PRESS
The situation of the
media in Romania is not very rosy, there is plenty of room for improvement and
the country should show the headway made in this respect in the upcoming rule
of law report, the European Commission’s Vice-president for values and
transparency, Vera Jourova, said in Brussels on Wednesday. According to the European
Commission’s 2022 rule of law report, media in Romania is facing a series of
issues such as the incomplete transparency of the media ownership and the cases
in which journalists have been subjected to harassment and violence. Asked if
the new legislative instruments proposed by the European Commission last year and
currently under implementation are enough to tackle this issue, Vera Jourova
gave an affirmative answer. ‘Romania still has enough space to do something in
this respect without being pushed by the EU laws. I went to Romania and want to
go back again due to the legal issues and of course it is in Romania’s interest
to also show some progress in the rule of law report in July’, Vera Jourova
went on to say.
TALKS The Education Committee with the Chamber
of Deputies in Bucharest is to resume talks today over the amendments in the
University Education Law after the talks over the pre-university education were
concluded on Wednesday. Centers of Excellence could be staged for some fields
of study under the new law. The threshold of 60% for the additional exam has
been cut down to 50% but the ministry’s initial version with the language
skills evaluation test in two languages of international circulation has been
kept. Religion has been introduced as the optional discipline for the
profile-specific test.
SUPPORT As of May 1st, the
executive in Bucharest is changing the way of granting financial support to the
Ukrainian refugees. So money is now given directly to the refugee not to the
family housing them as happened until now. The grant is unconditionally offered
only for one month after which the refugees will have to find jobs and send
their children to schools or kindergartens. If they want to benefit from
financial support from the fifth month of their stay they must prove they have
found a job in Romania.
TENNIS Three tennis
players from Romania are today taking on their opponents in the second round of
the WTA 1000 tennis tournament in Madrid, a competition with over 7.7 million
euros in prize money. Irina Begu of Romania will be up against Karolina Muchova
of the Czech Republic and Ana Bogdan will be playing Shelby Rogers of the USA.
Sorana Cirstea will meet second-seeded Arina Sabalenka of Belarus. Jacqueline
Cristian is another Romanian to have qualified for the second round after a win
against Sloane Stephens of the USA. The Romanian will next be up against
Anastasia Popapova of Russia.
BOXING Three boxers from Romania will be
attending the World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan over May 1st
and 14th. The three athletes are, Andrei Muset in the 67 kilogram
category, Paul Aradoaie in the 80 kilogram and Emanuel Mica in the 92 kilogram
category. They are accompanied by coaches Dumitru Dorobantu and Napoleon
Gheorghe. We recall that Aradoaie, an European youth champion and European
under-22 champion, won bronze at the European championship in Yerevan last year
in the 86 kilogram category. That was the first medal for the Romanian boxers
after a break of 7 years since the bronze won by Mihai Nistor in 2015. Lots are
to be drawn on April 30th and the first matches are due on May 1st.
The quarterfinals are due on May 10th and two days later the
semifinals of the aforementioned competition. At the world championships in
2021 in Belgrade, Aradoaie stopped in the round of 16 while the other Romanian
representative, Dumitru Vicol, was eliminated in the first round of the 76
kilogram category.
(bill)