April 26, 2017 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 26.04.2017, 20:02

VISIT Romanian Prime Minister Sorin
Grindeanu on Wednesday met his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Kvirikashvili on a
two-day official visit to Bucharest. Prime Minister Grindeanu said that Georgia
would continue to be a country, which is a friend and partner for Romania.
Grindeanu has also mentioned the diplomatic relations between the two
countries, which have been very good since their beginning 25 years ago. In
turn, the Georgian official said that he was grateful to Romania for the role
it played in supporting his country’s EU integration process. The two officials
have signed a political statement of cooperation and have agreed upon the
resumption of the activity of the joint intergovernmental committee of economic
cooperation after a recess of 15 years. The Georgian Prime Minister’s agenda
also includes among other things talks with the head of the Romanian state
Klaus Iohannis and with Senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu. In the first
quarter of 2017 the volume of the bilateral trade exchanges exceeded 44 million
dollars.

TENNIS Simona
Halep,Romania’s best tennis player and the world’s fifth on Wednesday
qualified for the quarters of the tennis tournament in Stuttgart with 760
thousand dollars in prize money. Halep clinched a two-set win against Barbora
Strycova of the Czech Republic. In the doubles, the Romanian – Polish pair
Halep – Rosolska will be taking on the Czech – Australian pair Hlavakova -
Stosur. In another development Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and
Jean Julien – Rojer has qualified for the quarter finals of the double
tournament in Barcelona with prizes totaling 2.3 million euros.

EUROSTAT The number of people who
received asylum in the EU countries doubled in 2016 as compared to 2015 a
survey published on Wednesday by EUROSTAT, the statistical office of the
European Union says. Over 700 thousand people, mostly war refugees from Syria
and Iraq got asylum last year. The most of them, 445 thousand, got asylum in
Germany, followed by Sweden, Italy and France. Immigrants from the Balkans and
southern Asia got most of the refusals, the Eurostat says.

SACKING The Romanian Parliament on
Wednesday rejected the 2015 and 2016 activity reports of the Romanian Radio
Broadcasting Corporation, thus leading to the sacking of president Ovidiu
Miculescu from the Board of Administration. Serving as President and Director
General of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation since 2012, Ovidiu
Miculescu has been under investigation for abuse of office and conflict of
interest since 2016 in a case involving the purchase of travel services in
which ten members of the Board of Administration of the Radio Broadcasting
Corporation have also been indicted. Recently, Ovidiu Miculescu received a
verdict of incompatibility in court for being in the management of another
public institution while also serving in the management board of the public
radio station. Some of the public station’s employees repeatedly revealed the
serious harm done to the station’s image by Ovidiu Miculescu’s legal problems. The
former Social Democratic senator Georgica Severin is to take over from
Miculescu in an interim position.