May 30, 2016 UPDATE

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has received in Bucharest HRH, the Prince of Wales/ Romania enters the last week of campaigning for local elections, due on Sunday

Newsroom, 30.05.2016, 12:20

PRINCE CHARLES – Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, on Monday received in Bucharest HRH, the Prince of Wales. The focal point of the talks was the mission and the role played by the “The Prince of Waless Foundation Romania, an educational charity launched in Romania last year, which aims to support heritage preservation, Rosia Montana, agriculture and sustainable development. During the talks, the Romanian President reiterated his wish and readiness to support initiatives meant to preserve and improve Romanias natural and cultural heritage. Also on Monday, Prince Charles met with PM Dacian Ciolos. In recent years, Prince Charles has frequently visited Transylvania, where he purchased, restored and refurbished several properties and where he spends some of his vacations. He has a well-known fondness for the medieval Saxon architecture in central Romania- citadels, fortified churches and houses- built by ethnic Germans who settled down in Transylvania, in the Middle Ages.

ELECTIONS – Romania on Monday entered the last week of campaigning for local elections, scheduled for Sunday. Over 250,000 candidates are running for mayoral positions, as well as positions in local and county councils. Also campaigning are candidates for sector council or the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest. For the first time in post-communist Romania, there will be only one round of voting, a move that was strongly opposed by civil society and the press, who claim that elected officials will lack legitimacy because of poor turnout. Pundits say, however, that this election may clean up local administrations, marred or discredited by a large number of corruption scandals. Last year alone, prosecutions commenced against 14 municipal mayors, nine county council presidents and one prefect. In Bucharest, the general mayor and four of the six sector mayors were detained on corruption charges.

TRADE UNIONS – A new round of negotiations between the technocratic government in Bucharest and trade unions in education ended with no results on Monday, after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the pay hikes demanded by the unionists. Trade union representatives have announced they will stage a protest march in Bucharest on International Childrens Day marked on June 1. The cabinet had proposed an average salary raise of 5%, as of January 1, 2017, but the unionists declined the offer, deeming it insufficient.

NATO – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday started a two-day visit to Warsaw, for high-level meetings with Polish officials. The talks revolve around the organization of the NATO Summit of July 8-9 in the Polish capital, which comes against the backdrop of mounting tensions with Moscow. Previously, fresh from the meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, Stoltenberg had said the Alliance does not wish for a new Cold War, but that the message to Russia was clear: any attack against one of the allies is an attack on the entire North Atlantic Alliance. On this occasion, Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu called on NATO to pay more attention to the Black Sea area, which has been the seat of some of the greatest security challenges in the last few years.

BRANCUSI – Over 129,000 Euro have been collected in donation so far for Brancusi’s sculpture “The Wisdom of the Earth, as announced Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos on Monday. This is not much, the premier admitted, but he said he hoped the money would be gathered by May 19, the end of the fundraiser. The Culture Ministry hopes to gather six million Euro by September 30. Ciolos recently announced he would donate his own salary for the month of April to the cause. Starting Friday, the ministry accepts donations by text message, telethons, online contributions, public tender, special events, as well as by wire transfer.

CORRUPTION – 77 oncologists from Bucharest and
seven Romanian counties are prosecuted for bribe taking. According to the
prosecutors, they reportedly received financing to attend an international
congress in 2012 and to spend a vacation in India, from a pharmaceutical
company. The main aim of the company’s move was to convince doctors to
prescribe or to recommend to their patients medicines produced by the
respective company. The total cost of the vacation exceeded 520 thousand Euros, of which 416 thousand Euros
are considered bribe by the prosecutors. (That is 5,400 Euros for each of the
77 oncologists). Also, prosecution for bribe giving has been started against
people in key management positions of a company dealing with the import,
distribution and promotion of pharmaceuticals.

TENNIS – Romanian Simona Halep, 6th seeded, and Australian Samantha Stosur, 21st seeded, on Tuesday will resume the game in the eighth finals of the Roland Garros tournament, interrupted on Sunday by rain. It continued to rain in Paris on Monday, too, and all matches have been rescheduled for Tuesday. Halep leads in the first set 5-3. Also in the eighth finals in the women’s singles, Romanian Irina Begu was eliminated by American Shelby Rogers. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian-Indian pair Florin Mergea/ Rohan Bopanna won on Sunday their game against the US- New Zealand pair Brian Baker/ Marcus Daniell, also in the eighth finals.

FOOTBALL – Romania’s national football team was defeated in Turin, Italy, on Sunday night (3-4), by Ukraine’s national team, in a preparation match for the European Championship to be held in France next month. On Wednesday, in Como, the Romanians tied 1-1 against Congo. On June 3 Romania will play in Bucharest against Georgia, in the last preparation match before the final tournament. In Paris, Romania will meet the host team on June 10, in the opening of Euro 2016. Also part of Group A are Switzerland and Albania.

(Translated by Calin Cotoiu and Diana Vijeu)