March 26, 2019 UPDATE

President Iohannis Tuesday had talks with representatives of civil society on the justice referendum

Newsroom, 26.03.2019, 19:58

CONSULTATIONS President Klaus Iohannis Tuesday had consultations with representatives of civil society regarding the justice referendum. The President last week said he was almost determined to call a referendum coinciding with the European Parliament election of May 26. The president’s announcement followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling sanctioning a referendum on the same day as the European Parliament election. On Wednesday the head of state will also hold talks with representatives of magistrate associations on the current state of affairs in the judiciary.

VISIT Vaccination, the assessment of medical technology, tobacco control, cancer prevention and antibiotic resistance were among the topics approached in Bucharest on Tuesday by the Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea and the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis. Previously, the EU official was also received by President Klaus Iohannis. Vytenis Andriukaitis attended the Global Forum on “Human Rights and a World without Tobacco and called for the elimination of tobacco products from supermarkets, considering it is not rated as foodstuff. Vytenis Andriukaitis is on an official visit to Bucharest over March 26-27, and on Wednesday he will attend the opening of the 4th annual conference on tobacco control organized by the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention jointly with the Romanian Pneumology Society.

DST The European Parliament Tuesday voted, by a large majority, to end daylight saving time in the EU as of 2021. Member states will therefore scrap the practice of clock changes twice a year, and will choose to keep either permanent summer time or winter time. Under the draft resolution, the countries that decide to make summer time permanent will change clocks for the last time on the last Sunday of March 2021. Conversely, the countries that opt for permanent standard time will change clocks one final time in October 2021. The European Commission proposed to end biannual clock changes in 2018, after a poll that shows overwhelming support for the move, with 84% of 4.6 million respondents in favour of abolishing daylight saving.

EU-CHINA Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emanuel Macron and the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Tuesday held talks in Paris with Chinese President Xi Jinping about future relations between Europe and China. The Chinese President is on a tour of Europe to gather support for his project, “The New Silk Road, aimed at linking China to Europe by means of a thousand-billion-dollar investment by 2030. Several EU states have signed protocols expressing their desire to join the project, and last week Europes third-largest economy, Italy, currently facing severe economic imbalances, became the first G7 country to sing. European Commission representatives have called for the immediate establishment of a joint strategy, concerned with Chinese investment in key sectors in Member States, such as electricity grids, high-speed rail networks and port infrastructure.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)