June 2, 2018

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 02.06.2018, 14:12

TENNIS Two tennis players
from Romania are today participating in the third round of Roland Garros, the
year’s second Grand Slam tournament. The world’s number one tennis player and
the odds-on favourite of this competition Romanian Simona Halep will be up
against Andrea Petkovic of Germany (WTA 107th) while Irina Begu
takes on Caroline Garcia of France. Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania obtained the
best result in her career on Friday, a 6-3, 7-5 win against 4th-seeded
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. We recall that Mihaela was ranking 541st
last year and 12 months ago she was on the 377th position in the WTA
ranking.

AWARD Currently on a
visit to Germany, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is to receive the ‘Franz
Josef Strauss 2018’ award from the prestigious foundation ‘Hanns Seidel’ on
Saturday. The president has been awarded the prize for having promoted in a
constructive and visionary way along his entire political career the democratic
values of a united society and trust in the European project. The ‘Franz Josef
Strauss’ prize has been awarded since 1996 and among its recipients there are
the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the former US president George H. W.
Bush and the incumbent president of the European Commission Jean-Claude
Juncker. On Friday, the Romanian president presented Barbara Stamm, president
of the Landtag of Bavaria, with the Romanian Star National Order in rank of
commander for her attachment to Romania, where she paid over 100 visits.

SPAIN Socialist Premier
Pedro Sanchez is being sworn in today by the Spanish king Felipe. Sanchez, a 46
years-old economist got appointed by Parliament after the latter had endorsed a
no confidence motion against the government led by Mariano Rajoy amid an ample
corruption scandal involving the ruling party. Sanchez got support from the
Socialist group, the leftist coalition Unidos Podemos, as well as from the
nationalist groups in the Basque Country and Catalonia. The new Prime Minister
will have to deal with the Catalan issue, to implement the budget voted by the
Conservatives and stage the future election, which are supposed to take place
next year. Sanchez, who hasn’t been part of any cabinet yet, has become Spain’s
7th Prime Minister since the country’s return to democracy after
Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s.

CONFERENCE An
international conference on security in the Black Sea region is underway in
Sibiu, central Romania. The event has brought together 60 experts in the field
of security and defence, diplomats, analysts in geopolitics from the USA,
Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. In a message
sent to the participants, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has underlined that
the Black Sea region has a special relevance in the construction of the
European and Euro-Atlantic security. The security situation in the Black Sea is
volatile and characterized by the existence of a destabilizing potential, which
will be probably maintained on short and medium terms, whereas the challenges
the region is facing are complex and dynamic, president Iohannis has also said.
The Romanian official has added that Romania, as a regional security provider,
has reaffirmed its strategic objectives concerning the region’s stability
through political dialogue and the peaceful settling of disputes.

BOOKFEST Romanian capital
Bucharest is hosting Bookfest 2018, a book fair that has brought together over
150 publishing houses and has the United States as an honorary guest. Under a
suggestive motto, Celebrating the South the fair is a good opportunity
for the Romanian readers to meet their favourite American writers. Hundreds of
other events, film screenings and book launches are taking place on the
sidelines of Bookfest 2018. For the third year in a row, the event has been
staged under the high patronage of the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis who
said before the event kicked off that he is among those who believe in the
connection between books, education and the consolidation of democracy.’

(translated by bill)