Radio România Internațional

Tag: sibiu theatre festival

June 16, 2020 UPDATE

COVID-19 – The
government in Bucharest extended by another 30 days the state of alert, at the
same time easing some lockdown restrictions. Church services will resume inside
the churches with the observance of physical distancing and the mandatory
wearing of masks. Certain border crossing points will also reopen. Liberal
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has explained that most experts believe the state
of alert is necessary given the present epidemiological context. The
government’s decision must be approved by Parliament and the largest opposition
force, the Social-Democratic Party, have announced their intention not to
endorse an extension longer than 15 days. The Social-Democrats also believe the
relaxation measures proposed by the government are not enough. Romania has so
far reported 22,415 infections and a number of fatalities that has gone up to
1,437. Over 16 thousand patients have been cured. 34 hundred Romanians have
been confirmed infected abroad and 114 of them died.

FESTIVAL – The first weekend of the International Theatre
Festival in Sibiu, central Romania, which has this year been staged exclusively
online due to the COVID pandemic has registered an impressive audience. The
festival’s shows and other events posted on its Facebook or webpage at
sibfest.ro have registered roughly 181 thousand visitors. The event continues
until June 21 with prestigious dance, music, opera and street performances,
circus and special conferences, all broadcast online. The festival’s present
edition unfolds under the motto ‘The Power to Believe’. The International
Theatre Festival in Sibiu is the first big performing arts festival in Central
and Eastern Europe.

WEATHER – Romania is still facing extreme weather phenomena
in most of its territory, where meteorologists are expecting heavy downpours
and thunderstorms for the entire week. Scores of towns and villages have been
affected by the weather in 20 Romanian counties. Firefighters have been
deployed to pump water out of hundreds of households and public institutions or
to remove the fallen trees from the streets. Traffic has been temporarily
disrupted on national and county roads.

NATO – The Romanian Navy has handed over the command of
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group Two, a press release issued by the
Navy Chief of Staff on Tuesday announced. By assuming the command of the
aforementioned military force, Romania proved its capabilities as a security
provider for the defence of the allies as this navy force has made a major
contribution to maintaining the alliance’s battle and immediate response
capabilities in crisis situations as well as to the promotion of NATO’s images
and values. In the past six months, the group has carried out missions in the
Black Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea involving the participation of
military vessels from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Romania and Turkey.

FORESTS – The Senate on Tuesday passed the law on creating the
Directorate for Investigating Environment-related Crimes. The scope of
environment-related crime demands the specialization of prosecuting bodies in
this field and the allocation of resources for the creation of an institution
with specific and clear competences, the initiators of the draft law explain,
saying that in the last 5 years over 20 million cubic meters of forests have
disappeared illegally, causing a prejudice of hundreds of millions of Euro
every year. All Parliamentary groups have voted in favor of the project, with
the exception of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians.

BORDER – According to the Romanian authorities, 65,200
Romanian and foreign nationals transited Romania’s border checkpoints on
Monday. The traffic has increased by 60% as compared to the month of May.
Romania’s border with Hungary proved to be the busiest, as it has been crossed
by roughly 43,800 people. According to the same sources, the number of people
who entered Romania has doubled as compared to the previous state-of-alert
period.

(Translated
by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)

16 June 2020
June 12, 2018 UPDATE

VENICE COMMISSION – On Tuesday, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis met with a delegation of the Venice Commission, which is in Romania for talks on the modifications brought to the justice laws. At the end of the meeting, the head of state said he was looking forward to the specialists opinion. Also on Tuesday, the delegation held talks with members of the Special Parliamentary Committee in charge with the laws. Previously, the experts had met with judges of the Constitutional Court and asked for clarifications about the letter sent by the Court to several European institutions concerning the pressures that the court is allegedly subject to. On Monday, the delegation talked to the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader and the Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar. We recall that president Iohannis and the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have requested the opinion of the Venice Commission regarding the changes brought to the justice laws. The request was made against accusations launched by the right-wing opposition, part of the press and civic organizations according to which the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats are trying to stop the fight against corruption and get control over the magistrates. In another move, the Venice Commission has also been notified by the Constitutional Court of Romania about what the court magistrates say are attacks against the institution, following the courts opinion, which says that there is a legal constitutional conflict between the justice minister and the president of the country. The latter has rejected as ungrounded the request made by the justice minister regarding the removal from office of the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi.

