September 8, 2017

For a roundup of domestic and international news, click here.

Newsroom, 08.09.2017, 13:38

VISIT — EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu on Friday is meeting Transport Minister Razvan Cuc in Bucharest as part of her visit to Romania. The two will tackle the EU funds allotted to road and rail infrastructure in Romania. On Thursday, Commissioner Cretu said transportation is a field of concern for the Commission.

UKRAINE — Minister for Romanians Worldwide, Andreea Pastarnac, has called a meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador to Bucharest to discuss the new education law passed in Ukraine. According to a ministry release, Romania is concerned over the recent changes in the education system, which provide for exclusively Ukrainian-language teaching in high-schools and universities, while restricting teaching in the mother tongue to kindergartens and elementary schools. Over half a million Romanians in Ukraine will be affected by the new law. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with the “delicate situation” in Ukraine. The Ministry recalls that, according to the provisions of the Framework Convention on protecting national minorities, a state commits to granting ethnic minorities the possibility to become literate in their mother tongue.

MILITARY DRILL — The Resolute Castle 17 military drill is coming to an end today. Kicked off in April, the drill brought together some 450 Romanian soldiers. Training and implementing infrastructure projects, jointly with US military of the 926th Engineer Brigade of the US Terrestrial Forces, as well as other units of the US army and naval forces, the US national guard and US ground forces put on reserve, in addition to military engineers from the UK, were the highlights of the exercise. Held for the third year in a row, the drill was aimed at increasing the operability of military and crisis-response capabilities, developing inter-operability between the engineer divisions of the Romanian, American and British armies, as well as improving training facilities and infrastructure. Projects carried out during the Resolute Castle 17 drill are part of the European Reassurance Initiative program.

BORDER SECURITY — Romania will strengthen its borders, the Romanian Police has announced, one year since the first measures to consolidate our country’s border with Serbia were implemented in the wake of a wave of immigrants trying to illegally cross into our country. The measures included using daytime and night-time monitoring equipment at full capacity, enhancing technical equipment and supplementing staff. In the first seven months of the year, the Romanian border police identified as many as three thousand foreign citizens trying to illegally cross the border. In most of the cases the migrants were trying to cross into Romania in route to Hungary and Western Europe. Several groups of migrants tried to forcefully cross the border from Bulgaria and from the Black Sea, the Border Police reports.

MOLDOVA — Romania remains Moldova’s top trade partner, says the National Bureau for Statistics in Chisinau. According to data collected in the first seven months of the year, two-way trade between Romania and the Republic of Moldova stood at 660 million dollars. Moldova’s main foreign market remains the EU, accounting for 64% of its exports.

ENERGY — Serbian Energy Minister, Aleksandar Antic, said his country was interested in striking a deal with Romania in the field of natural gas. Attending an energy forum in Alexandroupoli, Greece, Minister Antic said Romania had good results in exploring the natural gas pockets in the Black Sea. Moreover, the Serbian official said he would attend the meeting of Energy Ministers from Central and South-eastern Europe hosted by Bucharest over September 28-29.

TENNIS — Romanian Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands will play Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez of Spain in the men’s doubles final at the US Open. In the semis Tecau and Rojer, seeded 12 in the competition, defeated first-seeds Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia, 1-6, 7-6, 7-5. Horia Tecau has also qualified to the mixed doubles final alongside CoCo Vandeweghe of the US, where the two will play Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Jamie Murray of Great Britain. (Translated by Vlad Palcu)