July 3, 2023
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 03.07.2023, 13:55
Schengen. Spain supports Romanias accession to the Schengen Area, the Spanish Ambassador to Bucharest, José Antonio Hernández Pérez-Solórzano, has stated. At the press conference hosted by the office of the European Commission Representation in Romania , which marked the taking over, by Spain, of the six-month presidency of the EU Council, he stated that the issue of Romanias and Bulgarias accession to Schengen will be put on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council most likely this fall. “It is a priority of our presidency to include Romania and Bulgaria in the Schengen Area”, added the official. In turn, the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminita Odobescu, said that the Schengen Area will be stronger when Romania becomes a full member. The European Commission believes that Bucharest has been prepared for several years to join the Schengen area and has met all the requirements, and the European Parliament has given a clear signal of support. MEPs believe that the decision to leave Romania and Bulgaria outside the free movement area is discriminatory, both for the residents of the two countries and for the diaspora.
Visit. The first visit to the West by the Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu will take place this week to Germany, where he will meet with the Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In addition to the bilateral economic relationship, which the officials in Bucharest call exceptional, the discussions will also focus on the issue of security. Prime Minister Ciolacu will be accompanied on his visit to Berlin by several ministers, including the Minister of Defence, Angel Tâlvăr. Last year, Romania was visited twice by the federal president, Franz Walter Steinmeier and, for the first time, in April, by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Last month, shortly after the investiture, Ciolacu made his first visit abroad to the neighboring Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, majority Romanian-speaking), where he reiterated Romanias support for that countrys European path.
SRI. The head of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), Eduard Hellvig, has announced his resignation today “I believe that since I have achieved my proposed objectives, there is no reason to keep holding this office. We have managed to restructure the institution, promoted a new generation in management positions and made available to society information from the Former Securitate Archives”, Hellvig says in a statement for the press. Eduard Hellvig was appointed Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service in 2015.
Ship. The training ship “Mircea” of the Romanian Navy left, today, from the Constanţa Military Port (south-east, on the Black Sea) on an international training march. It has on board 67 students from the “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy and 12 foreign students from partner academies from Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Latvia, Spain and Italy. The training march will last 28 days, during which the sailing ship will dock in three ports: Piraeus in Greece, Taranto in Italy and Izmir in Turkey. In all these ports, the sailboat will be open for visits. The training ship will return to Constanta on July 31.
Paris. France had a night of relative calm, without major incidents, after the violence during the week, caused by the death of a teenager shot dead by the police at a traffic control, in the Paris region. Law enforcement maintained a massive presence on the streets, and the young mans relatives publicly spoke out against the looting and destruction triggered by protests and called for an end to the riots. In five nights of protests, the authorities counted 5,000 burned vehicles, almost 1,000 burned or damaged buildings and 250 attacks on police and gendarmerie stations. According to the correspondent of Radio Romania in Paris, the most affected are the public buildings – schools, town halls, offices of some institutions -, which were devastated and set on fire. Over 700 shops and 250 bank agencies were broken into and looted throughout the country. Inspired by the riots in France, more than 100 young people of African descent gathered in the center of the city of Lausanne, in neighboring Switzerland, and attacked several shops, with the intention of robbing them. The police detained seven people, including six minors.
Tennis. Romanian tennis player Irina Begu, 29th seed, will play her first match at the Wimbledon tournament, the third Grand Slam of the year, against a player from Canada, Rebecca Marino. This will be the first confrontation between Begu (32 years old, 29 WTA) and Marino (32 years old, 83 WTA). Sorana Cîrstea (33 years old, 36 WTA) will take on the German athlete Tatjana Maria (35 years old, 58 WTA), last years semi-finalist in the London tournament. Cîrstea leads 3-1 in direct matches. Ana Bogdan (30 years old, 61 WTA) will have a difficult match in the first round, against the Russian Liudmila Samsonova (24 years old, 15 WTA). Jaqueline Cristian (25 years old, 133 WTA) also entered the main draw, thanks to the protected ranking, and in the first round she will face the Italian Lucia Bronzetti (24 years old, 65 WTA). Canadian player of Romanian origin Bianca Andreescu will play against the Hungarian Anna Bondar in the first round. (MI)
