4 January 2019, UPDATE

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 04.01.2019, 19:58

Politics. Romania’s
big objectives in 2019 are EU integration, consolidating NATO membership and
strengthening NATO’s presence on its eastern flank, consolidating the rule of
law and carrying on the fight against corruption, Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis said on Friday. He also announced he won’t accept the nominations of
Lia Olguta Vasilescu for the position of Development Minister and of Mihai
Draghici for the position of Transport Minister saying they are both untimely
and unlawful, adding he will present his motivation next week. We recall in late
November last year Klaus Iohannis accepted six nominations as part of a
reshuffle of the Dancila Cabinet for the portfolios of Defence, Labour,
Economy, Culture, Communications and Youth and Sports, refusing the nominations
for Transport and Regional Development. On Thursday Iohannis signed the decrees
acknowledging the vacation of the two positions. Moreover, the president said
he has no plans to dismiss the country’s prosecutor general Augustin Lazar,
whose performance he is pleased with and that the justice minister’s request in
this sense does not fulfil the legal requirements. Social Democrats have
condemned the president’s repeated attempts to block the government’s activity.
They say the president, by defying the Constitution and the rule of law, has
entered a complicity of a criminal nature with the prosecutor general Augustin
Lazar, whose dismissal has been requested for serious disciplinary infringements
and the violation of fundamental human rights and laws.

Romania-Moldova. Romania’s Presidency of the EU Council creates a unique opportunity to
boost Moldova’s relations with the European Union, Moldovan Deputy Prime
Minister for European Integration, Iurie Leanca, has said. He expressed hope
that the EU-Moldova dialogue would intensify, offering his country a clear path
to accession. Iurie Leanca went on to say that he is relying on support for the
reform process and boosting the implementation of projects aimed at
interconnecting the energy and infrastructure grids of Moldova and Romania.

Nomination. The
US Senate has sent back to president Donald Trump the nomination of Adrian
Zuckerman as US ambassador to Romania for procedural reasons. The president
nominated Zuckerman for this position at the end of July last year. The latter had
emigrated from Romania to the US when he was ten years old and speaks Romanian
fluently. If his nomination is accepted by the US Congress, Adrian Zuckerman will
replace the current ambassador, Hans Klemm.

Tourism.
Some 12 million tourists visited Romania in the first 11 months of 2018, up by
6.4% as compared to the same period of 2017, the National Statistics Institute
reports. Of the total number of arrivals, Romanian tourists accounted for 78%
of bookings in accommodation units, while foreign tourist booking stood at 22%.
As regards the number of foreign tourist arrivals, Europe was the most visited
continent, with 74.6% of bookings, while 85.7% of these tourists visited EU
Member States. Most tourists who booked a holiday in Romania last year came
from Germany, Israel, Italy, France and the United States. The counties with
the largest number of tourist arrivals last year in Romania were Constanta,
Brasov, Cluj and the capital city Bucharest.

Tennis. Romanian
tennis player Sorana Cirstea was knocked out on Friday in the quarterfinals of
the Shenzhen tournament in China, totalling 750,000 dollars in prize money. She
lost 7-5, 6-1 to Alison Riske of the US. Also on Friday, another Romanian
player, Monica Niculescu (99 WTA), was ousted by Yafan Wang of China (70 WTA),
6-2, 6-7, 1-6.

Volleyball. The Romanian women’s
volleyball side on Saturday face Spain at home in a decisive Group F match as
part of the qualifications for the European Championship. The winner will go
straight to the final tournament, which will be held between the 23rd
of August and 8th September and will be hosted jointly by Turkey,
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Latvia and Bosnia Hertegovina are also in Group
F. The qualifying round consists of six groups, with the two best ranked teams
in each group making it to the European Championship.