March 5, 2016
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Corina Cristea, 05.03.2016, 14:10
REFUGEE CRISIS– The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said the first signs of a consensus likely to be reached among the EU member states have become visible and he expressed confidence that, once the divergences overcome, the process of solving the migration crisis, a prolonged crisis that has spanned a year, can start. Donald Tusk shared these ideas in letter to the EU and Turkish leaders, respectively, inviting them to attend the Summit scheduled for March 7. In preparation for the summit, the President of the European Council took a tour of Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Skopje, Athens, Ankara and Belgrade, capital cities which are placed on the route followed by the refugees willing to enter Europe, heading mainly for Germany. Donald Tusk has said that Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has agreed that the influx of refugees can be reduced by rapidly returning, from Greece to Turkey, all migrants who do not need international protection. The EU will also provide funds to Greece to manage the migrants situation and to rapidly relocate them to other European states. Romania will be represented at the EU-Turkey summit by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.
MIGRATION– The EU Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, has come up with a roadmap to restore normalcy, by the end of November, to the Shengen area, in the formula without controls on the internal borders. Currently, seven member states, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, have reintroduced national border checkouts, because of massive migration. Apart from them, Norway, which is not a EU member state but it is a Schengen member has introduced the same measure. According to Eurostat, over 1.2 million foreigners, mostly Syrians, Afghanis and Iraqis requested asylum, last year, in the European Union, which registered a record high of such requests. The limitation of free movement of goods and people in the Schengen area might cost the EU economy over one billion Euro in a 10 year period, according to the data released by the European Commission.
BRATISLAVA – Slovak voters are called to the polls today, to vote in the parliamentary elections. A new government will result after the elections in Slovakia, which will take over the EU rotating presidency in July. The Social-Democrats of the incumbent anti-immigration Prime Minister, Robert Fico, are front-runners, but according to polls they will not get a comfortable majority, after corruption scandals and recent protests by the teaching and medical staff. Fico has ended his campaign underlining how many new jobs he has created and how he will fight to protect those jobs from the migrants threatening Europe. The fear of migrants brings votes to the Nationalist Slovak Party, too, which is not represented in Parliament, but which became the main candidate for a ruling coalition with the Social-Democrats. On the right side of the political scene, the Siet Party, launched in June 2014, is credited with high chances of securing a second place, far behind the Social-Democrats.
MUSIC– Romanias representative in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden will be chosen by the public, by televoting on Sunday, after the 6 finalists were designated on Friday. In accordance with the number of accumulated points, the winners of the first stage of the national competition are Ovidiu Anton, Dream Walkers, Florena and Mihai Trăistariu. The duo made up of Doru Todoruţ and Irina Baianţ as well as Vanotek featuring The Code & Georgian have been saved by the Romanian public by televoting and have made it to the next stage of the competition. Romania will participate in the second semi-final of the song contest in Stockholm, scheduled for May 12. The final is due two days later. The best results obtained by Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest, were registered in 2005 by Luminita Anghel and the band Sistem, who ranked third in the competition, and in 2010, by Paula Seling and Ovidiu Cernauseanu who also ranked third.
TENNIS –Romania is playing Slovenia in the western Romanian city of Arad at the weekend, in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group I. In a double tennis match today, Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea of Romania will be facing Tomislav Ternar and Aljaz Radinski. On Friday, in the singles, Marius Copil defeated Blaz Rola in three sets, and Adrian Ungur outperformed Grega Zemlja, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-4. The last singles matches are scheduled for Sunday, between Adrian Ungur – Blaz Rola and Marius Copil – Grega Zemlja, respectively.
(Translated by Diana Vijeu)
