June 11, 2019

Newsroom, 11.06.2019, 14:13

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side on Monday night clinched
a 4-0 win against the selection of Malta in group F of the 2020 European
Football Championship preliminaries. On Friday Romania ended their away game
against Norway in a 2-all draw but in March they lost to Sweden in Stockholm
2-1. Our footballers have also secured a 4-1 home win against the Faeroe Islands.
Spain tops the table with 12 points followed by Sweden and Romania, each with 7
points. The preliminaries are to resume in September when Romania will be up
against Spain in Bucharest. The first two sides in the group will book tickets
for the final tournament whose lots are to be drawn in Bucharest on November 30th.
The Romanian capital is to host four matches of the final tournament, three in
the group stage and one in the round of 16. We recall that also this month,
Romania’s Under 21 football selection will be playing in the European
Championship in Italy and San Marino. Romania is part of group C together with
England, France and Croatia.

EXPLANATIONS Romania’s Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has today been
invited to the Chamber of Deputies upon a request from the opposition National
Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union to speak in the ‘Government’s Hour’.
Also on Tuesday the Senate is debating upon a simple motion tabled against the
Foreign Minister on the situation during the May 26th election when many
Romanians abroad had difficulty in casting their ballot. The opposition MPs are
calling for Melescanu’s resignation. On Monday the Foreign Minister again asked
the Romanians abroad to forgive him but said that the Ministry had fulfilled its
legal obligations. Melescanu has announced that talks are to be held at the
embassies where voters faced difficulty during the elections in order to find
the culprits and see to it that the situation will not repeat.

FILE The Prosecutor General of the Republic of
Moldova, an ex-Soviet Romanian-speaking country, has opened a file on the
possible funding of the Socialist Party of president Igor Dodon by the Russian
Federation. In another development, Dodon has announced that he cancelled the
decree signed by Pavel Filip on dismantling Parliament and staging snap election
on September 6th. On June 9th the Constitutional Court in
the Republic of Moldova suspended Dodon from the position of president and
appointed Prime Minister Pavel Filip as the country’s interim president. The
Democratic Party of controversial businessman Vlad Plahotniuc believes the
legal government is that led by Filip. The first meeting of the new cabinet led
by pro-European Maia Sandu, which enjoys the Socialists’ support, in spite of
the Constitutional Court’s invalidation took place on Monday. Sandu has given
assurances the government will succeed in unblocking foreign funding,
especially from the EU. The meeting was held on the Parliament premises as the
new cabinet was denied access to the government building, which is controlled
by the executive team of Filip. The Democratic Party has invited all the
Parliament parties to identify solutions for overcoming the political deadlock.
Andrei Nastase, one of the leaders of the ACUM bloc, has answered favorably,
saying these talks must take place.

CONFERENCE Romania’s Foreign Ministry is today staging
an international conference on the strategic partnership relations between the
EU and China. The event, which is held under the auspices of Romania’s
presidency of the EU, is aimed at promoting an inclusive dialogue platform for
the relations between the EU and China. High on the agenda are talks about the
future strategic EU-China partnership, the Europe-Asia connectivity and the
cooperation between the EU and China in a multilateral format. The event has
brought together representatives of the foreign ministries and the academic
world from the EU members and China, as well as representatives of the European
institutions.

(translated by bill)