March 20, 2019 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 20.03.2019, 20:27

TALKS Negotiators of the European Parliament and of the EU Council on
Wednesday ended their first round of talks over the appointment of the European
Chief-prosecutor without reaching an agreement. We recall that the former head
of Romania’s main anti-corruption agency (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi, is also
running for this position. The next rounds of talks are to be held on 27th
March as well as on 4th and the 10th April. We recall
that the president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani has sent an
official letter to the Romanian Delegate Minister for European Affairs, George
Ciamba informing him that Mrs. Kovesi is the European Parliament’s candidate
for the position of European chief-prosecutor. The EU Council is backing the
French candidate Jean-Francois Bohnert. The European Prosecutor’s Office, which
is due to commence activity by the end of 2020, is to be an independent office
in charge of investigating and prosecuting frauds against the EU budget. The
European Chief Prosecutor will have a 7-year mandate, which cannot be extended.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu is on the main draw of the WTA
tournament in Miami, Florida after 6-2, 6-4 win against Katerina Kozlova of
Ukraine in the last qualifying round. On Thursday, Romanian challenger Irina
Begu is playing the Romanian-born Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who has recently
won the Indian Wells tournament. Marius Copil also from the Romanian delegation
will be playing Albert Ramos Vinolas in the first round, while in the women’s
doubles, a Romanian-German pair made up of Simona Halep and Julia Goerges will
be up against Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France. Monica
Niculescu of Romania and Abigail Spears of the USA will be playing Anna-Lena
Groenefeld of Germany and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic. Romanians Irina
Begu and Mihaela Buzarnescu are meeting the Taiwanese pair made up of Hao-Ching
and Latisha Chan. In the men’s doubles the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau -
Jean-Julien Rojer will be playing Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of
Croatia.

SUMMIT Romania constantly affirmed the importance of ensuring a standard of
living for citizens as high as possible, Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica
Dancila said in Brussels on Wednesday during the Tripartite Social Summit unfolding
under the motto ‘for a stronger united and forward-looking Europe’. The summit,
which also brought together representatives of European trade unions and employers
associations was co-chaired by the president of the European Council Donald
Tusk, the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and by
Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila as this country is currently holding
the EU rotating presidency. According to Dancila, besides moves at European
level, Romania has also taken a series of concrete measures at the domestic
level aimed at meeting the convergence objective. Also on Wednesday, Prime
Minister Dancila held talks with the First Vice-president of the European
Commission Frans Timmermans. According to a spokesperson for the Commission, the
two officials confirmed that Romania had stepped up measures aimed at
implementing recommendations from the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and
concrete results in this respect could be expected shortly.

(translated by bill)