Radio România Internațional

Tag: Sorana

July 7, 2023 UPDATE

TENNIS Romanian tennis player
Sorana Cirstea has qualified for the third round of the Grand Slam tennis
tournament in Wimbledon after a three-set win against Jelena Ostapenko of
Latvia. The WTA 37th Cirstea has never got over the third round of
the Wimbledon competition, which she reached four times in 2009, 2021, 2017 and
2021. She will be next up against Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil on Saturday.
Haddad, a finalist of the Roland Garros tournament a couple of weeks ago, on
Thursday eliminated Romanian Jaqueline Cristian. Two other Romanian players,
Ana Bogdan and Irina Begu left the competition on Friday.

ARRESTS Romania’s Prime Minister
Marcel Ciolacu has called on the country’s Labour Minister, Marius Budai, to dismiss
the boards of the National Agency for Social Inspection and its branch in
Ilfov, southern Romania, following the scandal over the inhuman conditions in several
old people’s homes in the region. In the meantime, Marius Budai has ordered
checks and measures from all the directions involved in the case and upon the
Prime Minister’s request, commissions will be set up in every county. Four
people have been apprehended so far in the aforementioned file, whereas 11 others
have been placed under house arrest and six under judicial control. Following
this case, with a prejudice that exceeds one million euros, inspections have
been ordered at similar institutions all over the country. Among other things,
prosecutors are investigating the way in which the aforementioned centers have
got their operating permits.

SUMMIT Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will be participating in
the NATO summit in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday, the presidential
administration in Bucharest has announced. The summit is to include three
high-level meetings of the North-Atlantic Council, in formats, which include
Ukraine, the European Union as well as NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners. At the
summit, the Romanian president is expected to underline the fundamental
importance of continuing the implementation of the Madrid decisions on
strengthening the allied defence and deterrence posture on the Eastern Flank.
Iohannis will also reiterate the robust support for Ukraine, including its NATO’s
accession, as well as for the most vulnerable partners, especially for the
Republic of Moldova. According to the same sources, the head of the Romanian state
will be also referring to the need for having the importance of the Black Sea
region in the Euro-Atlantic security reflected in the allied documents and
decisions.

DEFENCE The Country’s Supreme Defence Council on
Thursay approved the creation in Romania of a regional centre to train pilots
flying military F16 aircraft. The centre will initially train Romanian pilots
and later also pilots from allied and partner states, including Ukraine. The
Council also approved Romania’s objectives for the upcoming NATO summit in
Vilnius next week. President Klaus Iohannis will again bring to the fore
aspects related to the security of the Black Sea region. According to a
statement from the president’s office, Romania is ready to contribute to the
allied effort both by hosting NATO multinational structures and by boosting its
defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from this year. The Council also approved the
army and interior ministry personnel to take part next year in foreign missions
and operations, with Romania’s boosting its participation in the EUFOR ALTHEA missions in the Bosnia and Herzegovina
theatre of operations.

(bill)

7 July 2023
Hăbări ditu bana românească şi internaţională

DZUUA. Evenimentili culturali ndreapti tru idyiulu kiro tru România, Ripublica Moldova viţină și comunitățle istoriţi ditu Diaspora nsimneadză adză Dzuua a Limbăllei Române. Apufusită tru 2013 di Parlamentul di București, Dzuua Limbăllei Române easti idyea cu Dzuua națională tru Ripublica Moldova, viţină, românofonă. La 31 di agustu 1989, tru kirolu a regimlui sovietic, Parlamentul di Chișinău, pichetat di 750 di nilli di oamiñi, reprezentânda ună şisimi ditu populația di atumtea a văsiliillei, apufusi limba română ca limbă di stat și tricu di la alfabetul chirilic, băgatu cu zorea di aruşi, la atelu latinu.

