May 8, 2019
Sibiu hosts debate on the future of Europe, Election campaign continues in Romania
Newsroom, 08.05.2019, 14:08
Sibiu — The head of the EC Jean-Claude Juncker and the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis are today participating in Sibiu in a debate on the future of Europe alongside 300 young people from the EU member states. The debate precedes the EU summit to be held on Thursday and Friday in Sibiu as part of the Romanian half-yearly presidency of the Council of the EU. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, suggested to the participants in the summit to adopt the Sibiu Declaration which should convey a message of unity and trust. On the occasion of the summit Sibiu will welcome tens of official delegations, hundreds of high-ranking guests, one thousand journalists and interpreters. Traffic on the Sibiu International Airport will be 4 times heavier than on a regular day. The airport representatives have given assurances that, despite overcrowding, the schedule of regular flights will not be affected.
Election Campaign — In Romania continues the campaign for the EP elections due on May 26. Registered in the electoral race are the lists of 13 parties from Romania: the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) that form the governing coalition, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania which has a protocol of cooperation with the coalition, the National Liberal Party, the Alliance made up of the Save Romania Union and PLUS party, the People’s Movement Party, Pro Romania party made up of dissidents from the PSD, all in opposition, and the extra –parliamentary parties UNPR — National Union for the Progress of Romania, the National Unity Bloc, United Romania, PRODEMO, the Romanian Socialist Party and the Independent Social Democratic Party. Also running in the race are 3 independent candidates. Romania will send 33 members to the future EP. The elected candidate who will receive the 33rd seat will take over the position according to a European Council decision only after the date when Brexit produces legal effects. 414 polling stations were set up for the Romanians abroad, most of them being in Italy, Spain and the Republic of Moldova. At the same time with the EP elections, a referendum on justice will be held, which was called by president Klaus Iohannis.
Miners’ Raid — The High Court of Cassation and Justice decided Wednesday to send back to the General Prosecutor’s Office the file of the miners’ raids of June 13 to 15, 1990, that ended a large-scale protest against the leftist power instated after the fall of the Communist dictatorship in December 1989. The case management judge found illegal aspects in the indictment drafted by military prosecutors and decided to send it back. The decision is not definitive and can be challenged. On June 13, 2017 the Military Prosecutor’s Office indicted the former president Ion Iliescu, the former prime minister Petre Roman and deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculesculescu and the former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Magureanu. Against the backdrop of violent incidents in the capital Bucharest, which the army had already managed to control, Iliescu invoked a coup d’etat attempt by the far right and called on the population to defend the country’s democratic institutions. The raids of the miners from Jiu Valley (center west) in Bucharest resulted in 6 official deaths, hundreds of wounded and more than one thousand people abusively arrested. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights issued a decision that imposed on Romania to continue the investigations into the miners’ raids file.
Tennis — Romanian Simona Halep, world’s no. 3 tennis player, qualified to the quarter finals of the WTA tournament in Madrid, with total prizes worth more than 7 million dollars, after defeating, in the eighth finals, the Slovak player Viktoria Kuzmova (46th). Halep (27 years old) won the Madrid tournament in 2016 and 2017. Together with Simona Begu, Halep qualified to the eighth finals in the doubles as well, the pair taking on the Czech players Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova. Already qualified to the quarter finals, Irina Bara and Mihaela Buzărnescu will take on the pair Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)/Vera Zvonareva (Russia). In the men’s doubles, the pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecău and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer will take on, also in the eighth finals, the British pair Kyle Edmund/Neal Skupski. Tecău and Rojer won the Madrid title in 2016. (translation by L. Simion)
