort to help Romanian nationals now residing abroad return home and find business opportunities in their places of origin was launched in Bucharest. RePatriot is a project of repatriation through entrepreneurship, supported by the Romanian Business Leaders Foundation. According to the latest survey conducted by the UNO, 3.4 million Romanians left the country between 2007 and 2017 – accounting for some 17% of the population. The survey ranks Romania second, after Syria, in terms of emigration rate.

UNO – Romanias permanent representative to the UN, ambassador Ion Jinga, has been elected, in a plenary session of the UN General Assembly, Chair of the Disarmament and International Security Committee, for a one year mandate, as from September 2018. It is for the first time that a Romanian diplomat is elected chair of this major committee. In the past, Romanian diplomats held the position of Vice-Chair five times, in 1972, 1983, 2002, 2003 and 2014.

VISIT – The EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, Tibor Navracsics, has today started a two-day visit to Romania, for talks with the Romania education minister Valentin Popa and the culture minister George Ivaşcu. Tibor Navracsics will also start a dialogue with the citizens on Europes future. On Thursday, Commissioner Navracsics will be in the central Romanian city of Targu Mureş to attend a forum on education and a debate on cultural heritage. The European official will also meet with Kelemen Hunor, the president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (a parliamentary party).

SALAMIS STORM 18 – Romanian defence minister, Mihai Fifor, alongside the Romanian Army Chief of Staff, general Nicolae Ciucă, is currently on a visit to Greece, to see the Multinational Exercise Salamis Storm 18. Participating in the training exercise are military from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia. It unfolds until Saturday and is aimed at training the military in order to cope with challenges specific to peace keeping and crisis solving operations.

TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, no.1 WTA and first seeded, is today playing in the quarter finals of the Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, against German Angelique Kerber, no.12 WTA. The two players last met in the semi-finals of the Australian Open this year, when Halep won a dramatic match. The Romanian player is trying to win her first Grand Slam trophy, after the finals she lost in Paris, in 2014 and 2017, and in Melbourne, this year. Todays winner will meet in the semi-finals the winner of the match between Garbine Muguruza of Spain, no.3 WTA, and Russian Maria Sharapova (no.28 WTA). In the other semi-finals, Sloane Stephens (no. 10 WTA) will face Madison Keys (no.13 WTA).

FOOTBALL – Romanias national football match defeated Finland, 2-0, in a friendly match played in the southern city of Ploieşti on Tuesday evening. We recall that Romania has failed to qualify for the World Cup, to be hosted by Russia. The national match will play its next match against Montenegro, on home turf, in September, in the Nations League.(Translated by D. Vijeu)