SONDAJ. Giumitati ditu populația ali Românie easti tru ma marea parti aspăreată di inflație, iara anamisa di gaileadzlli di cafi dzuuă yinu crizili energetice și alimentare cum și majorarea a ratilor bancari, spuni un sondaj adratu di compania di cercetare sociologică Avangardi. Dauă cirecuri ditu români minduescu că ună mari criză economică va s’yină tu şvurtu kiro și aesta easti prota ispeti di găilipseari aesta arada. Uidisitu cu idyiulu sondaj, baş și tru aesti condiții, un cirecu ditu români pricunoscu că nu băgară un pără nanăparti.

TENIS. Agiucătoarea română di tenis Irina Begu s-califică tru turlu doi di la US Open, aţelu ditu soni turneu di Grand Slam ditu aestu an, după ună victorie cu 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 contra ali belgiancă Elise Mertens. Begu, 32 di ani, avu ună ascumbuseari spectaculoasă după ţi kiru protlu set și amintă agioclu tru 2 săhăţ și 24 di minute. Tru turlu doi, românca va s’agioacă cu Yue Yuan ditu China. Begu easti a treia româncă cari agiumsi tru etapa a daua a competițillei di la Flushing Meadows, după Gabriela Ruse și Sorana Cîrstea. Fostul numiru unu mondial Simona Halep și Jaqueline Cristian, tut ditu România, fură eliminate tru primlu tur ali competiție.

UCRAINA. Ună parei di inspectori ali Agenție Internațională pentru Energie Atomică (AIEA) nkisi cătă centrala nucleară ditu Zaporizhzhia, sudlu ali Ucraina. Tora nă minămu”, spuni directorul ali agenție ONU, argentinianlu Rafael Grossi. Uzina, nai ma marea ditu Europa, fu aputrusită di askerea arusă tru ahurhita a meslui marţu, ti şcurtu kiro după nkisita ali invazie. Kievlu u stipsi Moscova că dizvărti aclo suti di askeri diadunu cu echipamentu militar. Prezidintulu ucrainean Volodimir Zelenski, cari apruke experțălli ONU, căftă ali comunitati internațională s’bagă zori ali Rusie tra s’u dimilitarizeadză ună ş-ună zona. Piriclliulu a unlui fănico nuclearu di itia a acțiunilor arusești nu scadi niţi barimu ti ună săhati spusi ma largu Zelensky.

MEDALIE. Anutătorlli ditu România amintară malăma tru cursa di ștafetă 4×100 di meatri a Campionatelor Mondiale di anot ti juniori di Lima, Peru. Un alt anutătoru ditu România, Vlad Stancu amintă medalia di asimi la proba di 400 di meetri liber a idyillei competiții. Echipa ali Romanie adrată ditu David Popovici, Alexandru Constantinescu, Stefan Cozma si Patrick Sebastian Dinu, bitisi cursa tru 3 minute si 18 secundi, kiro tru cari multiplu campion Popvici feaţi un record ti competitie bitisinda partea a lui di cursa tru 47 di secundi si 7 sutimi. Ditu dilegația cari reprezintă România la Lima, Aissia Claudia Prisecaru și Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu s-calificară tru finala cursăllei di 100 di metri pi păltări dupu ţi bitisiră semifinalele pe pozițiile a patra, respectiv a ţinţea. România llia parti cu 9 anutători la campionatele di Lima.

Autoru: Udălu a hăbărloru

Armânipsearea: Taşcu Lala

31 August 2022
August 31, 2022

DAY Cultural events concurrently staged in Romania, the
neighboring Republic of Moldova and historical communities in the Diaspora are
today marking the day of the Romanian Language. Set in 2013 by Parliament in
Bucharest, the Romanian Language Day coincides with the national day in the
neighboring, Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova. On august 31st
1989, during the Soviet regime, the Parliament in Chisinau, picketed by 750
thousand people, accounting for a sixth of the country’s then population,
declared the Romanian language as the state language and passed from the
Cyrillic alphabet, imposed by the Russian occupants, to the Latin one.

