October 21, 2016 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 21.10.2016, 12:15

BRUSSELS – The proposal regarding the visa waiver for the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens who want to travel to Canada will take effect if the EU-Canada Trade Agreement is signed, said Friday the European Commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, at the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels. Ottawa announced that the negotiations between EU and Canada on the CETA Agreement (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) have failed due to opposition by the Belgian region Wallonia. Previously, the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, had announced in Brussels that Romania reached an agreement with Canada as regards the visa waiver for the Romanian citizens. The agreement has several stages: as of May 1, 2017 visas will be eliminated for those Romanians who already had a visa for Canada in the past, and as of December 1, 2017 visas will be lifted for all the Romanian citizens. President Iohannis announced Bucharest was no longer opposed to the EU-Canada trade agreement. On the other hand, the EU leaders had talks on the last day of the Brussels summit on the Union’s foreign relations, with a focus on the relations with Russia, on the way in which the countries of origin can limit migration as well as on the strengthening of control on the EU’s external borders. As regards Syria, the Romanian President Iohannis said the member states agreed to get more involved in promoting diplomatic solutions in order to bring peace to that country. On the sidelines of the Council meeting, Iohannis had talks with the British Prime Minister, Theresa May. According to the Romanian official, the British PM guaranteed that she would be personally involved in making sure there would be no additional pressure on the Romanians working in the UK.

BOSNIA – The Romanian PM Dacian Cioloş and the Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc on Friday paid a visit to Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo the two officials had talks with the commanders of the NATO missions (KFOR and NATO Sarajevo) and of the EU mission (EUFOR) and met with the 40-strong Romanian troops taking part in missions in the Western Balkans. They also laid flowers at the monument erected in honor of sub lieutenant Remus Brânzan, who died during a mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Kosovo the Romanian officials held official talks with the commander of the KFOR NATO mission and met with the 56 Romanian soldiers deployed at the base in Pristina.

RALLY BUCHAREST – At least 10,000 people are expected to participate, on Saturday, in downtown Bucharest, in a rally promoting the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania, with many of the participants coming from neighbouring Moldova. They believe that, in the current geopolitical context, the union of the two countries is the only solution for the ethnic Romanians, who make up the majority population of Moldova, not to be the victims of a Russian campaign similar to the one against Ukraine and for Moldova to reach the European democracy, lawfulness and prosperity standards. Already a tradition in Bucharest, the pro-Bessarabia rallies started in 2012, with the commemoration of 200 years since this province was first annexed by Tsarist Russia. Today’s Republic of Moldova has been established on part of the territory of Bessarabia, which had re-joined Romania after WWI and was re-annexed by the USSR in 1940.

TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu (world’s no. 51 ) on Friday qualified to the final of the Luxembourg tournament, with prizes of 250 thousand dollars. She defeated in the semifinals the Dutch Kiki Bertens (22 WTA). In another development, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, on Friday found out her adversaries in the group stage of the Singapore Champions Tournament, which has prizes up for grabs worth 7 million dollars. Halep will play in the Red Group alongside world leader Angelique Kerber of Germany, Madison Keys of the USA, 7^th in the WTA ranking and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, ranked 8^th in the WTA classification. Playing in the White Group will be Polish Agnieszka Radwanska, (3^rd WTA), Karolina Pliskova (the Czech Republic, 5^th WTA), the Spanish Garbine Muguruza (6 WTA), and the last player to qualify from among Russian Svetlana Kuzneţova (world’s no. 9 player) and British Johanna Konta (WTA 10^th). Halep participates in the Champions Tournament for the 3^rd time after in 2014 she played in the final against Serena Williams. In 2015 she did not manage to go past the group stage. The Singapore tournament will take place from October 23 to 30. (translation by L. Simion)