24 January 2020, UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 24.01.2020, 19:25

Union. The 161st
anniversary of the Union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia was celebrated on Friday across the country. On the 24th of January
1859, Alexander Ioan Cuza, who, a week earlier, had been elected ruler of
Moldavia, was also voted unanimously by the Electoral Assembly in Bucharest as
the sovereign of Wallachia and thus proclaimed ruler of the United
Principalities. Cuza’s reign laid the institutional foundations of modern
Romania through a number of radical reforms. The civil and criminal codes were
adopted, both inspired by the French model, a national army was created,
primary education became obligatory and the first universities were
established: in Iasi in 1860, and in Bucharest four years later. Cuza was forced
to abdicate and go into exile in 1866. He was followed by the future King Carol
I from the German princely family of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Carol’s long
reign would see Romania obtain its state independence from the Ottoman Empire
and regain the south-eastern, Black Sea province of Dobrudja following the Russian-Romanian-Turkish
war of 1877. In 1918, under King Ferdinand, aka The Unifier, the creation of
the Romanian nation state became complete as Transylvania, Banat, Crisana,
Maramures, Bukovina and Bessarabia, historical provinces with a majority ethnic
Romanian population and which had until then been under the occupation of
neighbouring multinational empires, became united with Romania.

Celebrations. The need of the
Romanian people to be together, later turned into a national ideal, made
possible the first Union, the foundation stone of today’s modern and European
Romania, said president Klaus Iohannis on Friday in Iasi, in the north-east. He
said the Union was the extraordinary work of the 1848 generation and the ruler
Alexander Ioan Cuza, and today’s politicians must assume the role of reformers.
The Romanian people have shown that they want a modern, prosperous, European
country where every citizen feels respected, lives a decent life and where
state institutions are prompt and efficient, president Iohannis also said.
Prime minister Ludovic Orban, who was also in Iasi, spoke about building a new
regional hospital in this city and investments in road infrastructure, in
particular a motorway to connect the east to the west of Romania, whose
construction is laid down in law.

Coronavirus. The
Chinese authorities have begun the construction of a new hospital able to
receive, within 10 days, 1,000 patients infected with the new type of
coronavirus, the Chinese state media reports. The hospital is to be built in
Wuhan, in the centre, a city of 11 million at the epicentre of the outbreak and which has been in quarantine since Thursday. The hospital will receive exclusively
patients with viral pneumonia, which has infected some 900 people since
December, causing almost 30 deaths. The World Health Organisation has decided,
however, not to declare an international state of alert in the face of the new
virus.

Diaspora. The Convention of the Romanians Abroad took place on Friday in
Bucharest. According to the foreign ministry, this year’s edition brought
together a record number of participants and acted as a useful platform to
discuss topical issues concerning the relationship between the Romanian
citizens who live abroad and Romania. Talks focused, among others, on the
representation of the Romanian communities abroad in the Parliament in
Bucharest, the status of Romanians on the EU employment market and their return
to their native country. The Convention of the Romanians Abroad is an annual
event that brings together representatives of the Romanian communities abroad,
as well as representatives of the Romanian Parliament and government and of the
European Parliament and local officials.

Genomics. The ministry of European funds in Bucharest
will begin efforts to finance a national institute of genomics, says minister Marcel
Bolos. He has explained that Romania needs such an institute to promote this
new type of medicine dealing with diagnosing and treating the diseases caused
by genetic mutations and to support the reform of research and medical
services. The project would have immense impact on cancer patients and the personalised
treatment, as well as those suffering from rare diseases and the identification
of certain risks during pregnancy, the minister has also said.

EU ambassador. Joao Vale de Almeida will be the
European Union’s first ambassador to the UK and will take his office on the 1st
of February, one day after Brexit, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
has said. Vale de Almeida, who is 62, has also served as UE ambassador to the United
States, from 2010 to 2014, and to the United Nations, from 2015 to 2019.

Table tennis. The Romanian women’s table tennis side on Friday qualified
for the Tokyo Olympic Games as they defeated India 3:2 in a decisive match at a
qualifying tournament held in Lisbon. Thanks to this win, Romania will also be
able to send two singles players in Tokyo, its delegation for the Olympic Games
in Tokyo now numbering 53 athletes in total.