April 18, 2015 UPDATE
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Bogdan Matei, 18.04.2015, 13:46
The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis will make an official visit to Italy on April the 27th. Italy hosts the largest community of Romanians living abroad, according to official sources. The agenda of the visit includes talks with the Italian president Sergio Mattarella, with the Italian PM, Matteo Renzi, as well as a meeting with Romanians living in that country. Since taking over the office in December, President Iohannis has made official visits to France, Germany, Poland, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
Romania’s NATO membership and the partnership with the US must be consolidated, the president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor said on Saturday. In his speech at the Union’s Convention, where he was re-elected as party president, Kelemen Hunor emphasised Romania’s geostrategic importance in the region and dismissed the statements of the Russian officials who criticised the hosting of American anti-missile system components. He also said Romania needs to absorb more European funds, to help develop each region. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania is the main political party representing the 1.5 million strong Hungarian community in Romania. A constant presence in post-communist Romania’s Parliament, the Union was also part of many successive governments, together with either right or left-wing parties.
In Bucharest the Great Hall of the National Theatre was officially opened on Saturday night. The event marked the completion of revamping works and the complete opening of the building for the general public. This summer the seventh performance area of the modernised building, an outdoor amphitheatre, is also to be inaugurated. The revamping works on the National Theatre took four years and were funded by the Government and the Council of Europe Development Bank, with costs totalling around 65 million euros. More than 150 years old, the National Theatre in Bucharest is one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in Romania.
Ireland is a reliable partner for Romania within the EU, says the Romanian Foreign Ministry, in a news release issued on Saturday on the celebration of 25 years of bilateral diplomatic relations. According to the Foreign Ministry, a key moment which confirmed the quality of the Romanian-Irish relations was Dublin’s decision to give free access to Romanian workers in the labour market, in July 2012, two years before the deadline for lifting employment restrictions in the EU. One of the most dynamic components of the bilateral relation with Ireland is, according to the news release, the cultural cooperation. This included the organisation, in October 2014, of the “Days of Romanian Culture in Dublin,” a large-scale event that showcased to the Irish public the main Romanian achievements in music, film, theatre, literature and arts in the past few years.
On Sunday at the European Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier, France, the Romanians Marius Berbecar and Andrei Muntean will take part in the parallel bars final of the men’s competition, whereas in the women’s competition Romania will be represented by Andreea Munteanu in the beam and floor finals. At the end of the championships the president of the European Gymnastics Union, Georges Guelzec, will hand over the union’s colours to the 2017 host of the championships, Bucharest.
