July 25, 2018

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 25.07.2018, 13:25

VISIT- The Romanian Prime Minister
Viorica Dancila is on a tour of the Western Balkans, which includes visits to
Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. The political dialogue with officials
from the two countries will focus on reconfirming deep bilateral relations,
based on support for EU accession and on ensuring regional stability and
security, the Romanian PM has stated. Strengthening economic cooperation is another
goal, Viorica Dancila has also said, alongside the European agenda of the two
states, given the importance that Romania will pay to the Western Balkans region
during its presidency of the Council of the EU, in the first half of next year.

WILDFIRES – Athens has activated the EU
Civil Protection Mechanism following the wildfires that engulfed the Attica region,
keeling at least 79 people and wounding more than 200. Several countries have
already offered their help, including Romania, which has decided to send two
planes, one C-27 J Spartan, designed to extinguish fires, and a C-130 Hercules,
for logistical support. Three days of national mourning have been declared in
Greece. The wildfires were apparently caused by a heat wave, with temperatures
of over 40 degrees Celsius, and extended rapidly carried by powerful gusts wind
of up to 75 km per hour. Authorities are now considering that some of the fires
may have been started deliberately.

US AMBASSADOR – The US President Donald Trump has announced
his intention to nominate the New York attorney Adrian Zuckerman to the
position of ambassador to Bucharest, according to a communiqué issued by the
White House. Zuckerman was born in Romania and emigrated to the US with his
family at the age of 10. His Romanian is fluent and he is a partner in a New
York law firm specializing in real estate transactions. Zuckerman has been
close to the Trump family for two decades now, and he is also a known figure in
the business circles in New York. If endorsed by the US Congress, Adrian
Zuckerman will replace the current ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm.

WORLD BANK – The World Bank has approved a 50
million Euro funding to benefit Romania in case of disaster, given that the
country is extremely vulnerable to seismic risks. This loan will help improve
the resilience of emergency and response infrastructure and will strengthen
institutional capacity to plan investments aimed at reducing the risk of disasters
and adaptation to climate change. Romania is faced with one of the biggest
seismic risks in the EU, with thousands of lives lost and dozens of thousands
of buildings damaged in the earthquakes that have hit the area in the past two
centuries. More than 75% of the country’s population, including 65% of the
urban population, lives in areas of risk. Moreover, 45% of all critical
services – transport, energy, water and communication – as well as 70-80% of
Romania’s GDP are located in areas exposed to seismic risks. The World Bank set
up its office in Romania in 1991 and since then it has provided funding worth a
total of 13.6 billion Dollars, in the form of loans, guarantees and grants for
all the sectors of Romanian economy.

NATO – A group of NATO experts is in
the Republic of Moldova these days, for consultations on the implementation of
that country’s Defense and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative. NATO experts from the US and the UK have met
with the Defense State Secretary Radu Burduja. They have discussed the first
stage of the project, Moldova’s national security strategy and the action plan
for the implementation of the strategy by 2021. In June 2015, the Republic of
Moldova was accepted by NATO as part of the Defense and Capacity Building Initiative. The
latest polls show that the number of those who are in favour or against
Moldova’s joining the North-Atlantic Alliance is almost the same, standing at
some 30%.

WATER POLO – On
Tuesday, the Romania men’s national water polo team was defeated by Spain 12-7
at the European Water Polo Championship in Spain, so the Romanian squad will
only be able to play for the 11th or 12th place. Trained by the Serb Dejan
Stanojevic, in the next match Romania will play against the team losing the
game between France and Germany. The Romanians have failed qualification for
the quarter finals, after on Sunday evening, in play-off, they were defeated by
Montenegro 5 – 15. The 16 best national men’s water polo teams are
participating in the competition. At the previous edition, two years ago,
Romania ranked 10th, and the best results obtained in the European competitions
were the fourth place in 1993 and then again in 2006.

FOOTBALL – The
Romanian football champion CFR Cluj was defeated on Tuesday, on home turf, by
the Swedish squad Malmo FF, in the second preliminary round of the Champions
League. The team that will qualify for the third tour will play against the
winner of the match between Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria and Vidi FC
Szekesfehervar of Hungary and the eliminated team will play, in the Europa
League preliminaries, the winner of the game between Sutjeska Niksic of
Montenegro and the Armenian squad Alaskert. In the Europa League, the vice
champions FCSB (formerly known as Steaua Bucharest) will on Thursday take on
the Slovenians from NK Rudar Velenje. If it manages to qualify, FCSB will in
the next stage play against the winner of the match between Hajduk Split of
Croatia and the Bulgarian Slavia Sofia. Viitorul Constanta will play on home
turf against the Dutch Vitesse Arnhem, after they eliminated in the first round
Racing Union Luxembourg. In the third round, Viitorul would play with the winner
of the game between PAOK Salonika, trained by the Romanian Razvan Lucescu, and
the Swiss from FC Basel. The winner of the Cup of Romania, CSU Craiova, will
play straight into the third round of the Europa League, against the winner of the
match pitting the German RB Leipzig and the Swiss from BC Haecken.