July 16, 2018 UPDATE
A military plane crashed in eastern Romania
Newsroom, 16.07.2018, 19:00
JUSTICE – Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on Monday that Romania would provide the Venice Commission with its official position before the latter issued its final report on justice legislation. The commission is a consultative body for the Council of Europe, and last week it issued a preliminary opinion, recommending to the authorities in Bucharest, among other things, to reconsider the decision to amend the laws governing the justice system, especially regarding the appointment and dismissal of head prosecutors.
SUMMIT – US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met on Monday in Helsinki on the occasion of a bilateral summit. In a news conference after the meeting, Donald Trump said that the tense relations between the two countries were about to change. Trump also said that a number of highly important topics were approached, such as the war in Syria, global terrorism and Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US election. In his turn, President Putin said the meeting was a good one.
CRASH – A military plane crashed on Monday in Bacau, in eastern Romania, during a training flight, the Romanian Defense Ministry announced. The two pilots managed to eject. This is the second plane crash in Romania in the past 10 days. On July 7, a MiG 21 Lancer crashed at a military unit in Fetesti, southern Romania, during an air show.
TRANSPLANT — Romanian Health Minister Sorina Pintea announced on Monday that in two months at the most she would come up with a new law on transplant. She also said that in the upcoming period she would sign an order for the setting up of a team of experts to work on law. The new law is aimed at increasing the number of donors, given that only 30 have been registered in Romania this year.
INVESTMENT — Direct foreign investment in Romania went up 17.6% in the first five months of this year, as compared with the same period last year, reaching 1.7 billion Euro, according to the National Bank. The number of foreign capital companies set up in this period went down by 1.8%, according to the Trade Registry. On May 31, 2018, Romania had over 218,000 foreign capital companies registered.
BREXIT — A new round of negotiations on Brexit started on Monday in Brussels. British Prime Minister Theresa Mays government issued recently a new series of proposals, while the head of the EU delegation, Michel Barnier, said he would study them closely. The proposals are in relation to harmonizing trade in order to avoid checks at the Irish-British border, as well as harmonizing British legal decisions with those of the European Court. The UK will impose tariffs, but favoring the EU. There will no longer be free circulation of persons, but an agreement will be signed easing access for workers, students, and tourists. Michel Barnier will present the stage of the negotiations to the General Affairs Council on Wednesday, when the negotiations end.
TENNIS — Romanian tennis players Mihaela Buzarnescu and Raluca Olaru are the main favorites in the WTA BRD Bucharest Open, that kicked off on Monday, with prize money totaling over 226,000 dollars. The two players, who won a WTA world title as a pair this year in Strasbourg, will play their first game against Alena Fomina of Russia and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. Raluca is current champion in Bucharest, after winning in the doubles with Irina Begu. Six Romanians are still in the top 100 of the WTA rankings. Simona Halep is still number one, while Buzarnescu is in 25th position, the best of her career. Irina Begu is 42nd seeded, Sorana Cirstea 57th, Monica Niculescu is 59th, while Ana Bogdan is 66th.
