May 20, 2016 UPDATE
Economist Vlad Voinescu is Romania's new Health Minister.
Newsroom, 20.05.2016, 12:15
EU — Romania ranks first in Europe in terms of economic growth but also in terms of poverty, European Commissioner for Regional Development, Corina Cretu, said on Friday. Cretu said, during a visit to Bucharest, that she was concerned about the situation of children in Romania, especially of those on brink of poverty. Corina Cretu had a meeting with the Minister for European Funds, Cristian Ghinea, in an attempt to find a solution for this underprivileged category. According to official statistics, about half of Romanian children live on brink of poverty, three quarters of whom are from rural areas. Also, Corina Cretu warned over the risk of Romania losing European funds as, half into 2016, the absorption rate is zero.
HEALTH — Economist Vlad Voiculescu, former head of cabinet in the Ministry of Finance, was sworn in on Friday as Minister of Health. He has ten years experience as a financial consultant in Vienna, and has had various charitable activities in the health sector in Romania. He replaces former minister Patriciu Achimas Cadariu, who handed in his resignation on May 9th, against the backdrop of the scandal of disinfectants in Romanian hospitals.
FILM — The movie “Gaduation”, by Crisitan Mungiu, which had its premiere Thursday night in Cannes, was a hit with critics in France. They expect the director to win a second Palme dOr, and a possible award for best actor for Adrian Titieni. According to a French website, Mungiu is one of the favourites in the competition, running against another Romanian, Cristi Puiu, who recently premiered his film “Sieranevada”, which also got good reviews. A third Romanian movie, “Dogs” by Bogdan Mirica, is in the running, this time for the Un Certain Regard award.
CRASH — Egyptian army sources announced they found fragments of the EgyptAir plane that crashed on Thursday 290 km north of Alexandria. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there were no clues as to causes of the crash. US analysis on satellite images have yielded no indication of an explosion, and experts have not ruled out any cause for the crash, including technical difficulties, terrorism, or a deliberate act on the part of the pilot or crew.
NATO — Montenegro is now formally the 29th NATO member. The protocol was signed on Thursday in Brussels by NATO foreign ministers, including Romanian head of diplomacy, Lazar Comanescu. The membership comes into effect in two years, and in the meantime Montenegro has the role of observer at NATO meetings. This is the third state in the West Balkans, after Croatia and Albania, to join NATO, to Moscow’s discontent, which sees this as an attempt to diminish its influence in the area. The parliaments of the NATO member states have to ratify the membership. The meeting continues with talks on cooperation with the EU. This is the last major event ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw, in July.
TENNIS –Romanian tennis players, Sorana Carstea, seed no. 99 in WTA, qualified on Friday to Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the year, with 32 million dollars in prize money, after defeating Belgian Elise Martens. Also on Friday, in the last qualifying round, another Romanian player, Andreea Mitu, was defeated by Swiss Viktorija Golubic. Four other Romanians play in the competition, Simona Halep, Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu, and Alexandra Dulgheru. In the mens competition, Romania has only one representative, Adrian Ungur.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
