May 14, 2017 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 14.05.2017, 18:47
AIIB — Romania has become a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has hailed Romania’s accession to AIIB, considering that it acknowledges the country’s capacity to participate in promoting the objectives of the financial institution aimed at supporting infrastructure and economic development projects. The Foreign Ministry sees Romania’s accession to the AIIB as a continuation of actions meant to promote Romania’s ties with the Asian countries. Romania and the Romanian companies will have the possibility to access the bank’s financial mechanisms in order to diversify cooperation with Asian partners in such domains as energy, urban development, transports, IT and agriculture. The AIIB, which was set up in 2016, is based in Beijing. Other European countries that are bank members are France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland.
Ransomware attack — Computers in at least 150 countries, Romania included, have been affected by the recent, unprecedented ‘ransomware’ attack, according to latest information. Among the almost 200 thousand victims of the attack were many organizations and enterprises such as the British hospitals, the Russian banking system and the French carmaker Renault. Once the hackers gained access to computers they encrypted all the files, and the only way to unlock them was to pay a ransom. Europol fears the number of victims will increase on Monday when people who return to work will open their computers.
USR — Nicuşor Dan is the president elect of the Save Romania Union, after having won a majority of votes at the fist congress of the party which was held between May 12- 14 in the city of Cluj-Napoca, northwest. The party also drafted its statute, its most important provision referring to the organization of internal referendums on important decisions that are to be made at party level. The document also writes that the new leadership will make public their wealth statements and statements of purpose on the party’s website. The opposition Save Romania Union, the newest party on the Romanian political scene, and the third party in Parliament in terms of seats held, intends to become, in two years’ time, the second most important party of Romania, to be able to appoint the prime minister at the 2020 elections. At the same time, the Save Romania Union party wants to have equal chances in the 2020 elections for mayors in Romania’s big cities.
Paris — The new French president, Emmanuel Macron, has promised to re-establish the EU and to make European citizens regain trust in the union. One week after the landslide victory he obtained in the second round of the presidential ballot against the far right candidate Marine Le Pen, centrist Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated Sunday as France’s youngest ever president, as part of a ceremony held in Paris. Aged 39, Macron wants to boost the French economy, to reform the country’s political life and curb the unemployment rate. Emmanuel Macron succeeds Socialist president François Hollande. On Monday, the French president will make his first visit abroad to Germany, for talks with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Eurovision — Romania was ranked 7th in this year’s Eurovision contest held in Kiev, Ukraine. Romania was represented by Ilinca and Alex Florea with the piece “Yodel it!” Many sites wrote about the Romanian artists that they were the most beloved pair at the 2017 edition of the contest. The Eurovision contest, which reached its 65th edition this year, took place under the motto “Celebrate Diversity”. The winner was Portugal’s representative, Salvator Sobral, with the song “Amar Pelos Dois”.
Sports — The Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache on Sunday won the gold medal in the beam final, in the FIG stage of the World Challenge Cup held in Koper, Slovenia. This is Larisa Iordache’s 2nd medal in this competition, after on Saturday she also won gold in the floor event. The FIG stage of the World Challenge Cup is the first international contest in which Larisa Iordache participated after the European Championship hosted by the northwestern Romanian city of Cluj Napoca, where she got bronze in the beam event. In another development, on Saturday, Romanian tennis player Simona Halep (8th WTA) won the Madrid tournament for the 2nd consecutive year. The tournament had prizes up for grabs worth more than 5 million dollars. She defeated French player Kristina Mladenovici in three sets. (translation by L. Simion)
