March 5, 2016 UPDATE

Hungary is ready to erect a fence on the border with Romania, if migrants switch to that route/ Romanias representative in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden will be chosen by the public, by televoting on Sunday

Newsroom, 05.03.2016, 19:00

REFUGEE CRISIS— Hungary is ready to erect a fence on the border with Romania, if migrants switch to that route, György Bakondi, the main counsellor of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said on Saturday. If the government in Budapest decides to erect the anti-migrant fence, construction works will start on the Hungarian-Romanian-Serbian triple border, along the necessary segment of that 450 km long border, Bakondi also said. In another move, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said the first signs of a consensus likely to be reached among the EU member states have become visible and he expressed confidence that, once the divergences overcome, the process of solving the prolonged migration crisis, which has spanned a year, can start. Donald Tusk shared these ideas in an invitation letter to the EU and Turkish leaders, to attend the Summit scheduled for March 7. Romania will be represented at the EU-Turkey Summit by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.

MIGRATION– The EU Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, has come up with a roadmap to restore normalcy, by the end of November, to the Schengen area, in the formula without controls on the internal borders. Currently, seven member states, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, have reintroduced national border checkouts, because of massive migration. Apart from them, Norway, which is not a EU member state but it is a Schengen member has introduced the same measure. According to Eurostat, over 1.2 million foreigners, mostly Syrian, Afghani and Iraqi nationals requested asylum, last year, in the European Union, which registered a record high of such requests. The limitation of free movement of goods and people in the Schengen area might cost the EU economy over one billion Euro in a 10 year period, according to the data released by the European Commission.

MUSIC– Romania’s representative in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden will be chosen by the public, by televoting on Sunday, after the 6 finalists were designated on Friday. In accordance with the number of accumulated points, the winners of the first stage of the national competition are Ovidiu Anton, Dream Walkers, Florena and Mihai Traistariu. The duo made up of Doru Todorut and Irina Baiant, as well as Vanotek featuring The Code & Georgian have been saved by the Romanian public by televoting and have made it to the next stage of the competition. Romania will participate in the second semi-final of the song contest in Stockholm, scheduled for May 12. The final is due two days later. The best results obtained by Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest, were registered in 2005 by Luminita Anghel and the band Sistem, who ranked third in the competition, and in 2010, by Paula Seling and Ovidiu Cernauseanu who also ranked third.

TENNIS — Romania has outperformed Slovenia in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group I, played in the western Romanian city of Arad. The decisive point, taking the score to 3-0, was brought by the pair Horia Tecau- Florin Mergea who defeated the pair Tomislav Ternar- Aljaz Radinski 6-3, 7-6, 7-6. On Friday, in the singles, Marius Copil defeated Blaz Rola in three sets, and Adrian Ungur outperformed Grega Zemlja in five sets. The last singles matches are scheduled for Sunday: Adrian Ungur – Blaz Rola and Marius Copil – Grega Zemlja, respectively. Romania’s next opponent is Spain.

REFUGEE CRISIS— Hungary is ready to erect a fence on the border with Romania, if migrants switch to that route, György Bakondi, the main counsellor of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said on Saturday. If the government in Budapest decides to erect the anti-migrant fence, construction works will start on the Hungarian-Romanian-Serbian triple border, along the necessary segment of that 450 km long border, Bakondi also said. In another move, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said the first signs of a consensus likely to be reached among the EU member states have become visible and he expressed confidence that, once the divergences overcome, the process of solving the prolonged migration crisis, which has spanned a year, can start. Donald Tusk shared these ideas in an invitation letter to the EU and Turkish leaders, to attend the Summit scheduled for March 7. Romania will be represented at the EU-Turkey Summit by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.

MIGRATION– The EU Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, has come up with a roadmap to restore normalcy, by the end of November, to the Schengen area, in the formula without controls on the internal borders. Currently, seven member states, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, have reintroduced national border checkouts, because of massive migration. Apart from them, Norway, which is not a EU member state but it is a Schengen member has introduced the same measure. According to Eurostat, over 1.2 million foreigners, mostly Syrian, Afghani and Iraqi nationals requested asylum, last year, in the European Union, which registered a record high of such requests. The limitation of free movement of goods and people in the Schengen area might cost the EU economy over one billion Euro in a 10 year period, according to the data released by the European Commission.

MUSIC– Romania’s representative in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden will be chosen by the public, by televoting on Sunday, after the 6 finalists were designated on Friday. In accordance with the number of accumulated points, the winners of the first stage of the national competition are Ovidiu Anton, Dream Walkers, Florena and Mihai Traistariu. The duo made up of Doru Todorut and Irina Baiant, as well as Vanotek featuring The Code & Georgian have been saved by the Romanian public by televoting and have made it to the next stage of the competition. Romania will participate in the second semi-final of the song contest in Stockholm, scheduled for May 12. The final is due two days later. The best results obtained by Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest, were registered in 2005 by Luminita Anghel and the band Sistem, who ranked third in the competition, and in 2010, by Paula Seling and Ovidiu Cernauseanu who also ranked third.

TENNIS — Romania has outperformed Slovenia in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group I, played in the western Romanian city of Arad. The decisive point, taking the score to 3-0, was brought by the pair Horia Tecau- Florin Mergea who defeated the pair Tomislav Ternar- Aljaz Radinski 6-3, 7-6, 7-6. On Friday, in the singles, Marius Copil defeated Blaz Rola in three sets, and Adrian Ungur outperformed Grega Zemlja in five sets. The last singles matches are scheduled for Sunday: Adrian Ungur – Blaz Rola and Marius Copil – Grega Zemlja, respectively. Romania’s next opponent is Spain.