September 15, 2018 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 15.09.2018, 18:30

VISIT Currently on a visit to Romania, the EU Commissioner for
Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, on Saturday met local authorities in the Alba
county, a region in Central Romania with a higher level of EU-funds absorption.
The EU official referred to the way in which the Romanian authorities are
presently taking action with a view to developing the country’s transport
infrastructure. According to Commissioner Cretu, since 2014, when she took over
her mandate in Brussels, the Romanian authorities have applied for EU funding
only in the case of 4 big infrastructure projects. Corina Cretu also criticized
the bureaucracy, which is hindering the implementation of some viable projects
and gave as an example the Sibiu-Pitesti highway, which cannot be funded with
EU money because works are underway on two of its sections without the required
environmental permits. During a public debate in Cluj, north-western Romania on Friday,
commissioner Cretu said that Bucharest managed an absorption rate of 20%
between 2007-2013 and lost 2 billion euros destined to transport
infrastructure. The EU commissioner also criticized the delayed works at the
three regional hospitals in Romania.

ROWING Romanians Ionela-Livia Cozmiuc and Gianina-Elena Beleaga
reaped gold in the lightweight double scull race of the World Rowing
Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on Saturday. Also on Saturday Marius-Vasile
Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosa reaped silver in the men’s pair while Romania’s men
four ended the race on the fifth position. On Sunday our men’s double, women’s
and men’s eight will also be vying for a medal in Plovdiv.

CLEANUP Saturday saw the National Cleanup Day, an event staged by
‘Let’s Do it, Romania!’ foundation, which has reached its sixth edition this
year. ‘Let’s Do it, Romania!’ is the largest social movement in this country,
which has so far involved the participation of 1.4 million volunteers who have
gathered over 18 thousand tons of waste. The event is part of the international
action plan World Cleanup Day, unfolding under the aegis of ‘Let’s Do it,
World’ and the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP. The objective of the
World Cleanup Day is to mobilize 5% of the world population in order to change
people’s attitude towards the proper waste management and disposal and could be
considered the most ambitious civic initiative at world level ever. The
Romanian organizers want to mobilize one million volunteers who could get
actively involved in cleanup operations. The Let’s Do it, World movement was
born in 2008, when Estonia staged its first national cleanup day.

COMMEMORATION The mountain resort of Busteni in southern Romania on
Saturday saw a series of events aimed at commemorating WWI heroes, celebrating
the Great Union and 90 years since the inauguration of the Heroes Cross on the
Caraiman Peak. Situated at an altitude of 2291 meters, the Cross was erected
upon the initiative of Queen Marie of Romania in memory of Romania’s WWI
heroes. The monument has been recognized by the GuinNess World Records as the
largest summit cross.

TENNIS Romania and Poland are running neck and neck after the
first day of the third round of the Davis Cup’s Group 2, the Europe/Africa
zone. It’s one-all now after Adrian Ungur conceded a 7-6, 7-5 defeat to Hubert
Hurkacz. Romania’s Marius Copil defeated Kamil Majchrzak 6-2, 6-4 in the first
game on Saturday. Sunday
will see the double match Florin Mergea/Horia Tecau versus Lukasz Kubot/Marcin
Matkowski. The last singles on Sunday will be opposing Copil to Hurkacz and
Ungur to Majchrzak. The victor side will advance to the Davis Cup’s Group l,
Europe/Africa zone from which Romania was demoted late last year.

(translated by bill)