REFERENDUM – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has called a round of consultations
\nnext week regarding the justice referendum. On Thursday the National Liberal Party,
\nSave Romania Union and People’s Movement Party will start consultations, along
\nwith the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and national minorities. On
\nFriday, the Social-Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
\nare expected to meet the president. The latter has already declined the
\npresident’s invitation, while Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea said he
\nwon’t attend the consultations, although the party will send a delegation. We
\nrecall that on Thursday, the President announced
\nthat the themes which he would submit to the vote at the May 26 referendum,
\nheld simultaneously with the European Parliament elections, are related to
\nforbidding amnesty and pardon of corruption crimes and forbidding the
\ngovernment to pass emergency decrees related to criminal offences and
\npunishments, correlated with the right of other authorities to notify the
\nConstitutional Court over such decrees. At the same time the President
\ncriticized the Social-Democrats’ propensity for passing emergency decrees and
\nhas called on the Government to refrain from any such actions until the
\nreferendum. The power in turn accused the head of state of defending election
\ninterests while the Liberals have welcomed the referendum.<\/p>\n
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ELECTION – The Central Election Bureau has admitted the
\nlist of candidates submitted by nine political parties and independent
\ncandidate for the European Parliament election due in May. According to a
\nrelease published on the institution’s website, the Bureau admitted the
\ncandidacies submitted by the Social-Democratic Party, the National Liberal
\nParty, the 2020 Save Romania Union – Plus Alliance, the Alliance of Liberals
\nand Democrats, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the PRO Romania
\nparty. The candidates of the People’s Movement Party and the United Romania
\nParty have also been declared eligible. The Bureau also accepted the
\nindependent candidacy of Gregoriana Tudoran, a representative of the Together
\nfor A8 Association. The decision can be challenged by April 12 and the final
\nresult will be announced on April 16. The election campaign starts on April 27
\nand the election will be held on May 26. <\/p>\n
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MEETING – The
\ninformal meeting of the EU finance ministers continued in Bucharest on Saturday
\nagainst the backdrop of Romania’s holding the EU presidency. The meeting hosted
\non Friday under the name Eurogrup, brought together Finance Ministers from the
\nEurozone and marked the first working session of the informal meeting of
\nFinance Ministers and central bank governors, chaired by Romania’s field
\nminister Eugen Teodorovici. Eurogroup members discussed the banking sector,
\ninflation and the exchange rate as well as the developments in Greece.
\nEurogroup president Mario Centeno said following an analysis of the monitoring
\nreport, Athens has made important steps towards receiving a new financial
\nassistance package from the EU, worth 1 billion euros. <\/p>\n
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REPORT – Over a third of the 2,300 alerts on dangerous
\nproducts were triggered with respect to toys, a report published by the
\nEuropean Commission for 2018 reads. Toys are followed by motor vehicles,
\nclothing, textiles and fashion items. The main risks flagged are chemical risks
\nand injuries, followed by the choking risk for children. Over half of the total
\nnumber of products identified as dangerous originate from China. Cooperation with Chinese authorities in the
\nproduct safety field continues to be a priority, the European Commission has
\nannounced. <\/p>\n
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HANDBALL – Romanian handball champions CSM
\nBucharest on Friday lost 31-26 to Metz Handball of France at home in the first
\nleg of the Champions League quarterfinals. The team from France has thus taken
\nan important step towards securing qualification to the competition’s Final
\nFour. For the first time in four years, CSM Bucharest runs the risk of not
\nqualifying to this phase of the competition. The return leg will be played on
\nApril 13 in Metz. The Final Four tournament will be hosted by Budapest in
\nHungary over May 11-12, 2019. CSM won the Champions League in 2016 on its first
\nappearance in the competition. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS – Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea will play Benjamin
\nand Courtney Lock in Piatra Neamt in the doubles match of the Davis Cup match
\npitting Romania against Zimbabwe in Group II of Europe-Africa zone. In the
\nsingles, Marius Copil will play Takanyi Garanganga, while Dragos Dima will play
\nBenjamin Lock. The score is tied 1-all after Dima defeated Garanganga on Friday
\nwhile Copil lost to Benjamin Lock. The two teams previously met in 2000 when
\nRomania won 3-2. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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