December 29, 2018

Click here for a roundup of news from Romania

România Internațional, 29.12.2018, 14:03

EU – The agenda of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European
Union will include several difficult files such as the multi-annual budget post
2020 and enhancing the EU’s global role, the Romanian foreign minister, Teodor
Meleşcanu, has said. In an exclusive interview on Radio Romania’s News Channel,
RRA, minister Melescanu has underlined that Romania wants to give more weight,
at European level, to the development of
the Black Sea area, so that it becomes a priority area for the EU, too, as it
is for NATO. In another move, the
official website of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European
Union was officially launched on Friday. Romania will take over the half-yearly
rotating presidency on January 1, 2019.
The website available in Romanian, English and French at romania2019.eu contains useful
information for journalists, experts on European affairs and the public at
large. The timetable of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European
Union will be posted on the website on January 15.

INAUGURATION – The ceremony of inaugurating the Romanian Presidency of the Council
of the European Union will be held in Bucharest on January 10, with the
President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and the members of
the College of Commissioners in attendance, according to the website www.romania2019.eu,
devoted to the Romanian presidency, a website which was officially launched on
Friday. According to the same source, on January 10, the Romanian Athenaeum
will host an inaugural concert of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the
European Union. Performing will be the EU Orchestra, made up of musicians from
all the 28 Member States, internationally acclaimed Romanian musicians such as Adela
Zaharia, Ruxandra Donose, Michael König and Sorin Coliban as well as the Choir
of the George Enescu Philharmonics. Ion Marin and Ion Iosif Prunner will be
conducting the orchestra and choir, respectively. Another inaugural concert of
the Romanian presidency will be given at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in
Brussels, on January 24. The Romanian Youth Orchestra conducted by Cristian Mandeal will be performing pieces
by prominent Romanian composers such as George Enescu, Theodor Rogalski,
Grigoraş Dinicu, George Grigoriu and Eugen Doga.

REACTIONS – Against the backdrop of Romania’s making preparations to take
over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union as of January
1, the EC President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has expressed doubt that the Romanian
Government is fully aware of what it means to lead the community block for six
months. In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, quoted by DPA
and Agerpres news agencies, Juncker has said that technically, Romania is very
well prepared for this mission. He has added however that the domestic
political dispute in Romania might leave the impression that the country is not
a united entity on the European scene. DPA
reports that last month, Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, said that his
country is not ready to assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the
European Union.

GOVERNMENT – Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă said on Friday, during the last
government meeting of the year, that the Regional Development Ministry has
attracted 876 million Euros worth of European funds to carry out projects in
the fields of education, healthcare, historical monuments, county roads and
urban mobility. The ministers decided that the unused money allocated to the
National Plan for Local Development should further be used by 2020, for the program which finances local public
authorities for ongoing projects. The cabinet also set the methodological norms
to grant meal, holiday and other such vouchers.

EGYPT
– The security forces have today killed 40 alleged terrorists in a series of
raids carried out in Egypt, in response to the blast which hit a bus full of Vietnamese tourists. According
to the latest death toll, three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian tour
guide died in the blast, and many others were injured when their bus was rocked by a roadside bomb near the famed
Giza Pyramid, near Cairo. This is the first attack on tourists in Egypt since July 2017.Tourism
which is a key sector of the Egyptian economy has been severely impacted by
political instability in the wake of the uprising of January 2011, which
toppled president Hosni Mubarak. After the 2013 ousting of Islamist president
Mohamed Morsi, by the army, Egypt has
been the target of many attacks perpetrated by extremist groups, which targeted
primarily the security forces and the Coptic Christian minority, resulting in
hundreds of deaths.

HANDBALL – Romania’s men’s handball team will take on the similar team of Poland
later today, in the 4 Nations Cup
final, hosted by the Polish town of Opole. Yesterday, in the semifinals,
Romania outperformed the Czech Republic and the host team, Poland, defeated
Japan. Japan and the Czech Republic play
the bronze final, also today. In early 2019, the national squad coached by
Spaniard Manuel Montoya and the former international handballer Eliodor Voica
will have a training session in Slovakia. A tournament will follow suit, with
host country Slovakia and the Netherlands taking part. We recall Romania’s
men’s national handball team failed to qualify for the World Championship due
in January 2019 and jointly hosted by Germany and Denmark. In exchange, Romania’s
women’s national handball team has already secured their participation in the
2019 edition of the World Championships, to be hosted by Japan. Romania came in
4th at the recently-held European championships in France.