POLL Half of Romania’s population is mainly
scared by inflation, next among their concerns come the energy and food crises
as well as raising bank installments, shows a survey conducted by the
sociological research company Avangarde. Two thirds of the Romanians believe a
big economic crisis is to come soon and this is the main reason for concern
this time. According to the same survey, even under these circumstances, one
third of the Romanians admit they haven’t put any money aside.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Irina Begu has qualified for the
second round of the US open, the year’s last Grand Slam tournament after a 3-6,
6-2, 6-3 win against Elise Mertens of Belgium. Begu, 32, made a spectacular
come back after she lost her first set and won the game in 2 hours and 24
minutes. In the second round the Romanian will be up against Yue Yuan of China.
Begu is the third Romanian to have made it to the second stage of the
competition in Flushing Meadows after Gabriela Ruse and Sorana Cirstea. Former world
number one Simona Halep and Jaqueline Cristian also from Romania have been
eliminated in the competition’s first round.

UKRAINE A team of inspectors with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is heading towards the nuclear power
plant in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine. ‘Now we are moving’, says the director
of the UN agency, Argentinean Rafael Grossi. The plant, the largest in Europe,
was occupied by the Russian army in early March, shortly after the beginning of
the invasion. Kyiv has accused Moscow of having deployed hundreds of troops
there along with military equipment. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky,
who received the UN experts, has called on the international community to put
pressure on Russia to demilitarize the area immediately. The risk of a nuclear
catastrophe due to Russian actions is not diminishing for even an hour,
Zelensky went on to say.

MEDAL Swimmers from Romania have won gold in the 4×100 meter
relay race of World Junior Swimming Championships in Lima, Peru. Another
swimmer from Romania, Vlad Stancu became silver medalist in the 400 meter
freestyle race of the same competition. The Romanian team made up of David Popovici,
Alexandru Constantinescu, Stefan Cozma and Patrick Sebastian Dinu, ended the
race in 3 minutes and 18 seconds, while multiple champion Popvici has set a
record for the competition ending his part of the race in 47 seconds and 7
hundredths. From the delegation representing Romania in Lima, Aissia Claudia
Prisecaru and Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu have qualified for the finals of the 100
meter backstroke race after ending the semifinals on the fourth and the fifth
positions respectively. Romania is participating with 9 swimmers at the
championships in Lima.

(bill)

31 August 2022
August 22, 2022

CONTRACT A major funding
contract for the railway network part of the Romania’s National Recovery and
Resilience Plan (PNRR), a project of roughly 1.75 billion euros has been
signed. The contract provides for streamlining the Caransebes-Timisoara-Arad
railway with a total length of 162 kilometers. According to Transport Minister
Sorin Grindeanu this is a major step towards the modernization of the railway
network in western Romania, which is part of the European transport corridor
Orient/East Mediterranean. PNRR funds are going to be used to double and
streamline the aforementioned railway in order to allow trains to run at 160
kilometers per hour. The project also provides for the modernization and
building of railway stations in certain urban areas, building pedestrian
walkways and adjusting platforms to European standards.

TALKS Romanian Prime
Minister, Nicolae Ciuca, Energy Minister, Virgil Popescu, and representatives
of the National Energy Regulatory Authority have convened to assess further support
schemes for the population against the background of the latest electricity
price hikes. These are to be applied after March 31st, until when
household and non-household consumers are benefitting from subsidized gas and
electricity depending on their consumption. The government wants to invest in
new energy infrastructure projects aimed at exploiting local resources. In
another development, the executive in Bucharest might endorse this week an
emergency ordinance providing for another pay rise for state employees.
According to Finance Minister Adrian Caciu, the rise has already been applied
in the country’s education and medical sectors and will soon be applied in the
other sectors of the economy.

WEATHER
Meteorologists have again issued yellow and orange alerts for unstable weather
and heavy rain in almost the entire Romanian territory. Until Tuesday night most
of the regions are to see thunderstorms, heavy downpours, gale force winds and
in some areas hail. The heat index will remain high in south-eastern
Romania.

PROGRAMME The
Environment Fund Administration (EFA) in Romania is expected to launch next
week a programme for scrapping vehicles older than 15 years. Under the
aforementioned programme owners can get 600 Euros without the obligation of
buying a new vehicle. Half of the sum will be covered from the EFA funds and
the rest from local budgets. Through its National Plan of Recovery and
Resilience, Romania pledges to get rid of 250 thousand old polluting vehicles
by 2026.

