23 March 2018, UPDATE

Brexit negotiations are moving in very good direction for Romania, says president Klaus Iohannis./ 5 Romanian nationals die in chemical plant blast in the Czech Republic.

Newsroom, 23.03.2018, 19:37

Brexit. The Brexit negotiations are moving in a
very good direction for Romania, said president Klaus Iohannis on Friday after
a European Council meeting in Brussels. He said an agreement had been reached
so far on the rights of the EU citizens already in the UK and of those who
enter the UK during the transition period. Bucharest also sees as satisfactory
the negotiated financial agreement, president Iohannis added. These statements
were made after the EU leaders discussed the agreement of the European
Commission with the UK authorities on the general principles of the post-Brexit
transition period, between March 2019 and December 2020. The meeting also
discussed the recent measures taken by the US to impose new steel and aluminium
tariffs and the relationship between the European Union and Turkey and that
between the UK and Russia in the wake of the poisoning of the former Russian
spy Sergei Skripal.

Letter.
President Klaus Iohannis said on Friday in Brussels that he had talks with the
head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker about the letter sent by
Romania’s prime minister Viorica Dancila on the subject of high-level
corruption cases. Iohannis said he asked the EU Commission president Juncker to
treat with all seriousness the letter received from prime minister Dancila,
amid legitimate public concerns in Romania. In her letter, Dancila requested
explanations after the national media published a European Commission document
from October 2012 requiring the justice ministry in Bucharest to provide
details from ongoing cases involving politicians and business people. Dancila
says she received information that the European Commission made similar
requests between 2012 and 2018. Dancila says this is not in agreement with the
Cooperation and Verification Mechanism through which the European Union has
been monitoring the progress of the judicial system in Romania since the latter
entered the Union in 2007.

France attack.The Romanian government has firmly condemned
Friday’s terrorist attacks in southern France and expressed compassion and
solidarity with the French people and the victims’ families. Three people were
killed and two wounded in three attacks carried out by a man who declared his
affiliation to the Islamic State. The perpetrator was killed when the security
forces stormed a supermarket in Trebes where the former had taken hostage a
gendarme. President Emmanuel Macron said the security forces acted quickly and
in a coordinated manner. France Presse news agency notes that the jihadist
threat is still high in France, which saw a series of attacks in 2015 and 2016
that killed more than 240 people.

Blast. The minister for Romanians
abroad Natalia Intotero said on Friday that she would travel to the Czech
Republic to be with the families of the Romanian nationals killed in an
incident at a chemical plant. 5 of the 6 people killed in an explosion in the
north of the Czech Republic are Romanian citizens, according to the Romanian
Foreign Ministry. The Czech authorities have started an investigation into the
blast and are also considering the possibility of irregularities in terms of
labour safety. A mobile consular team with the Romanian embassy in Prague went
to the hospitals where the wounded people were taken to identify other Romanian
citizens among the victims. The Foreign Ministry officials have expressed
compassion for the loss of human lives and have conveyed condolences to the
families of the people killed. The Romanian Embassy in the Czech Republic is
monitoring the situation and is ready to provide consular assistance, including
with the repatriation of the victims’ bodies.

Tennis. World no. 1 Simona
Halep and world no. 70 Monica Niculescu, both from Romania, on Saturday play
the third round of the tennis tournament in Miami, the US, worth 8 million
dollars in prize money. Halep faces Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, while Niculescu
faces the 13th seed Sloane Stephens of the US. In the men’s draw,
Marius Copil, who is no. 84 in the world, will face Russia’s Karen Khachanov,
world no. 41.

Football. Romania play Israel on Saturday and Sweden on Tuesday in
two friendly matches as part of their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. The
Romanian manager Cosmin Contra has named a 27-squad for these games, 16 of whom
play abroad and 11 in the domestic championship. Sweden are currently on the 18th
place in the UEFA ranking, Romania on the 41st and Israel on the 94th.
We recall that Romania have not qualified for this year’s World Cup hosted by
Russia.