RULING – Judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice have postponed for June 29th the verdict in the case involving the former head of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism Alina Bica, businessman Dorin Cocos and his son. Bica is accused of aggravated abuse of office while employed as a secretary of state and representing the Justice Ministry in the Central Commission for Compensation Settlement within the National Authority for Property Restitution. The former chief of the anti-mafia prosecutors office is in Costa Rica, together with Dorin Cocos ex-wife, Elena Udrea, herself a former minister and tried for corruption. For a very long time, Elena Udrea was dubbed the most influential member of the ex-President Traian Basescus circle. The 2 have requested political asylum in Costa Rica.

INFLATION – The annual inflation rate in Romania went up to 5.4% in May, the highest level registered in the past five years. The increase occurred against the background of prices going up for foodstuffs, by almost 4%, for non-food products by almost 8% and for services by almost 3%. The National Bank of Romania has recently revised upwards, to 3.6%, the inflation rate forecast for the end of the year, and to 3% the inflation rate for the end of 2019.

CONFERENCE– At a conference held on Tuesday under the title “We are inventing the future! Our bet on science!”, Romanias president Klaus Iohannis said that there is still a gap between Romania and Western Europe in economic and social terms and pointed out that Romanias modernisation in the future depends a great deal on its investment in innovation. Iohannis said that special attention needs to be paid to the development of major projects in strategic fields and that research is the key of any sustainable economic growth strategy. “Increased European funds absorption and private investment are a must for Romania to be able to develop its research infrastructure,” the head of state also said.

SUMMIT– The US President Donald Trump has stated he is very proud of the outcome of his historic meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The latter has in turn promised that the world will see a major change. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have pledged to work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The American leader has given assurances that this process will start very soon and that the relationship with North Korea will be very different. According to Reuters, although the summit in Singapore marks only the beginning of a diplomatic process, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixons visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.

THEATRE – The 25th International Theatre Festival continues in Sibiu (central Romania). This is the largest performing arts event in Romania and one of the most important in Europe. Some 60 events were held on Tuesday, the 5th day of the festival, including 14 street performances, 5 dance shows and 8 theatre performances. Thousands of artists from over 70 countries are performing every day both in theatre halls and in unconventional venues.

HANDBALL– Romanias national womens handball team will play against Norway, Germany and the Czech Republic in group D of this years European Championships, according to the drawing of lots held on Tuesday in Paris. The final tour will take place between 29 November – 16 December. At the previous edition of the championships, two years ago, the Romanian squad came in 5th. On Wednesday, Romanias mens squad will play in Cluj, north-western Romania, against the Macedonian team, a decisive match in the qualifiers for the 2019 World Championship, to be hosted by Denmark and Germany. In the first game hosted by Skopje on Sunday, the Romanian handball players were defeated 24 – 32.

12 June 2018
June 9, 2018

FINANCES – Romanians working abroad are among Romania’s most important investors, Central Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu has said. Isarescu has taken into account the value and destination of the money they send to the country. The Central Bank has said that the money of the Romanians working abroad is more and more used in starting a business. Around 3.5 million Romanians are working abroad, with countries such as Spain, Germany and Britain as their main destination.

CEREMONY – General Nicolae Ciuca, the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, is today attending the ceremony occasioned by the anniversary of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, at the invitation of Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart William Peach, according to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry. This is recognition of the good cooperation between the two armies and an opportunity to promote at military level the interests of the Romanian Army in the relation with the British Army, one of its most important allies, the communiqué also reads.

FESTIVAL– The Sibiu International Theatre Festival, which started on Friday, continues with over 40 events being held today. One of the festival’s sold-out shows is “Alle-Retour”, directed by Gigi Caciuleanu, which brings on the stage of the State Philharmonic Romanian and French dancers. Almost 13 million Euros is the budget of this years edition of the festival. Until June 17, the audience will have the opportunity to watch some 524 performances. The 25th edition of the festival has brought to Sibiu 3,300 artists from 73 countries. This is the first year when the festival has two honorary patrons: the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, a former mayor of Sibiu, and Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, who is famous for his passion for the region of Transylvania.

RALLY – Romanian authorities have announced that extensive security measures will be taken during the public gatherings and marches to unfold later today in the capital Bucharest. The Social Democratic Party (PSD), the main party of the ruling coalition, is staging a rally, which, according to its leader, Liviu Dragnea, is against what he calls the abuse and violation of the principles of the rule of law. On Friday, the High Court of Cassation and Justice postponed again, for June 21st, the ruling in a case involving the Chamber of Deputies Speaker, Liviu Dragnea, who is accused of corruption deeds. Dragnea denies all allegations. In 2016 he received a 2-year suspended prison sentence for attempting to rig a 2012 national referendum calling for impeachment of the country’s president. A March for Normality is also being held in Bucharest later today, in support of the values of traditional family, at the same time with a March for Diversity, promoting the rights of sexual minorities as human rights.

TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, no.1 in the WTA rankings and first-seed at the French Open, is today playing the final against the American Sloane Stephens, no.10 in the world. In the semifinals, Halep defeated the Spanish Garbine Muguruza, number three in the world, and winner in Paris in 2016, while Sloane Stephens defeated her co-national Madison Keys (no.13 WTA). This is the third Roland Garros final for Simona Halep, after the ones in 2014 and 2017, which she did not manage to win. (Translated by Elena Enache)

9 June 2018
16 June, 2017

Government. The prime minister of the leftist government in Bucharest,
Sorin Grindeanu, who refuses to resign, has called for a meeting of the Social
Democratic Party Congress as a solution to the ongoing political crisis.
Earlier, the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats decided to initiate a no-confidence vote in
Parliament against its own government, which is to take place next week. Also,
the National Executive Committee of the Social Democrats decided to exclude
Grindeanu from the party. The leader of the Social Democrats Liviu Dragnea and
that of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Calin Popescu Tariceanu blame
the prime minister for lack of efficiency in the implementation of the
governing programme, an accusation Grindeanu has rejected. President Klaus
Iohannis has called on the ruling coalition to solve its problem internally.

Visit. Luxembourg’s prime
minister Xavier Bettel is on a visit to Romania until Sunday. Today, he meets
president Iohannis to discuss ways to consolidate and expand bilateral
cooperation and European affairs. Xavier Bettel also met his Romanian
counterpart Sorin Grindeanu. On Saturday, Iohannis and Bettel travel to Sibiu,
in the centre, to attend events celebrating 10 years since the city held the
title of European Capital of Culture.

Theatre. The International Theatre Festival continues in Sibiu,
where the city’s mediaeval streets and historic centre have been turned into
outdoor stages for shows and circus performances from companies from around the
world. More than 40 different performances are scheduled on Day 8 of the
festival. The famous dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov will again give his one-man
show based on the poems of Nobel Prize winner Iosif Brodski. The biggest
performing arts festival in Romania and one of the biggest in the world, the
Sibiu International Theatre Festival comes to an end on Sunday.

Inflation. The
annual inflation rate dropped in May to 1.4% in the eurozone and to 1.6% in the
European Union from 1.9% and 2%, respectively, in April, the Eurostat announced
today. Ireland, Romania, Denmark and Holland saw the lowest inflation rates in
the European Union. The highest levels were reported in Estonia, Lithuania and
the UK. According to Eurostat, the inflation rate in the eurozone is moving
further from the target level of the European Central Bank, which wants to
maintain price increases to around 2%, a level it sees as beneficial to
economic activity.

Tourism. The number of foreign
visitors who used accommodation in Romania in the first quarter of the year
stood at around 450,000. They spent around 220 million in the country,
according to the National Institute for Statistics. Last year, Romania received
2.4 million foreign visitors, who spent 530 euros per person on average.
Business was the main reason for the trips by non-residents visitors in the
first quarter of the year, followed by congresses, conferences, courses, fairs
and exhibitions, while the amount they spent in the country accounted for 66%
of the total.

Handball. The
Romanian men’s handball side were categorically defeated by Belarus 32-22 on Thursday
night as part of a Group 2 qualifying match ahead of the 2018 European
Championships hosted by Croatia. Romania are now in the third place in their
group. In their final match, they will face Poland on the 18th of
June, but have very slim chances to qualify. The two best-ranked teams, Serbia
and Belarus, will most likely qualify.

16 June 2017
11 June, 2017

The Romanian prime minister Sorin Grindeanu travels to
Zagreb on Monday for talks with Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar, prime
minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic. According
to a government press release, talks are expected to tackle bilateral and
European issues, including the future of the European Union, with both Romania
and Croatia supporting the need for the bloc’s cohesion and solidarity. The two
countries also plan to work together to join the Schengen area. An agreement
will be signed during prime minister Grindeanu’s visit on the mutual protection
of classified information, as well as a memorandum of understanding on the
cooperation between the two countries’ Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Beginning on the
11th of June, Ukrainian citizens will be able to travel to the
European Union, including Romania, without visas, if their stay does not exceed
90 days. The agreement covers all EU countries with the exception of UK and
Ireland. The Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has described the measure as a huge step towards
Europe and as proof of the efficiency of Ukraine’s reforms. The General
Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police said Ukrainian citizens are allowed
to enter the country if they produce documents justifying the purpose of the
visit, the conditions of their stay and proof that they have the financial
means to support their stay and return to their country of origin or to another
transit state that allows them entry. The provisions of an agreement between
the Romanian and Ukrainian governments on small-scale border traffic also
remain in place.