TENNIS Romanian
tennis player Irina Begu on Sunday qualified for the round of 16 of the WTA 250
tournament in Cleveland USA, which has over 250 thousand dollars in
prize-money. The Romanian secured a two-set win against US challenger Peyton
Sterns and she will be up next against the winner of the game pitching Sofia
Kenin of the USA against other qualified player. Another Romanian in the
competition, Sorana Cirstea will be playing fourth-seeded Elise Mertens of
Belgium.

UKRAINE The invading Russian
army has again shelled objectives in several regions of Ukraine. The southern
city of Mykolaiv has been struck by several S-300 missiles and the region of
Odessa has been attacked with rockets fired from vessels in the Black Sea. The
city of Nikopol close to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia has been hit
by scores of artillery shells amid growing fears of a potential nuclear
disaster in the region. US president Joe Biden on Sunday held talks with French
president Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German
chancellor Olaf Scholz about the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and
the support they can provide to this country. In Kyiv, president Zelensky has cautioned
against potential large-scale attacks by Russian troops around Ukraine’s
Independence Day, which marks the country’s breaking ties with the former USSR.
The event takes place on August 24, six months from the onset of the Russian
invasion. In another development, another two ships loaded with Ukrainian grain
bound for Istanbul have been authorized to leave the Ukrainian Black Sea ports
under the UN-brokered agreement signed by Ukraine, Turkey and Russia.

(bill)

22 August 2022
June 13, 2022

COMMEMORATION This
Monday, when Romania commemorates 32 years since the miners’ raid on Bucharest,
over June 13th and 15th, the country’s Prime Minister
Nicolae Ciuca has conveyed a message saying that the civil society’s marathon-demonstration
against neo-communism was stifled by instigating Romanians against Romanians.
The Romanian society must never become victim to diversions and false
propaganda, the head of the Romanian government says. 32 years ago this day,
responding to a call from the then authorities, miners from the Jiu Valley in
central-western Romania brutally intervened against the peaceful anti-government
protesters in downtown Bucharest. Four people were shot dead and over 1,000
wounded along with a series of abusive arrests. The file on the miners’ raid,
under which the country’s then President Ion Iliescu, former Prime Minister
Petre Roman and Virgil Magureanu, the former head of the country’s intelligence
service, had been sent to court must be resumed from scratch after the
indictment was considered null and void.

TENNIS Romanian
Simona Halep, second-seeded in the WTA 250
Birmingham tournament is today playing Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in the
competition’s first round. Also today,
Gabriela Ruse of Romania is up against Qiang Wang of China, while the third
Romanian in the competition, Sorana Cirstea will be playing Shelby Rogers of
the USA on Tuesday.

WAR Amnesty
International has accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, claiming that
hundreds of civilians have been killed in merciless frag bomb attacks against the
city of Kharkiv, AFP reports. After thorough investigations, this human rights
NGO claims it found evidence that the Russian forces had used widely-banned
cluster munitions

People have been killed in their homes and in the streets, in playgrounds and
in cemeteries, while queueing for humanitarian aid, or shopping for food and
medicine, says an Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor.
While Russia is not a party to either the Convention on Cluster Munitions or
the Convention on Anti-Personnel Mines, international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate
attacks, and the use of weapons that are indiscriminate by nature.

REFUGEES Roughly
7,000 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania through its border checkpoints on
Sunday, June 12th, 26% less than in the previous day, the Border Police General
Inspectorate has announced. Since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, roughly
1.2 million Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania.

WEATHER The weather is hot in Romania
and a code yellow alert for unstable weather has been issued for the country’s
south-western, local and central regions. Heavy downpours, thunderstorms and gale-force
winds are expected in the aforementioned regions, while the highs of the day
range between 26 and 32 degrees centigrade. Hot weather in Bucharest as well
with a noon reading of 31 degrees.

