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CROATIA Romania\u2019s PM Marcel Ciolacu Sunday congratulated Andrej Plenkovic, who was reconfirmed for a 3rd<\/sup> time as prime minister of Croatia. Marcel Ciolacu voiced his confidence that the Romanian-Croatian relationship will be further strengthened, as will relations within the EU and NATO. Following April\u2019s elections in Croatia, PM Andrej Plenkovic\u2019s party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 61 out of the 151 seats in Parliament, significantly above the 42 won by the Social Democratic Party. Andrej Plenkovic has been the prime minister of Croatia since October 2016.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FORUM The 8th<\/sup> annual Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum will take place in Bucharest in the coming days. The event is organised by New Strategy Center, a Romanian think tank, with support from the national defence and foreign ministries and from the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. The conference focuses on the situation in Ukraine, as the scope and intensity of Russian attacks threaten the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state and the security of Europe on the whole. Political leaders, security experts and civil society representatives will try to identify means to help Ukraine withstand the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n OIL Romania\u2019s crude oil output dropped 3.4% in the first quarter of 2024, while imports went down 15.1% compared to the corresponding period in 2023. According to the National Statistics Institute, in Q1 2024 Romania produced over 682,000 tonnes of equivalent oil less than in the corresponding period of 2023, while crude imports exceeded 1.7 mln toe. According to the National Strategy and Forecast Commission, Romania\u2019s crude output will be on a downward trend until 2026, with an average annual drop of 2.2%, as a result of the natural decline in deposits. On the other hand, the Commission predicts an increase in crude imports by an annual 4.1%.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NUCLEAR The Cernavod\u0103 nuclear power plant\u2019s Unit 1 has been shut down for regular maintenance works on Sunday, Nuclearelectrica announced. The company promised the works will be safe for the power plant personnel, for citizens and for the environment. The Cernavod\u0103 nuclear power plant, the only one in Romania, has 2 operational units with an installed production capacity of 700 MW. The 2 reactors in Cernavoda cover around 20% of Romania\u2019s energy consumption. The plant uses the Canadian technology CANDU 6 (Canadian Deuterium Uranium), using natural uranium as a fuel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ROWING Romania\u2019s Mihai Chiru\u0163\u0103 qualified into the quarter-finals of the men\u2019s skiff event in the last Olympic qualifier regatta held in Lucerne, Switzerland on Sunday. The Romanian rower had the 4th<\/sup> best time in the 5 series. The quarter-finals and the semis are scheduled on Monday, with the final to be held on Tuesday. The final\u2019s top 2 rowers qualify for the 2024 Olympics. Romania, with 11 boats, is already the nation with the most teams qualified for the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n HANDBALL CS Dinamo Bucharest won Romania\u2019s men\u2019s handball Cup after defeating CSM Constan\u0163a 23-19, on Sunday in the final. Dinamo also won the championship without any matches lost this season. This is the 8th<\/sup> Cup won by Dinamo, as against 2 for CSM Constan\u0163a. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CROATIA Romania\u2019s PM Marcel Ciolacu Sunday congratulated Andrej Plenkovic, who was reconfirmed for a 3rd time as prime minister of Croatia. Marcel Ciolacu voiced his confidence that the Romanian-Croatian relationship will be further strengthened, as will relations within the EU and NATO. Following April\u2019s elections in Croatia, PM Andrej Plenkovic\u2019s party, the Croatian Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":731769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[30950,29362,35871,147870,30247,33406,29572,29538,30746,29443,29237,30448],"coauthors":[116091],"class_list":["post-766385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-balkans","tag-black-sea","tag-cernavoda","tag-crude-oil","tag-elections","tag-forum","tag-handball","tag-middle-east","tag-nuclear","tag-prime-minister","tag-refugees","tag-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n