January 20, 2018

A roundup of domestic and international news

Leyla Cheamil, 20.01.2018, 13:41

AJC – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has received in
Bucharest a delegation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), headed by President
David Harris, on which occasion he stated that Bucharest authorities will continue
to be extremely open to the Jewish community. In turn, David Harris has
appreciated the way in which Romania acted while holding the presidency of the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance between March 2016 and March 2017,
stressing in particular the remarkable results obtained in the field of Holocaust education
and research. During the meeting, the two parties also discussed the
Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US and the privileged ties
between Romania and Israel, to the strengthening of which AJC would like to keep
contributing. David Harris has also met with the Romanian interim
prime-minister Mihai Fifor, who has stressed Romania’s strategic role in the
Black Sea area and the country’s firm commitment as a NATO member. Established
in 1906, the American Jewish Committee is one of the oldest Jewish
organisations in the USA, fighting against antisemitism at global level and
promoting the observance of human rights.

AIR POLLUTION – The European Commission has announced
that on January 30th it will hold a ministerial meeting, involving
the participation of nine member states, including Romania. The meeting will
focus on the infringement procedure regarding failure to observe the agreed air
pollution limits. The other member states, besides Romania, facing infringement are the Czech Republic,
Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and the UK. In 2008, a
directive was issued establishing the air quality limits that cannot be
exceeded anywhere in the EU, obliging the Member States to limit the exposure
of citizens to harmful air pollutants. According to the Commission, despite
this directive, these limits are still being exceeded in more than 130 cities
across Europe.

FARMING
– Romania owns 33% of the total number of farms in the EU, but, as regards the
area of land used in agriculture, the country is outranked by countries such as
France or Spain, according to data made public by the National Statistics
Institute. According to the institute, Romania’s main problem is the
fragmentation of agricultural land, which does not help farmers capitalize
enough on their production. The study made by the NSI has also revealed that, in
2016, the number of farms dropped by 6% as compared to 2013, when the previous
study was conducted.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN – The
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number one in the WTA rankings, has today
qualified for the next round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam
tournament of the year, after defeating the American Lauren Davis. The match
against Davis was the most dramatic in her career and also the longest, as it
lasted three hours and 45 minutes. In the fourth round, Simona Halep will take
on the Japanese Naomi Osaka, no. 72 in the WTA classification. Also today, the
pair made up of the Romanian Sorana Carstea and the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad
Maia has qualified for the last 16 of the women’s doubles. Next they will play
against the fourth seed Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, of the Czech
Republic. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch
Jean-Julien Rojer were defeated by the Australian Sam Groth/ Lleyton Hewitt.
Another Romanian player, Ana Bogdan, was eliminated in the third round by the
American Madison Keys.

(translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)