(bill)

13 June 2022
Sports Weekend

Romania’s national rugby side have qualified for the World
Cup 2023 in France. The oaks’ way towards the prestigious rugby competition has
been smoothed out by the elimination of Spain, which used an illegible player
in two matches within the Rugby Europe Championship 2021-2022. Initially,
following the results in the aforementioned European competition, Romania had
to join the play-offs. But now Portugal and the side ranking after Romania will
go into the play-offs. In France, Romania will be part of Group B together with
defending champions South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and the first side ranking
in the Asia/Pacific zone.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep secured a 6-2, 6-3 win
against Shuai Zhang, of China on Thursday in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament
hosted by Madrid, which has more than 6 million euros in prize money. Also in
the first round, Sorana Cîrstea of Romania has conceded defeat to Spanish
player Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-4, 6-2, while Irina Begu lost to Belinda Bencic
of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-1.

Bulgarian capital Sofia is this weekend hosting The European
Judo Championships an event which brings together over 360 athletes of 40
countries. Romania is being represented by 9 judokas, six in men’s and 3 in
women’s competitions. Athletes from Romania walked away with no medal from last
year’s edition of the aforementioned competition, the last medal was won by Andrea
Chiţu, in Prague in 2020, in the 52-kilogram category.

The Romanian women’s handball side CSM Bucharest will be
playing Danish side Team Esbjerg in a home match counting towards the Champions
League quarter finals. The Romanian side also relies on left-back Eduarda
Amorim of Brazil who has also played for Russian side Rostov-Don, which has
been excluded from the Champions League due to the war in Ukraine.

And now football. This weekend will be seeing the matches of
the seventh leg of Romania’s first football league. On Friday Sepsi Sfantu
Gheorghe will be playing Gaz Metan Medias and Chindia Targoviste is up against
Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, Dinamo Bucharest plays Academica Clinceni in a
home game while in Craiova, western Romania, local side FCU 1948 takes on UTA
Arad. On Monday, CS Mioveni, on their own turf will be playing FC Botosani. Gaz
Metan with minus 37 points and Academica with minus five are presently at the
bottom of the table and cannot avoid demotion any more.

Dinamo Bucharest with 16 points will go into the playoffs in
an attempt to remain in the first football league.

In the other matches on Saturday, Universitatea Craiova on
their own turf will be playing FC Voluntari while on Sunday, Farul Constanta
travels to Cluj to take on local side CFR. FCSB takes on FC Arges on the
National Arena stadium in Bucharest on Monday. CFR tops the table with 48
points followed by FCSB with 46 and Universitatea Craiova with 42.

(bill)

29 April 2022
Sports Weekend

Romania’s national rugby side have qualified for the World
Cup 2023 in France. The oaks’ way towards the prestigious rugby competition has
been smoothed out by the elimination of Spain, which used an illegible player
in two matches within the Rugby Europe Championship 2021-2022. Initially,
following the results in the aforementioned European competition, Romania had
to join the play-offs. But now Portugal and the side ranking after Romania will
go into the play-offs. In France, Romania will be part of Group B together with
defending champions South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and the first side ranking
in the Asia/Pacific zone.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep secured a 6-2, 6-3 win
against Shuai Zhang, of China on Thursday in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament
hosted by Madrid, which has more than 6 million euros in prize money. Also in
the first round, Sorana Cîrstea of Romania has conceded defeat to Spanish
player Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-4, 6-2, while Irina Begu lost to Belinda Bencic
of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-1.

Bulgarian capital Sofia is this weekend hosting The European
Judo Championships an event which brings together over 360 athletes of 40
countries. Romania is being represented by 9 judokas, six in men’s and 3 in
women’s competitions. Athletes from Romania walked away with no medal from last
year’s edition of the aforementioned competition, the last medal was won by Andrea
Chiţu, in Prague in 2020, in the 52-kilogram category.

The Romanian women’s handball side CSM Bucharest will be
playing Danish side Team Esbjerg in a home match counting towards the Champions
League quarter finals. The Romanian side also relies on left-back Eduarda
Amorim of Brazil who has also played for Russian side Rostov-Don, which has
been excluded from the Champions League due to the war in Ukraine.

