May 5, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.05.2016, 12:15

LOCAL ELECTIONS The campaign for
June 5th local elections in Romania starts on May 6th,
and will last until June 4th. Running are the big political parties,
such as the Social Democratic Party, the National-Liberal Party, the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
in Romania, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the People’s
Movement Party, as well as a few newly founded political groups as, since 2015,
a political party can register if it has at least 3 members. It’s for the third
time since the fall of communism in Romania when a technocratic government is
staging elections, after the ones headed by Theodor Stolojan over 1991-1992 and
Mugur Isarescu over 1999-2000.

ROMANIAN ROYAL FAMILY Several events
devoted to Romania’s Royal House, which on May 10th celebrates its
150th anniversary, are staged in Bucharest and the mountain resort
of Sinaia until next Tuesday. One such event was the inauguration on Thursday
of a school named Queen-mother Elena. On Friday, the Coral Temple in
Bucharest will be hosting a ceremony organized by the Federation of Jewish
Communities in Romania. Also on Friday, Radio Romania will host two events: the launch of a volume entitled
‘The Royal Year’ and a Royal Concert. Princess Margareta and Prince Radu,
together with other members of the Royal Family, will on Monday attend a
session in the Aula Magna of the Romanian Academy and on the next day the resort of Sinaia will be the host of a royal standard ceremony for the first time
since 1947. Health issues have prevented Romania’s former king Mihai 1st
from attending the ceremonies, but he will be represented by his daughter
Princess Margareta.

HEALTH-CARE In order to regain and maintain trust in the health-care sector, Romania’s Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos will make of this sector the Government’s number one priority in the following months. The statement was made on Thursday by the Government spokesman Dan Suciu, who said that suspicions had arisen lately regarding hospital – acquired infections, the improper functioning of hospital wards and the use of hospital disinfectants. Dan Suciu announced the Government would take some measures to ease the tension, among which the fast implementation of the program against nosocomial infections. He also talked about structural measures, such as the building of two new hospitals in Bucharest and speeding up the projects with European funding for the building of three regional hospitals in Craiova, Iasi and Cluj.

REGIONAL POLICY The
European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu said in Cluj, in
north-western Romania, on Thursday that, unless Romania absorbed enough European
funds, it would subject itself to economic risks although, she said, Romania
was the country with the highest economic growth rate in the EU. The European
Commissioner also warned about the use
of cohesion funds for Romanian towns and cities, for which the deadline was
extended until June. It’s for the first time in the history of the EU when part
of the budget goes straight to municipalities and will be managed directly by
them, Corina Cretu said. She attended in Cluj the seminar called Simplifying
European Structural Funds and Investments, alongside the President of the
European Parliament’s Regional Development Committee, Iskra Mihaylova.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS The
Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu, together with his Ukrainian
counterpart Pavlo Klimkin, will pay a visit to the Romanian – Ukrainian common
border in Sighetu Marmatiei and Solotvino. The visits’ agenda includes, among
other things, the inauguration of the Romanian Consulate in Solotvino and a
meeting of the Romanian Foreign Minister with representatives of the Romanian
community in Transcarpathia. Also, an agreement will be signed between the
Romanian Government and the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers regarding fee
exemptions for long-stay visas. The Romanian community in Ukraine numbers
approximately 400,000 people.

COLECTIV The former mayor
of Bucharest’s fourth district has been sent to court by prosecutors of the
National Anti-corruption Directorate, alongside three members of the town hall
staff, in the case regarding the fire at the Colectiv club, in which 64 people
died and over 100 were wounded last autumn. Charges include office peddling and
accessory to office peddling, resulting in the violation of natural persons’
legitimate interests, as well as the interests of Bucharest’s district 4.
Recently, six people have been sent to court in the same case, namely the three
owners of the club and representatives of the fireworks company: the owner, the
manager and the employee who set up the fireworks.

EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL The 20th
edition of the European Film Festival started in Bucharest and other five
Romanian cities on Thursday. The event was organized by the Romanian Cultural
Institute in partnership with the European Commission’s Representation in
Romania and with support from the Filmmakers Union in Romania, the National
Film Archives, the Elvire Popesco Cinema Hall and the embassies and
cultural centres of the European countries, under the aegis of EUNIC Bucharest.
85 films from almost all European countries will be screened at this edition of
the festival. Over May 5th
and 15th, the Romanian Cultural Institute will be hosting an
exhibition by artist Silviu Ghetie, showcasing photos taken during the making
of Romanian film productions.

TENNIS On Thursday, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep,
number 7in the WTA rankings, defeated another Romanian, Irina Begu,
ranked 34th in the same classification, and qualified for the
semi-finals of the Madrid tournament, with 4.8 million dollars in prize money.
Also on Thursday, the Romanian Sorana Carsea, number 127 in the WTA rankings,
was defeated by the 38th ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.