September 3, 2019

Romanian Navy organises joint exercise with Ukrainian marines; George Enescu Festival continues

Newsroom, 03.09.2019, 14:00

REPATRIATION The remains of Queen Helen, mother to King Michael I of Romania, will be repatriated this autumn and taken to the new Archdiocesan and Royal Cathedral in Curtea de Argeş, following a decision of the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, Princess Margareta, made public on Tuesday. Seventy-one years after Queen Helens exile and 37 years after her death, Princess Margareta decided to bring back to Romania the remains of her grand-mother. Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark was the daughter of King Constantine I of Greece and Queen Sophia of Prussia. In 1921 she married crown prince Carol in Athens, whom she divorced in 1928. In 1940 she became Queen Mother of Romania. She died in November 1982, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Unlike King Michael I, Queen Helen never saw her country again after her forced exile.

EXERCISE The Romanian Navy organises as of today the Romanian-Ukrainian exercise “Riverine 2019, on the River Danube, the segment between Tulcea (Romania) and Izmail (Ukraine), with approx. 300 marines from the 2 countries taking part. The exercise is designed to improve cross-border cooperation between Romania and Ukraine in the naval field on the River Danube. Until September 7, inspection and towing exercises as well as emergency intervention drills will be organised.

FESTIVAL In Bucharest the George Enescu International Festival continues with a concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra together with the Academic Choir of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. Two other performances take place in Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu. The central theme of this years edition of the festival is “The World in Harmony, and the artistic director is Vladimir Jurowski. Until September 22, Bucharest and 10 other cities in Romania and 5 other countries (Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the Rep. of Moldova) will host performances associated to the Festival. In Bucharest, over 2,500 of the most valuable musicians of the world will hold 84 concerts and recitals.

PROGRAMME The EU programme designed to encourage children to eat fruit, vegetables and dairy at school continues in 2019. Of the total budget of 250 million euro, Romania will receive this academic year over 17 million euro. Last year, more than 20 million children in the EU benefited from this programme implemented in schools, whose goal is to promote healthy eating habits.

EARTH Romanian students won one gold and 3 silver medals in this years edition of the International Earth Science Olympiad held in Daegu, South Korea between August 26 and September 3. The International Earth Science Olympiad encourages cooperation between students from various countries, by setting up international teams that receive research topics on environment issues in a specific geographic area and must come up with a project with proposed solutions to the respective issues. Taking part in this 13th International Earth Science Olympiad were 163 students from 41 countries.

SPENDING EU citizens spent an average 377 euro for a holiday, and Romanians rank at the bottom of the list with around 135 euro earmarked for a vacation, according to data released by Eurostat on Tuesday. The biggest holiday spenders in the EU are the citizens of Luxembourg, with an average 769 euro for a holiday in 2017.

TENNIS The young Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu, of Romanian descent, qualified into the quarter-finals of the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year, after defeating the American Taylor Townsend in 3 sets. It is the first time that Andreescu (aged 19, number 15 in the world) takes part in the US Open, and also her first Grand Slam quarter-final. Taylor Townsend (116 WTA), had previously outplayed 2 Romanians, Simona Halep and Sorana Cîrstea. In the quarter-final Andreescu will take on Belgiums Elise Mertens (26 WTA).

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)