And now football. This weekend will be seeing the matches of
the seventh leg of Romania’s first football league. On Friday Sepsi Sfantu
Gheorghe will be playing Gaz Metan Medias and Chindia Targoviste is up against
Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, Dinamo Bucharest plays Academica Clinceni in a
home game while in Craiova, western Romania, local side FCU 1948 takes on UTA
Arad. On Monday, CS Mioveni, on their own turf will be playing FC Botosani. Gaz
Metan with minus 37 points and Academica with minus five are presently at the
bottom of the table and cannot avoid demotion any more.

Dinamo Bucharest with 16 points will go into the playoffs in
an attempt to remain in the first football league.

In the other matches on Saturday, Universitatea Craiova on
their own turf will be playing FC Voluntari while on Sunday, Farul Constanta
travels to Cluj to take on local side CFR. FCSB takes on FC Arges on the
National Arena stadium in Bucharest on Monday. CFR tops the table with 48
points followed by FCSB with 46 and Universitatea Craiova with 42.

(bill)

29 April 2022
Athlete of the week

Late last week, Istanbul, Turkey hosted a WTA tournament with 235,238 USD in total prize money. Taking part were several top-level players, including Belgiums Elise Mertens, seed no 1, Croatias Petra Martic, seed no 2, and Russias Daria Kasatkina, seed no 4. But the winner was a Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea, who was designated Athlete of the Week by Radio Romania International.

Soranas performance in Istanbul was no walk in the park. In the first round, she beat Kateryna Kozlova, of Ukraine, 6-4, 7-6, and in the second she won against Russian Anastasia Potapova, 7-6, 6-4. The quarter-finals brought her face to face to Fiona Ferro of France, who had outplayed the Croatian Petra Martic. Ferro quit for health reasons after losing the first set 6-4 to Cîrstea.

In the semis, Sorana defeated another Ukrainian player, Marta Kostyuk, cu 6-4, 6-4. Next came Elise Mertens of Belgium, who lost the final to Sorana 1-6, 6-7, after 1 hour and 40 minutes. The Romanian thus won the tournament without losing a single set.

Sorana Cîrstea was born in Târgovişte (southern Romania), on 7 April 1990. She became a professional player in 2006, when she finished 348 in the world standings. She has only won one other WTA tournament in her career, the one in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2008.

August 2013 brought her to the highest WTA place in her career – 21. A rather difficult period followed, with physical problems, but Sorana recovered and made a remarkable comeback. Early last week she was no 67 WTA, and the win in Istanbul pushed her up to no 58. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

27 April 2021
Athlete of the week

Late last week, Istanbul, Turkey hosted a WTA tournament with 235,238 USD in total prize money. Taking part were several top-level players, including Belgiums Elise Mertens, seed no 1, Croatias Petra Martic, seed no 2, and Russias Daria Kasatkina, seed no 4. But the winner was a Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea, who was designated Athlete of the Week by Radio Romania International.

Soranas performance in Istanbul was no walk in the park. In the first round, she beat Kateryna Kozlova, of Ukraine, 6-4, 7-6, and in the second she won against Russian Anastasia Potapova, 7-6, 6-4. The quarter-finals brought her face to face to Fiona Ferro of France, who had outplayed the Croatian Petra Martic. Ferro quit for health reasons after losing the first set 6-4 to Cîrstea.

In the semis, Sorana defeated another Ukrainian player, Marta Kostyuk, cu 6-4, 6-4. Next came Elise Mertens of Belgium, who lost the final to Sorana 1-6, 6-7, after 1 hour and 40 minutes. The Romanian thus won the tournament without losing a single set.

Sorana Cîrstea was born in Târgovişte (southern Romania), on 7 April 1990. She became a professional player in 2006, when she finished 348 in the world standings. She has only won one other WTA tournament in her career, the one in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2008.

