March 7, 2016
Click here for a roundup of news from Romania and aboad
Newsroom, 07.03.2016, 12:00
The Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, is paying a state visit to Jerusalem where he met with his Israeli counterpart, Reuven Rivlin. According to the Romanian President, Romania attaches a special importance to the relations with Israel, his visit being meant to honor the 68- year-old tradition of uninterrupted diplomatic relations between the two countries and especially to consolidate the future of bilateral relations. Also on Monday President Iohannis held talks with the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and is to meet with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III. On Tuesday Iohannis will meet with the Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, and will visit the “Yad Vashem” Holocaust Memorial. From Jerusalem, President Iohannis will go to the Palestinian territories for official talks with President Mahmoud Abbas.
The EU heads of state and government are today meeting in Brussels where they will be talking with Turkish leaders about the common plan on the refugee crisis. The 28 EU member states agreed, on Sunday, on closing the Balkan route for clandestine immigrants, promising to offer ‘maximum’ support to Greece to manage the crisis, writes the daily Le Figaro. Turkey accepted in exchange for 3 billion euros to retain the immigrants in Turkey, where there are already more than 2 million refugees. Most of the refugees reach Greece, the main entrance gate into the EU from Turkey, after they cross the Mediterranean. According to the UN, over 130 thousand immigrants have entered Europe in the first 2 months of 2016. At the Brussels meeting, Romania is represented by PM Dacian Cioloş. After the summit, on the 2nd day of his visit to the Belgian capital, he will meet with the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and with the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. The Romanian PM will also meet with representatives of the Romanian community in Belgium.
Romania’s candidate at the 2016 Eurovision song contest to be hosted by Stockholm, Sweden, is Ovidiu Anton who will perform the song “Moment of Silence”. He was chosen by televoting by the Romanian audience during the national final held on Sunday in Baia Mare, the seat of Maramures county, in the north of Romania. 43 countries have signed up for the 2016 Eurovision contest, three more than in the previous edition. Romania will participate in the second semifinal of the contest, scheduled for May 12. The final will be held two days later.
More than 8 thousand employees of the Dacia company — the largest car maker in Romania, a brand held by the French car maker Renault- are expected on Monday in Mioveni, in the south of Romania, at a large- scale rally, the Dacia Car Maker trade union announced. Employees are discontent mainly with the postponement of the building of the Pitesti-Sibiu highway. The highway is important as it shortens the distance and duration of export-bound cars to leave Romania, in the context in which the Dacia carmaker sustains losses of 30 euros per car because of the infrastructure. Trade unionists also call for law amendments that should discourage the import of second-hand cars, and for amendments to the jobs and medical assistance legislation.
The best Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, continues to be on 5th position in the WTA classification made public on Monday. Halep, who ended the year 2015 on 2nd position, had a bad start in 2016, scoring two victories and being defeated 4 times in the WTA tournament. The 2nd Romanian tennis player in the WTA ranking is Monica Niculescu, who continues to be on 34th position. Irina Begu climbed one position being ranked 35th while Alexandra Dulgeru dropped 26 places being currently ranked 93rd. On first position remains the American Serena Williams followed by the German Angelique Kerber and the Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
