June 10, 2016
The football match pitting Romania against France is today opening the European Football Championship in Paris/ Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos and French PM Manuel Valls have signed the updated Roadmap of the bilateral Strategic Partnership
Newsroom, 10.06.2016, 12:00
FOOTBALL — The European Football Championship kick-starts today on Stade de France in Paris, with a match pitting the host country, France, against Romania. Playing in the same group are also Switzerland and Albania. In the wake of the bloody terror attacks which hit Paris in November 2015, the French authorities are now on alert, to avoid and thwart prospective terror attacks during the football championship. According to the BBC, France will be facing the first security challenge today, when tens of thousands of people are expected to attend an open air concert near the Eiffel Tower. 90,000 police officers and members of the security forces have been mobilized for the football championship, which lasts a month. In another move, the championships might also be affected by social movements. The workers of the National Railway Company have entered the second week of strike, significantly impacting the football fans’ travels in Paris. In their turn, the pilots of the French national airline, Air France, threaten to start a three-day strike as of Saturday, demanding pay-rises.
VISIT — French President Francois Hollande and Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos will attend the opening ceremony of the European Football Championship, on Stade de France, this evening, and will watch the France-Romania football match. On the second day of his visit to Paris, PM Dacian Ciolos is due to have talks with the French President, Francois Hollande. The Romanian PM has already met with his French counterpart, Manuel Valls. The two officials signed the updated Roadmap of the bilateral strategic partnership. Prime Minister Ciolos is also due to meet with representatives of the French Agriculture Academy, as well as with two orphans, the children of the couple of Romanian nationals who got killed in the Paris attacks, in November 2015. On Thursday, the Romanian Prime Minister had a meeting with the Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria.
CORRUPTION — The offense of “abuse in office” has been identified in over 40% of the files processed by the National-Anti-Corruption Directorate in Romania (DNA), the DNA chief prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi has announced. She said that in 2015, in the files relating to cases of abuse in office, the estimated prejudice exceeds 600 million Euros. The Romanian state will not be able to recover the money, if Romania’s Constitutional Court decides to decriminalise the “abuse in office” offense, Kovesi warns.
DETENTION – Dan Nicolae Straja, the manager of the Oncology Institute in Bucharest was taken into custody on Thursday night by the Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors on corruption suspicions relating to public purchasing. In the same file, the manager of the Bagdasar Arseni Clinical Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, Bogdan Paltineanu has also been taken into custody. He will be brought to the Bucharest Tribunal today, with the prosecutors proposing a 30-day preventive arrest measure. The anti-corruption prosecutors on Thursday searched four hospitals in Bucharest, in a case where the prejudice estimated so far stands at 2.6 million Euros.
FESTIVAL– The central Romanian city of Sibiu is hosting the International Theatre Festival, one of the biggest events in the world, devoted to performing arts. Reaching its 23rd edition this year, the festival brings together over 2,800 artists from 70 countries, for 10 days. In a nutshell, Sibiu will venue over 450 shows and cultural events. The festival opens up with a grandiose urban theatre show, entitled “Flight Through Time”, put up by the Kitonb theatre company from Italy. The grand Square in downtown Sibiu will become a huge stage for artists, who will do acrobatics on platforms suspended high, above the square, by a huge crane. The marathon of theatre shows will start with actors from England, Spain, Poland, the Republic of Moldova and Romania, and the street performances will be an attraction in the pedestrian area in the historical centre. The first day of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu will end at midnight with fireworks.
RESTRICTIONS — The Israeli authorities have announced they blocked access to the West Bank and Gaza Strip until Sunday, at midnight, toughening restrictions on Palestinians, as was announced in the wake of Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, France Presse reports. The Benjamin Netanyahu cabinet on Thursday announced the suspension of entry permits to Israel granted to over 80,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, on the occasion of the Ramadan, which started on Monday. Four Israelis were killed by two Palestinian militants who opened fire on Wednesday evening, in a café in downtown Tel Aviv. The attack has been claimed by the Hamas Islamist movement, a fundamentalist organisation which controls the Gaza Strip Palestinian territory.
(Translated by Diana Vijeu)