August 2013 brought her to the highest WTA place in her career – 21. A rather difficult period followed, with physical problems, but Sorana recovered and made a remarkable comeback. Early last week she was no 67 WTA, and the win in Istanbul pushed her up to no 58. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

27 April 2021
December 12, 2020 UPDATE

TALKS The National
Liberal Party, the USR PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic
Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) on Saturday kicked off a new round of talks in an
attempt to forge the future centre-to-right government and share portfolios in
the new legislature. The teams set up the structure of the ruling programme and
pledged to carry on talks on Sunday. This round of talks proves to be difficult
because the Liberals, who are currently ruling the country and came second in
the legislative election on December 6th, aren’t willing to give up several
ministries, such as finances, justice, transports, development and EU funds,
whereas the USR PLUS Alliance is claiming some of these portfolios. UDMR would
like to take over the healthcare, culture and the environment, as it
coordinated these ministries before and would also like to take over other
portfolios as well. The talks should be completed before the consultations with
president Klaus Iohannis on Monday for the designation of a Prime Minister.
These consultations will begin with the Social Democratic Party, which mustered
the largest number of votes in the latest election. The Alliance for the Union
of Romanians AUR, a party founded a year ago, got half million votes and ranks
fourth in Parliament. The Legislature will be completed by the representatives
of national minorities, other than the Hungarian one. The PSD proposed
Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s WHO representative for the position of Prime
Minister, whereas the Liberals have designated the incumbent Finance Minister
Florin Citu.

ALERT Authorities in Romania have
decided to extend the state of alert because of the Covid-19 pandemic for
another month, starting December 14th. The present restrictions will
remain in place including the nighttime curfew. Only one restriction has been
added; in order to avoid overcrowding ski-slopes, access to cable cars has been
restricted to only 10 people. Authorities have made a new appeal asking the
Romanians to limit visits, avoid going caroling and to New Year’s parties. Over
13,100 Covid-related fatalities have been registered in Romania since the
beginning of the pandemic. 6460 new infection cases have been reported in the
past 24 hours, mostly in Bucharest, where the rate of infections has exceeded 7
per one thousand people. 13 hundred people are in intensive care.

CLIMATE Romanian president
Klaus Iohannis has called into attention the fact that the climate change
effects are being felt in Romania more and more. Its summers have become hotter
and hotter while desertification and drought keep affecting crops and limiting people
access to food supplies. In a message conveyed on celebrating 5 years since the
Paris Agreement on climate change, the head of the Romanian state said it’s
imperative that we make sure these effects will not deepen and multiply to
dramatically impact the citizens’ life and health. In this respect at the
European Council summit this week, we have agreed with EU leaders, to bring
down greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 as against the year 1990.
President Iohannis said the authorities would implement in the following years
a series of projects allowing for the reduction of greenhouse gases at the same
time sustaining economic growth. The main goal of the Paris Agreement is to
limit global warming under 2°C and make efforts to keep it at 1.5°C by the end
of the century.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Sorana
Cirstea on Saturday clinched a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win against Katerina Siniakova of
the Czech Republic in the finals of the ITF tournament in Dubai. Sorana has
also won the other three matches she played against Siniakova, in Eastbourne in
2017, in Madrid two years later and in the first round of US Open. The victory against
Siniakova has prompted Cirstea to the 71st position in the WTA
ranking.

(bill)

12 December 2020
May 23, 2019 UPDATE

CULTURE Romania’s Minister of Culture
Valer Daniel Breaz chaired the Culture and Audiovisual Section of the Council
for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport in Brussels on Thursday. Culture
ministers from the EU countries on Thursday discussed ways to fight disinformation
and regain the citizens’ trust into press. Brussels has already taken measures
to improve the digital space while several online platforms have signed a code
of good practice. Member countries believe the union needs a better
coordination as well as shared responsibilities in fighting disinformation.
They also support the involvement of the private sector, mainly the online
platforms and the field industry, in this initiative. On Wednesday night, the
Romanian minister jointly with European Commissioner Tibor Navracsics presented
the winners of the EU prizes for literature, which included Romanian Tatiana Ţîbuleac.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Sorana
Cirstea (WTA 93rd) on Thursday qualified for the semifinals of the
WTA tournament in Nuremberg, Germany. Cirstea secured a 2-1 win against Nina
Stojanovic of Serbia in the quarters. The Romanian challenger qualified after
defeating her compatriot Laura Ioana Paar and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium. She
will be up against the odds-on favourite Yulia Putintseva of Kazahstan.

