February 21, 2019 UPDATE

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Bogdan Matei, 21.02.2019, 20:23

MEETING The EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom opened in
Bucharest on Thursday an informal meeting of the trade ministers from the EU
countries, an event staged at a time when Romania is holding the EU rotating presidency.
The EU official together with the Romanian Minister for the business
environment, trade and entrepreneurship Stefan Radu Oprea have also had a
dialogue with citizens. On Wednesday, during the meeting of the Committee of
the Permanent Representatives, the community states validated the political
agreement Romania had reached with the European Parliament over the Directive
on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

JUSTICE Romania’s Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader on Thursday announced
he would launch the procedure of appointing a new prosecutor general as the
mandate of the present one, Augustin Lazar, expires in April. Toader said he
had sent a letter to the First Vice-president of the European Commission, Frans
Timmermans, briefing the latter over the fresh PSD-ALDE ordinance on amending
justice laws. We recall the first amendments attracted a lot of heat from the community
executive, the right-wing opposition in Bucharest, as well as from the Higher
Council of Magistrates and from magistrates associations.

PRIORITY The Republic of Moldova has been and will continue to be a key
priority of Romania’s foreign policy, Romania’s ambassador to the ex-soviet
Romanian-speaking republic, Daniel Ionita said on Thursday. The Romanian
official has voiced hope that no significant backslides will be reported during
the Parliamentary elections due on Sunday in the ex-soviet state. According to
the ambassador the upcoming ballot also has a geopolitical stake. The pro-Russia
Socialists of incumbent president Igor Dodon have been credited with most of
the votes, roughly 40%. They are followed by ACUM, a pro-Western right-wing
bloc, which might muster 25% of the votes and the center-to-left Democratic
Party, the main party of the incumbent pro-Western ruling coalition.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (WTA 72nd) on
Thursday qualified for the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament in Budapest, a
competition with 250,000 dollars in prize money, after a two-set win, 6-2, 6-3
against Evgeniya Rodina of Russia. Also on Thursday, the world’s number two, Simona
Halep of Romania, conceded defeat to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 4-6, 6-4,
6-2 in the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Dubai.

(translated by bill)