March 17, 2019

Ministerial meeting on Diaspora policies in Bucharest, Baku global forum

Newsroom, 17.03.2019, 14:02

Meeting – Bucharest is hosting, on Sunday and Monday, a ministerial meeting dwelling on Diaspora policies. The meeting is organized by the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU and is taking place in the context of the free movement of labor force and of debates on migration and integration. The Romanian authorities believe that the exchange of good practices, the presentation of and consultation on the national strategies regarding the Diaspora could be useful instruments at both European and national level. The talks will focus on ways through which the European countries could establish relations of economic and cultural cooperation with the Diaspora, the initiatives for supporting its linguistic and cultural development, the policies that contributed to the rapid integration of the Diaspora community members as well as the policies meant to support the return of the members of the Diaspora to the countries of origin.

Baku — The Vice Prime Minister for Romanias Strategic Partnerships Implementation Ana Birchall represented Romania at the 7th edition of the Global Forum hosted by Baku, Azerbaijan. On the sidelines of the forum the Romanian official met with Azeri high officials among whom President Ilham Aliyev. In the message delivered on behalf of the PM Viorica Dancila, the Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall underlined the importance of the Baku Forum that has become an extremely useful platform of debates from the point of view of existing challenges at European and international levels. Ana Birchall has pointed out that the Republic of Azerbaijan is a valuable strategic partner of Romania and one of the most important economic partners in the region. During the talks with President Ilham Aliyev the Romanian official highlighted the importance of boosting economic cooperation, focusing on the existing opportunities at regional level in the field of transports, including from the perspective of implementing the project of the Black Sea — Caspian Sea goods transport corridor. The working visit to Baku was also an occasion to mark 10 years of Strategic Partnership between Romania and Azerbaijan. A Romanian language center was also inaugurated on the occasion at the Linguistics University in Baku.

Tennis — The Romanian-born Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu, 18, is taking on today the German Angelique Kerber in the finals of the WTA Indian Wells tournament, in California, USA. The tournament has prizes up for grabs worth 9 million dollars. Bianca Andreescu, the revelation of the season debut, defeated, in the semifinals, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, world’s no.6 player. Bianca Andreescu, 60th in the WTA ranking, might win the first title of her career at one of the most important WTA tournaments. She started the year 2019 on 152nd position in the world rankings, and in the Indian Wells semifinals she obtained the 27th win in this season, more than any other player.

Bratislava — Liberal Zuzana Caputova, the candidate of the Progressive Slovakia party won the first round of the presidential election in Slovakia, held on Saturday. She got almost 40% of the votes cast, as shown by the partial results announced on Sunday by the statistical office after the counting of 50% of the votes. Coming second is Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, who is supported by the populist, leftist governing party Smer-SD. Sefcovic obtained almost 19% of the votes. A lawyer, Caputova stood out thanks to her criticism leveled against the Slovak government and for supporting the environmental issues. The second round of the presidential election is scheduled for March 30. If she wins, Caputova will become the first woman president of Slovakia.

Marathon — Romanian Avram Iancu, a librarian, ended on 3rd place the ‘6633 Arctic Ultra’ North Pole marathon, which is considered one of the toughest competitions of the world, as temperatures are very low and the route measures 617 kms. Avram Inacu participated in the marathon for the 2nd time after, last year, he had to abandon the race after only one day due to strong pain in his right leg. (translation by L. Simion)