FAIR Furniture producers from Romania have
for the second year in a row participated in the International Contemporary
Furniture Fair New York – ICFF, an American platform for global design. Over
May 19th and 22nd, the Romanian companies displayed their
products together with 900 other companies from 72 countries. The Romanian
stands were organized by the Ministry for Business Environment, Trade and
Entrepreneurship jointly with the Association of Furniture Producers in
Romania. According to a communiqué published by the ministry on Thursday, the
talks the Romanian furniture producers held with their foreign counterparts in
the fair are to materialize in 1.2 million Euros worth of orders and contracts.
The Romanian stands were visited by over 15 hundred company representatives
from Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, India, Mexico,
Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the USA.

VOTING Elections for the new European Parliament have
kicked off in the Netherlands and Great Britain, with voting slated for Sunday
in Romania. Ireland and the Czech Republic are voting on Friday, with Saturday
set aside for voting in Slovakia, Latvia, and Malta. All other states are
voting on Sunday. Romania votes for 33 of the 751 seats in the European
Parliament.

23 May 2019
April 14, 2019

SOLDIERS The four Romanian servicemen wounded in a bomb attack in
Afghanistan on Saturday are now out of danger. An improvised explosive device went
off close to the military vehicles of the Romanian Battalion 300 Saint Andrew
on a patrol mission on that day. The explosion was followed by an attack with
light infantry weapons by insurgents, which was repelled with support from
the US ground and air troops. The four wounded soldiers were stabilized and
transferred to the Kandahar Air base. In 2019, the Romanian army will dispatch
780 servicemen to Afghanistan, the Romanian defense ministry announced last
year. Romanian Battalion 300 participates in a NATO- coordinated mission, which
has brought together 16 thousand servicemen from 40 countries. The most
numerous contingents have been deployed by the USA, 85 hundred soldiers,
Germany 13 hundred and Italy with 9
hundred.

POLL
Romania’s main opposition party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) estimates the
turnout in the EU parliamentary elections on May 26th and the
referendum on justice around 50%. Liberal leader Ludovic Orban believes
the Foreign Ministry will open only few polling stations for the Romanians
abroad and voiced his concern about this situation. According to Orban, most of
the Romanians who left the country did it because of the lack of prospects and
the way in which the Social-Democrats ruled the country, and that means the
Romanians abroad would vote for the opposition. The fact they aren’t allowed to
cast their vote would affect the outcome of the elections. In another
development, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats in Romania, (ALDE) currently ruling the country together with the
Social Democrats has said that president Klaus Iohannis is using this referendum for
a better start in the presidential race. Iohannis has recently announced the issues
to be voted on during the referendum – a ban on amnesty and pardon for
corruption offenses as well as a ban on emergency ordinances for crimes,
penalties and judicial organization, correlated with the right of authorities
to directly notify the Constitutional Court over these ordinances.

GROWTH The spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank ended in Washington in an optimistic tone as the United States hinted
that its trade disputes with China might come to an end, and that could
translate into a genuine kick-start for the world economy. Trade disputes and
restrictive financial conditions are among the biggest threats to a world economy
that is currently slowing down. A strengthened global growth is expected for the
next year, while according to experts, 2019 has seen the slowest growth in the
past three years. Central Banks and fiscal authorities have limited options to
foster recovery next year though, an IMF communiqué also reads. Besides
expectations for global economic growth next year, the challenges the world
economy will be facing are: trade tensions, geopolitical risks and political
instability. Finance officials, including Romanian line minister Eugen
Teodorovici, have agreed to take action in order to protect economic growth.

TENNIS A pair made up Romanian tennis players
Sorana Carstea and Andreea Mitu is today taking on Veronica Kudermetova of
Russia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in the doubles finals of the WTA
tournament in Lugano, Switzerland. For the two Romanians this is the first
finals in 2019. Cirstea has four WTA titles won in doubles matches and five
finals played, while Mitu has three titles and a finals.

(translated by bill)

14 April 2019