October 27, 2018

Romania will revert to winter time on Saturday to Sunday night/ The head of the Canadian Royal Air Force general lieutenant Alexander Donald Meinzinger is paying a visit to the Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase in south-eastern Romania

Ştefan Stoica, 27.10.2018, 13:32

DST – Romania will revert to winter time on Saturday to Sunday night. Clocks will be shifted back one hour, and 4.00 oclock will become 3 oclock, local time. Consequently October 28 will have 25 hours and will be the longest day of the year. The move is meant to balance the practice of setting the clocks forward 1 hour from standard time during the summer months, in order to make better use of natural daylight and reduce the consumption of electricity. According to a poll conducted across Europe and made public in August, 84% of the respondents would like their country to maintain the summer time and not to shift to wintertime any longer. Many of the respondents said the shift causes fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, lack of focus and energy. According to the European Commission, the EU member states should decide upon the issue. The EC calls on the EU member states to make public their choice by the end of April 2019. If the timetable set by Brussels is observed, the shift operated on March 31, 2019 will be the last compulsory shift to the summer time. The EU member states are currently grouped into three different time zones: Western Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

AIR FORCES – The head of the Canadian Royal Air Force, general lieutenant Alexander Donald Meinzinger, is today paying a visit to the Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase in south-eastern Romania, where he will meet with the head of the Romanian Air Force, general Viorel Pană and with the Canadian unit dispatched at Mihail Kogălniceanu. The 135 strong unit is carrying out NATO air policing missions, alongside members of the Romanian Air Force. These missions are aimed at developing response and deterrence capabilities, sources with the Romanian Defence Ministry say.

COLECTIV – A show inspired by the drama around the fire-ravaged Colectiv nightclub in 2015 is staged on Saturday and Sunday at the National Dance Centre in Bucharest. Titled “153 seconds, the show starts with the story of a survivor. The project has been coordinated by director Ioana Păun, who has collected testimonies made by the victims and opinions expressed by sociologists and psychologists and then staged a show on resignation and the possibility of making a change. The title “153 seconds comes from the duration of the fire which ripped through Colectiv, taking the lives of 65 people. On Tuesday, October 30, its three years since the tragedy struck the Bucharest-based club. We recall it was followed by massive protests which deplored corruption at the level of the central and local administration and led to the resignation of the Ponta-led cabinet.

EUROPEAN FUNDS – Since joining the EU, back in 2007, Romania has had at its disposal European funds worth over 45 billion Euros to develop the country, says the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu. According to her, the cohesion policy is meant to improve the living standards of the European citizens, and the results are visible in Romania, too. Corina Creţu will pay an official visit to Bucharest next week, where she will meet with high ranking Romanian officials and will have talks on the future of the European cohesion policy.

SYRIA – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are today meeting in Istanbul to attend a summit on Syria, meant to consolidate a fragile truce and to give an impetus to the efforts that are being made to find a political solution to civil war, FP reports. The conflict in Syria has taken a toll of 360,000 people, since 2011. The setting up, under the UN aegis, of a committee to begin drafting a new fundamental law for Syria seems to be a major challenge, given the current stand taken by the regime in Damascus. Attending the Istanbul Summit will also be the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

SWINE FEVER – A case of African swine fever was confirmed on Saturday in a household in Vrancea county, eastern Romania, the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority has announced. The area has been isolated, disinfection measures have been taken and the line authorities have set up checking points on the main roads. Over 1,000 African swine fever outbreaks have been confirmed in 15 counties in Romania so far, and no less than 350,000 pigs have been culled. Romania has requested support from the EU to offer damages to the affected farmers.

SPORTS – Romanian tennis player Marius Copil (no.93 ATP) is today facing German Alexander Zverev, second seeded and no.5 ATP, in the semi-finals of the Basel tennis tournament. Copil has previously defeated American Taylor Fritz and is playing his second match in Basel with a top 10 tennis player, after he surprisingly defeated Croat Marin Cilic, no.6 ATP, in the eighth finals. Playing in the other semi-final are first-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland and seven seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

WEATHER – The highs of the day range from 17 to 25 degrees C. The noon reading in Bucharest was 17 degrees C.