PRESIDENCY – Romania’s big objectives in 2019 are EU integration,
\nconsolidating NATO membership and strengthening NATO’s presence on its eastern
\nflank, consolidating the rule of law and carrying on the fight against
\ncorruption, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said. The President said he
\nwon’t accept the nominations of Lia Olguta Vasilescu for the position of
\nDevelopment Minister and Mihai Draghici for the position of Transport Minister
\nsaying they are both untimely and unlawful, adding he will present his
\nmotivation next week. We recall in late November last year Klaus Iohannis
\naccepted six nominations as part of a reshuffle of the Dancila Cabinet for the
\nportfolios of Defense, Labor, Economy, Culture, Communications and Youth and
\nSports, refusing the nominations for Transport and Regional Development. On
\nThursday Iohannis signed the decrees acknowledging the vacation of the two
\npositions.<\/p>\n
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ROMANIA-MOLDOVA – Romania’s Presidency of the EU Council creates a
\nunique opportunity to boost Moldova’s relations with the European Union,
\nMoldovan Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Iurie Leanca, has
\nsaid. He expressed hope that EU-Moldova dialogue would intensify, offering his
\ncountry a clear accession perspective. Iurie Leanca went on to say that he is
\nrelying on support for the reform process and boosting the implementation of
\nprojects aimed at interconnecting the energy and infrastructure grids of
\nMoldova and Romania.<\/p>\n
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TOURISM – Some 12 million tourists visited Romania in the first 11
\nmonths of 2018, up by 6.4% as compared to the same period of 2017, the National
\nStatistics Institute reports. Of the total number of arrivals, Romanian
\ntourists accounted for 78% of bookings in accommodation units, while foreign
\ntourist booking stood at 22%. As regards the number of foreign tourist
\narrivals, Europe was the most visited continent, with 74.6% of bookings, while 85.7%
\nof these tourists visited EU Member States. Most tourists who booked a holiday
\nlast year came from Germany, Israel, Italy, France and the United States. The
\ncounties with the largest number of tourist arrivals last year in Romania were
\nConstanta, Brasov, Cluj and the capital city Bucharest. <\/p>\n
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LAW ENFORCEMENT – The total number of law
\nenforcement officers in 2016 stood at 1.6 million at EU level, accounting for
\n318 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants, a Eurostat report shows. There are
\nmajor differences however between member states, considering Hungary had 90
\npolice officers per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, followed by Finland with 137.
\nRomania had 242 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. At the opposite pole
\nare Cyprus with 573, Malta with 505 and Greece with 492.<\/p>\n
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BORDERS – Some 188 thousand people, both Romanian and foreign
\nnationals, have crossed the country’s borders in the last 24 hours, most of
\nthem leaving the country, the Romanian Border Police has announced. By
\naccessing the online app available at www.politiadefrontiera.ro\/traficonline, people can see the
\nreal-time waiting times and traffic for every border crossing point. The Border
\nPolice has also signaled 27 irregularities and denied access to 13 foreign
\nnationals who failed to fulfill legal requirements for entry into the country.
\nAdditionally the Police has prevented 15 Romanian citizens to leave the country
\nfor various offences.<\/p>\n
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TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea was
\nknocked out on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Shenzhen tournament in China,
\ntotalling 750,000 dollars in prize money. She lost 7-5, 6-1 to Alison Riske of
\nthe US. This was the third consecutive defeat for Cirstea (84 WTA) in direct
\nencoutners with Riske (62 WTA). Also on Friday, another Romanian, Monica
\nNiculescu (99 WTA), was ousted by Yafan Wang of China (70 WTA), 6-2, 6-7, 1-6. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[33090,28945,34353,34354,32954,34352,33035],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-103252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-eu-council-presidency","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-law-enforcement","tag-national-borders","tag-shenzhen-tournament","tag-tourism-statistics","tag-viorica-dancila"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n