ACCESSION The Spanish presidency of the European
\nUnion has included on the list of its priorities the issue of EU enlargement.
\nIn the first joint conference of the Spanish government and the European
\nCommission, staged in Madrid on Monday, the head of the community Executive,
\nUrsula von der Leyen says the accession of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova
\nis only a matter of time and there is no question mark on the will of the
\nEuropeans. In another development, the Spanish ambassador in Bucharest, Jose
\nAntonio Hernandez Perez-Solorzano says his country supports the accession of
\nRomania to the Schengen area. At the press conference at the European
\nCommission Representation, which marked the beginning of the Spanish presidency,
\nthe diplomat said the issue of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen
\nwill be included on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council most
\nlikely this autumn. In turn, Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu says the
\nSchengen zone will be stronger when Romania is a fully-fledged member.<\/p>\n
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RESIGNATION
\nRomanian president Klaus Iohannis has announced he took note of the resignation
\nof Eduard Hellvig, the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and he decided he be awarded the ‘Romanian
\nStar’ National Order in rank of Commander. Hellvig tendered his resignation on
\nMonday arguing that it isn’t good for democracy to have one person exposed to
\nclassified information for a long period of time. He believes that the Romanian
\nIntelligence Service has changed significantly during his term in office and is
\nnow able to react more effectively to the present day challenges in order to
\nprotect Romania. According to Catalin Drula, of the opposition USR, Eduard
\nHellvig’s mandate has failed since, in his opinion, the civil control over the
\ninstitution did not exist. Eduard Hellvig was appointed the SRI director in
\n2015. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS
\nRomanian tennis player Ana Bogdan has outperformed Russian Liudmila Samsonova
\nin two sets in the inaugural round of the Wimbledon tennis competition, the
\nyear’s third Grand Slam tournament. Other three Romanians are on the main draw in
\nLondon and will be playing on Tuesday, when Irina Begu will be up against Canadian
\nplayer, Rebecca Marino, Sorana Cirstea will be playing Tatjana Maria of Germany
\nand Jaqueline Cristian will meet Italian Lucia Bonzetti. The Canadian player of
\nRomanian extraction, Bianca Andreescu, will take on Anna Bondar of Hungary in
\nthe first round. <\/p>\n
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TRIP The Romanian Navy training brig
\nthe Mircea on Monday set sail from the Constan\u0163a Military Port on
\nthe Black Sea on an international training journey. It has on board 67 cadets of
\nthe Mircea the Old Naval Academy and 12 foreign cadets from
\npartner academies in Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Latvia, Spain and
\nItaly. The training trip will last 28 days, during which the brig will moor in
\nthree ports: Piraeus in Greece, Taranto in Italy and Izmir in Turkey. In all
\nthese ports, the sailboat will be open for visits. The brig is to return to Constanta
\non July 31.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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