VISIT- The Romanian Prime Minister
\nViorica Dancila is on a tour of the Western Balkans, which includes visits to
\nMontenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. The political dialogue with officials
\nfrom the two countries will focus on reconfirming deep bilateral relations,
\nbased on support for EU accession and on ensuring regional stability and
\nsecurity, the Romanian PM has stated. Strengthening economic cooperation is another
\ngoal, Viorica Dancila has also said, alongside the European agenda of the two
\nstates, given the importance that Romania will pay to the Western Balkans region
\nduring its presidency of the Council of the EU, in the first half of next year.
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WILDFIRES – Athens has activated the EU
\nCivil Protection Mechanism following the wildfires that engulfed the Attica region,
\nkeeling at least 79 people and wounding more than 200. Several countries have
\nalready offered their help, including Romania, which has decided to send two
\nplanes, one C-27 J Spartan, designed to extinguish fires, and a C-130 Hercules,
\nfor logistical support. Three days of national mourning have been declared in
\nGreece. The wildfires were apparently caused by a heat wave, with temperatures
\nof over 40 degrees Celsius, and extended rapidly carried by powerful gusts wind
\nof up to 75 km per hour. Authorities are now considering that some of the fires
\nmay have been started deliberately. <\/p>\n
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US AMBASSADOR – The US President Donald Trump has announced
\nhis intention to nominate the New York attorney Adrian Zuckerman to the
\nposition of ambassador to Bucharest, according to a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the
\nWhite House. Zuckerman was born in Romania and emigrated to the US with his
\nfamily at the age of 10. His Romanian is fluent and he is a partner in a New
\nYork law firm specializing in real estate transactions. Zuckerman has been
\nclose to the Trump family for two decades now, and he is also a known figure in
\nthe business circles in New York. If endorsed by the US Congress, Adrian
\nZuckerman will replace the current ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm. <\/p>\n
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WORLD BANK – The World Bank has approved a 50
\nmillion Euro funding to benefit Romania in case of disaster, given that the
\ncountry is extremely vulnerable to seismic risks. This loan will help improve
\nthe resilience of emergency and response infrastructure and will strengthen
\ninstitutional capacity to plan investments aimed at reducing the risk of disasters
\nand adaptation to climate change. Romania is faced with one of the biggest
\nseismic risks in the EU, with thousands of lives lost and dozens of thousands
\nof buildings damaged in the earthquakes that have hit the area in the past two
\ncenturies. More than 75% of the country’s population, including 65% of the
\nurban population, lives in areas of risk. Moreover, 45% of all critical
\nservices – transport, energy, water and communication – as well as 70-80% of
\nRomania’s GDP are located in areas exposed to seismic risks. The World Bank set
\nup its office in Romania in 1991 and since then it has provided funding worth a
\ntotal of 13.6 billion Dollars, in the form of loans, guarantees and grants for
\nall the sectors of Romanian economy. <\/p>\n
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NATO – A group of NATO experts is in
\nthe Republic of Moldova these days, for consultations on the implementation of
\nthat country’s Defense and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative. NATO experts from the US and the UK have met
\nwith the Defense State Secretary Radu Burduja. They have discussed the first
\nstage of the project, Moldova’s national security strategy and the action plan
\nfor the implementation of the strategy by 2021. In June 2015, the Republic of
\nMoldova was accepted by NATO as part of the Defense and Capacity Building Initiative. The
\nlatest polls show that the number of those who are in favour or against
\nMoldova’s joining the North-Atlantic Alliance is almost the same, standing at
\nsome 30%. <\/p>\n
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WATER POLO – On
\nTuesday, the Romania men’s national water polo team was defeated by Spain 12-7
\nat the European Water Polo Championship in Spain, so the Romanian squad will
\nonly be able to play for the 11th or 12th place. Trained by the Serb Dejan
\nStanojevic, in the next match Romania will play against the team losing the
\ngame between France and Germany. The Romanians have failed qualification for
\nthe quarter finals, after on Sunday evening, in play-off, they were defeated by
\nMontenegro 5 – 15. The 16 best national men’s water polo teams are
\nparticipating in the competition. At the previous edition, two years ago,
\nRomania ranked 10th, and the best results obtained in the European competitions
\nwere the fourth place in 1993 and then again in 2006. <\/p>\n
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FOOTBALL – The
\nRomanian football champion CFR Cluj was defeated on Tuesday, on home turf, by
\nthe Swedish squad Malmo FF, in the second preliminary round of the Champions
\nLeague. The team that will qualify for the third tour will play against the
\nwinner of the match between Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria and Vidi FC
\nSzekesfehervar of Hungary and the eliminated team will play, in the Europa
\nLeague preliminaries, the winner of the game between Sutjeska Niksic of
\nMontenegro and the Armenian squad Alaskert. In the Europa League, the vice
\nchampions FCSB (formerly known as Steaua Bucharest) will on Thursday take on
\nthe Slovenians from NK Rudar Velenje. If it manages to qualify, FCSB will in
\nthe next stage play against the winner of the match between Hajduk Split of
\nCroatia and the Bulgarian Slavia Sofia. Viitorul Constanta will play on home
\nturf against the Dutch Vitesse Arnhem, after they eliminated in the first round
\nRacing Union Luxembourg. In the third round, Viitorul would play with the winner
\nof the game between PAOK Salonika, trained by the Romanian Razvan Lucescu, and
\nthe Swiss from FC Basel. The winner of the Cup of Romania, CSU Craiova, will
\nplay straight into the third round of the Europa League, against the winner of the
\nmatch pitting the German RB Leipzig and the Swiss from BC Haecken. <\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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