One month after the presidential elections won by the
centrist Emmanuel Macron, French citizens again go to the ballots today in the
first round of the parliamentary elections. Macron seeks a majority in
Parliament for his new party La République en Marche!
which he founded in 2016. Opinion polls indicate this party would win almost a
third of the votes in the first round and would secure a huge majority in the
second round, which takes place next Sunday. The conservative right and its
allies would become the biggest opposition group, followed by the far-right
National Front.

The Transylvania International
Film Festival came to an end on Saturday night in Cluj Napoca with an award
gala. The festival’s trophy went to the Georgian production My Happy Family
directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili şi Simon Gross. 12 films were in competition,
including 8 by first-time directors. Guđmundur Arnar Guđmundsson won the best
director award and the public’s award for his film Heartstone. The jury’s
special prize went to Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country featuring the Romanian
actor Alec Secareanu. The famous French actor Alain Delon received a lifetime
achievement award. The 81-year-old actor travelled to Romania for the first
time to pick up his award and attend a special screening of The Pigot Affair
which he himself directed and starred in. The Romanian actress Tora Vasilescu
received an excellence award for a career spanning 40 years and tens of
remarkable roles.

Tens of events are scheduled
today on Day 3 of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, the biggest
performing arts festival in Romania and one of the biggest in the world. The
day’s events include parades, street animation and circus acts by companies
from France, Spain, South Korea, Germany and Guadalupe Island, as well as a staging of the show Gospel by the well-known Italian
director Pippo
Delbono. Almost 3,300 participants from 72 different countries come together in
Sibiu for ten days and almost 500 different performances and cultural events.
The festival’s theme this year is Love.

Romania lost
3-1 to Poland on Saturday in Warsaw in a Group E match as part of the World Cup
qualifiers. In other group matches, Kazakhstan lost to Denmark 1-3, while
Montenegro defeated Armenia 4-nil. The group’s absolute leaders are Poland,
with 16 points, followed by Montenegro and Denmark, each with 10 points,
Romania and Armenia, each with 6 points, and Kazakhstan with 2 points. Romania
will next face Armenia at home on 1st of September.

11 June 2017
16 June, 2016 UPDATE

Mircea Basescu, the brother of the former
Romanian president Traian Basescu, has been sentenced to four years in prison
for influence peddling in a corruption trial prosecuted two years ago.
According to the prosecution, between February 2011 and February 2012, Mircea
Basescu received a quarter of a million euros to use his influence with
magistrates in the prosecution of a criminal case to obtain a reduced sentence
or a favourable ruling.

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday ended
his official trip to Bulgaria with a visit to the building site of the
Giurgiu-Ruse gas pipeline, which is due to be inaugurated at the end of the
year. Also on Thursday, Iohannis visited Plevna, Grivita and Pordim, three
emblematic places that played a key role in Romania’s winning its independence
and in the liberation of Bulgaria. The Romanian president paid tribute to the
Romanian soldiers killed in the 1877 war for the liberation of Bulgaria from
under Ottoman rule. On Wednesday, Iohannis had talks with his counterpart Rosen
Plevneliev about ways to consolidate economic, political and military
cooperation between their countries. The two officials stood for boosting
defence in the Black Sea area. In a press conference held on Thursday in Sofia
together with the Bulgarian president and the country’s defence minister, the
Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov ruled out his country’s participation
in a joint Black Sea military fleet. Klaus Iohannis said Romania’s proposal was
in fact to create a joint naval initiative to carry out training exercises
under the NATO umbrella, and not to set up a permanent fleet.

The French president Francois Hollande will travel to Romania on the 12th
and 13th of September, the state secretary for European Affairs in
the French Foreign Ministry, Harlem Desir, told a joint press conference with
Romania’s foreign minister Lazar Comanescu. Harlem Desir, who visited the
Operational Command Centre of the Romanian Border Police, said that in matters
of border security, the cooperation between Romania and France is exemplary,
and that Bucharest has made significant progress in respect of its Schengen
accession. Lazar Comanescu said that as far as Romania is concerned, its
Schengen entry would enhance the European Union’s ability to defend its
borders. On Thursday, the two officials are paying a two-day working visit to the
Republic of Moldova, given that Romania and France are holding the presidency
of the European Action Group for Moldova.

Labour
MP Jo Cox died in hospital after she was shot and stabbed in the street in
Birstall, northern England. She was attacked in her own constituency by a man
who may have been in favour of Britain’s leaving the European Union, according
to sources quoted by the British media. The EU referendum campaigning has been
suspended for a day.

