May 2, 2019 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 02.05.2019, 19:40

HOLOCAUST – Romanian Prime Minister
Viorica Dancila on Thursday joined leaders in politics and culture from across
the world in commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. The March for Life is
an annual event in which participants walk between the former death camps of
Auschwitz and Birkenau. The Romanian official said the tragic anti-Semitic
events in Europe over the last years are proof of the importance to identify
new ways of combating anti-Semitism. In this context, Prime Minister Dancila
reiterated Romania’s commitment to combat anti-Semitism. The Prime Minister
called for consolidating the education of the younger generations so they may
be capable to denounce and combat any form of extremism, intolerance, racism
and anti-Semitism.

COMPET – Bucharest hosts an informal meeting of the Competitiveness
Council as part of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The two
day meeting, focused on domestic markets and industry, is chaired by Romanian
Economy Minister Niculae Badalau, while the European Commission is being
represented by Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market
and Services. Participating are ministers in charge of the economy, industry,
domestic markets, and entrepreneurship from the 28 EU member countries, as well
as associate members Switzerland and Norway.

CYBERCRIME – Cybercrime incidents and suspicions of cybercrime can
now be reported by dialing 1191 in Romania on all provider networks. The call
center servicing the number offers emergency assistance, as well as diagnosis
and repair services, as announced a week ago by Minister of Communications
Alexandru Petrescu. He said that the initiative comes in response to the fact
that computer education and cybersecurity education are below par in Romania.
The minister said that last year Romania was a source of cyberattacks, but also
a target for such incidents. The risk is considered to be at an average but
rising level.

CONFERENCE – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will be a guest of
honor at the State of the Union conference held by the European University
Institute in Florence, as the head of state of the country holding the
presidency of the Council of the European Union. The meeting is being held
around the topic of democracy in Europe in the 21st century, right before
elections for the European Parliament.

POLL – 25.6% of Romanians responding to a privately funded poll
regarding the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, scheduled for May
26, favor the National Liberal Party, the main opposition party in Romania. The
Liberals are followed by the main ruling coalition party, the Social Democrats,
with 21.7%, the 2020 USR PLUS opposition alliance, and the ALDE, the main
ruling coalition group, with 16.4%, with other groups getting figures around or
below 12%. The poll was run in April on a sample of 1,010 people, with a margin
of error of 3.1%. On the same day, Romanians will be called on to vote in a
referendum on justice legislation amendments introduced by President Klaus
Iohannis.

FORUM – Deputy Prime Minister Ana Birchall on Thursday attended the
first edition of the EU-US Energy Forum held in Brussels. On this occasion, Ana
Birchall gave a speech on the development of natural gas infrastructure.
Romania pays special attention to consolidating trans-Atlantic relations, a
partnership that has become increasingly relevant against the backdrop of the
latest political, economic and security challenges. Security and energy
diversity are the main priorities of our term at the helm of the Council of the
European Union, Ana Birchall said. The Romanian official also said Romania is
deeply committed to completing joint projects for the development of energy
infrastructure.