February 20, 2016 UPDATE

Britain holds EU referendum in June / President Iohannis will address Parliament on February 21st

Newsroom, 19.02.2016, 14:01

EUROPEAN UNION – British Premier David Cameron announced on Saturday, after a Cabinet meeting, that the date for the referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU is June 23rd. We remind you that late on Friday, the European Council president Donald Tusk announced that an agreement on renegotiating the UKs EU membership was reached. In his turn, David Cameron confirmed that the EU provided the concessions he sought, including assurances that the other nations wont try to make Britain part of a “European superstate.” According to the British premier, there will be tough new restrictions on access to his country’s welfare system for EU migrants. World leaders praised the deal, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the EU leaders clearly wanted Britain to stay. President Klaus Iohannis, who represented Romania at the summit, has said that Romanians currently working in the UK will not be affected by the deal, which only affects workers that will enter the British labour market after its enforcement.

HEALTHCARE — The two foreign experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control who travelled to Romania on Thursday to help find the cause of an infection that developed in a number of children from Arges county, are now looking over the data that Romanian doctors have gathered so far, The National Centre for the Surveillance and Control of Communicable Diseases announced. We recall that three children died this month due to serious digestive infections followed by major complications and seven children are being further treated in a Bucharest hospital, having been diagnosed with the hemolytic-uremic syndrome. They are all from the Arges county and finding the cause of the infection might take months.

PRESIDENCY – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will address Parliament’s plenary sitting on Monday. The President’s address, his first this year, will focus on domestic politics, Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu has announced. This is Iohannis’s 5th Parliament address since he took over the presidential seat in December 2014.

LAW – The Romanian Justice Ministry jointly with the Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA), the Direction for the Investigation of Organized Crimes and Terrorism (DIICOT) and the General Prosecutor’s Office are working on a bill allowing public bodies to further access private communications. The Constitutional Court has recently ruled that several provisions of an article in the Criminal Procedure Code violate the fundamental law, such as the ones allowing the Romanian Intelligence Service to tap suspects’ phone calls. Justice Minister, Raluca Pruna, has said that the bill will be ready by the time the Court publicly motivates its ruling, so that there will be no legislative gaps with negative effects on the ongoing criminal investigations.

FILM – The independent production “Illegitimate” (Ilegitim), directed by Romanian Adrian Sitaru and produced by Anamaia Antoci, won the award of the International Confederation of Art Cinemas. The feature had its world premiere last week, at the 66th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. The film was selected in the Forum section of the event, which presented a total of 44 films in its main program, 34 of which were world premieres. At the same festival, another Romania director, Roxana Stroe, won the Special Prize of the Generation 14plus International Jury for the best short film, with “A Night in Tokoriki” (O noapte in Tokoriki). According to the competition’s website, “the jury appreciated the film for its idiosyncratic tone of voice and superb craft and storytelling. This film manages to playfully depict a heartfelt but urgent message. With humorous mise-en-scene, no dialogue and an ironic use of music, the film tells a brilliantly engaging story about unacceptable love in rural Europe and its repercussions.”

HANDBALL –Romania’s vice champion women’s handball team, HCM Baia Mare, on Friday qualified to the Champions League’s quarter finals, after defeating, on home turf, the German team Thuringer HC, 38-27, in the main Group 1 of the Champions League. In the same competition, but in the 2nd main Group, the champions CSM Bucharest is playing Midtjylland of Denmark on Sunday away from home. The Romanian champions need at least a draw to secure qualification to the quarterfinals. At present CSM Bucharest is ranked 4th in the group tables.

(Translated by Elena Enache)