The Joint Chief Staff of Staff of the Romanian Army Nicolae Ciuca on
Thursday attended the ANAKONDA-16 multinational exercise carried out in
north-western Poland. The Romanian military contributed 250 soldiers and about
40 pieces of hardware. The exercise, which runs until the 17th of
June, brings together 25,000 soldiers from 19 NATO member countries and is the
biggest military drill held in Poland in the last 25 years.

One of the biggest performing arts festivals in
the world, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival continues with a
comprehensive programme to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s death. On Thursday and Friday, the Actors Gang company from the
US stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Oscar winning American actor Tim
Robbins, who is in Sibiu. On Saturday, he will receive a star on the city’s
Walk of Fame. The festival, which is now in its 23rd year, brings
together 2,500 participants from 70 different countries and features theatre
performances, music concerts, exhibitions, workshops, film screenings and book
launches.

16 June 2016
12 June, 2016

The
Romanian foreign minister Lazar Comanescu is attending the 21st
European Forum that got under way on Saturday in Wachau, Austria under the
title Europe
– united in sunny times, divided in times of crisis? Lazar Comanescu, who
attended the opening, said Romania supported the idea of a stronger and more
united Europe in keeping with European treaties and fundamental values, in the
common interest of all European players. The Forum in Wachau brings together
government officials, representative figures from the world of science and
culture, as well as media professionals from EU member states, in particular
from central and eastern Europe.

As of Monday, the Romanian Naval Forces and the US Navy
will be carrying out drills in the Black Sea to exercise standard procedures
and enhance interoperability between the fleets of the two states. Romania
participates with the Queen Marie Frigate, a corvette, two dredgers, two rocket
vessels, a Puma Naval helicopter and divers from the Special Operations unit.
Two MiG21 Lancer planes belonging to the Romanian Air Forces will also be used
in combat simulations. The US participates with its USS Porter destroyer, which
will be exercising standard communications procedures with the Romanian Navy.
The vessel first arrived in the Constanta port in 2006, and this is its third
trip to Romania.

The Romanian Cultural Institute
celebrates, in the Cernauti region in western Ukraine, near the common
border, the 75th anniversary of the first deportations carried out
by the occupying Soviets in the eastern Romanian territories annexed by Moscow
in 1940, following an ultimatum. Bucharest’s National Theatre is staging a
production called Twenty Years in Siberia based on a book written by
Aniţa Nandriş-Cudla, a Romanian village woman from Bukovina. Her book is one of
the most important records of the ordeal of tens of thousands of Romanians from
northern Bukovina and Bessarabia sent to the Soviet Gulag in the aftermath of
WWII. Following the annexation of Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and the Hertza
region, the Romanian population in these areas was subject to a wide-scale
campaign that included deportations, arrests and forced displacement. The
campaign lasted until 1956 and made hundreds of thousands of victims. The first
wave of deportations took place on the night of 12th June 1941 and
targeted 32,000 people, including many public figures.

Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella travels to Romania next week, followed by Germany’s president Joachim Gauck later this month. The latter’s talks with the Romanian officials will also tackle economic aspects, given that Germany is Romania’s biggest trade partner and the third biggest investor in the Romanian economy. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis extended an invitation to the Italian president to visit Romania during his official trip to Italy in April last year. In February 2015, Iohannis also paid an official visit to Germany, followed by a working visit in February this year.

Theatre performances and other
cultural activities are scheduled for the third day of the International
Theatre Festival in Sibiu, one of the largest events dedicated to the
performing arts in the world. Sunday’s line-up features a choreographic
performance by Gigi Caciuleanu, a staging of Silviu Purcarete’s Faust
and performances by theatre companies from Lithuania and Japan. The festival,
which opened on Friday, is now in its 23rd year and brings together
2,500 participants from 70 different countries, as well as 450 performances.
The director of the festival, Constantin Chiriac, said this year’s edition had
a budget of 9 million euros.

Today, in Group D, Turkey face Croatia, while in Group C,
Germany face Ukraine and Poland take on Northern Ireland. On Saturday, Wales
defeated Slovakia 2-1, while England drew 1-all against Russia. UEFA has
started an investigation into the violence that broke out after the
England-Russia game when a group of Russian fans stormed past stewards to
confront English fans, who tried to escape by climbing over the barriers. In
Group A, Switzerland defeated Albania 1-nil on Saturday, while on Friday,
Romania lost to France 2-1. The following Group A matches are scheduled for
Wednesday, when Romania meet Switzerland and France take on Albania. (Translated by: C. Mateescu)

12 June 2016