May 26, 2017 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 26.05.2017, 19:43

GHITA MAKES BAIL — The Supreme Court in Serbia on Friday agreed to release former Romanian MP Sebastian Ghita on bail. Ghita paid the 200-thousand-euro bail and is forbidden to leave Belgrade without court approval. Sebastian Ghita must also check in with the local police twice every month. Wanted in a corruption investigation, Ghita fled Romania at the end of 2016, one day before his parliamentary immunity expired as he was supposed to be deposed by anti-corruption investigators. After an international arrest warrant was issued in his name, Ghita was last month arrested in Belgrade after presenting a fake Slovenian ID, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison in Serbia, a non-EU member state.

CAIRO ATTACK — The Romanian Foreign Ministry has condemned Friday’s terrorist attack close to Minya, Egypt, expressing regret and solidarity with the Egyptian people and the Coptic Christian community, also reiterating our country’s full support to international efforts to combat all forms of terrorism. At least 28 people were killed after masked individuals opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Coptic Christian minority. The Islamic State has recently claimed the suicide bomb attacks targeting Coptic churches. Coptic Christians account for the largest Christian community in the Middle East and the oldest in Egypt, considered a beacon of Sunni Islam.

DRILL 4 thousand troops from Romania and other NATO countries are participating until June 16th in ‘Noble Jump 2017’, the biggest multinational NATO exercise this year on the territories of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. The Romanian troops will be joining their counterparts from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Norway, Albania and Bulgaria and will make use of 500 technical means, the Romanian Defence Ministry informs. The drill will culminate with the artillery fire in the shooting range of Cincu, in central Romania. ‘Noble Jump 2017’ is aimed at testing the operational capabilities of the elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force and the level of implementing the action plan for increasing the Alliance’s Response in Bulgaria and Romania.

SUMMIT Heads of government from the world’s most industrialized countries have convened in Sicily for a G7 summit. This is the first G7 summit attended by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. The summit will be the most difficult of recent years, European Council president Donald Tusk has said, calling for solidarity among G7 states, saying that without determination and unity, things might get out of control at global level. According to the BBC, agreements on fighting extremist violence and talks with the Japanese Prime Minister on threats posed by North Korea are high on the agenda. The summit is also expected to see divergent opinions regarding the climate change or trade. The crisis in Ukraine, the sanctions on Moscow and migration will also be tackled during talks.

MEASLES — Romanian Health Minister Florian Bodog on Friday said that 110 thousand shots of MMR vaccine have been delivered to county healthcare authorities. The Romanian official added that the vaccination law will be debated by Parliament, saying that vaccination is the only way to prevent measles. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has called into attention the fact that the vaccination rate in Romania stays around 60% instead of a desired 95% and in order to stop these outbreaks the country might need compulsory vaccination. On Friday a four-month girl died of measles complications, a disease she got from her underage mother in Romania’s rural area. This is the sixth death caused by the disease in the county of Dolj, southwestern Romania and the 27th around Romania in the past months. Since 2016 Romania has seen a series of measles outbreaks mainly in children under fifteen; 6 thousand cases of infection have been reported so far.

MAYOR The mayor general of Chisinau, the capital of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country, the pro-Western Liberal Dorin Chirtoaca was placed under 30-day house arrest on Friday by anti-corruption prosecutors for influence peddling. Deputy mayor Nistor Grozavu, a head of department and several other persons had been arrested in the same file. Upon Chirtoaca’s direction they had allegedly forged a public bid for paid parking lots around the capital. Chirtoaca got elected in 2007 to become at the age of 39, the youngest mayor of a European capital city. Chirtoaca is one of the most prominent leaders of the Liberal Party supporting the country’s EU and NATO accession and the union with Romania at the same time categorically opposing the pro-Russia direction promoted by socialist president Igor Dodon. As a sign of protest against Chirtoaca’s arrest, representatives of the Liberal Party have withdrawn from power, claiming that the investigations targeting several members of their party are politically instrumented, favouring pro-Russian parties.

MEDIA Mass-media in Romania cannot accomplish its main responsibility, namely to inform the public and is repeatedly acting as a mouthpiece for various political and trade interests violating journalistic norms of unbiased, balanced and complete information. This is the main conclusion of the report Media Pluralism Monitor 2016, an instrument monitoring the risks of the media pluralism in the EU and outside set up by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom with EU support. According to the report, although legislative provisions in Romania are offering a solid framework, the inconsistent implementation of these provisions and practices are leading to these risks. The report also says that the development of Romania’s mass-media market is dominated by televison; the Internet use is on the rise and the printed press users are diminishing. Rapid Internet development and the availability of free content is making the survival of traditional publications very difficult in a country where people aren’t used to reading and paying for the news, the report also says.

FOOTBALL — The Romanian Football Federation’s Board of Directors on Friday voted against a request filed by the Professional Football League to ratify the rankings of the First Football League before the end of the football season. The decision gives little chances to FSCB, the former Steaua Bucharest, to challenge the title won by FC Viitorul at the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport. The First League standings for the 2016-2017 football season will be ratified in a board meeting scheduled for June 5. FCSB ended the season with the same number of points as Viitorul and claims it should have been the winner, given it has favourable results in the last 4 direct encounters with Viitorul. In another development, Dinamo Bucharest won the League Cup, while the Romanian Cup final is pitting FC Voluntari against Astra Giurgiu on Saturday.

TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea, 67 WTA, on Friday lost to Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. On the same day Cirstea defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, 28 WTA. The match was interrupted on Thursday, with Cirstea leading 2-1 in sets and 4-all in games. In another development, Marius Copil has qualified to the Roland Garros main graw after defeating Peter Gojowczyk of Germany. This is the first time Marius Copil qualifies to the Roland Garros main draw. (Translated by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)