September 8, 2017 UPDATE

The Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer has won the finals of the men's doubles of the US open

Newsroom, 08.09.2017, 19:47

UPDATE (21.00):

The Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer has won the finals of the men’s doubles of the US open, defeating the all-Spanish pair Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, 6-4 ,6-3. 12th-seeded Tecau and Rojer had previously defeated the first seeds Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia 1-6, 7-6, 7-5. Tecau and Rojer’s opponents came after a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against twins Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA.

Budget – Romanian Finance Minister Ionut Misa announced on Friday a positive budget revision. Misa said that following the economic results reported in the first eight months of the year, the budget structure would take into account a 5.6% economic growth instead of an initial 5.2%. Based on this modification, the budget revision brings more money to the agriculture, health, labour, justice and home affairs ministries and to the Romanian Intelligence Service. On the other hand, the regional development, transport and communication ministries will receive less money due to delays in the execution of EU funded projects.

UKRAINE – Minister for Romanians Worldwide, Andreea Păstîrnac on Friday had a meeting with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov, during which she voiced discontent with the new education law passed in Ukraine. The new law provides for exclusively Ukrainian-language teaching in high-schools and universities, while restricting teaching in the mother tongue in kindergartens and elementary schools. According to Minister Păstîrnac the new law violates the right of the Romanian ethnic community in Ukraine to study in their mother tongue and is against the previous commitment by the Kiev authorities to support education for Romanian ethnics and to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of education. Almost half a million Romanian ethnics live in Ukraine, most of them along the common border, on the eastern Romanian territories annexed by the USSR in 1940, following an ultimatum, and taken over in 1991 by Ukraine, as successor state.

Visit – EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu said on Friday in Bucharest that investments in the field of transportation were vital and that the situation was worrisome. She mentioned that one of the topics of her meeting with Transport Minister Razvan Cuc was the project of the subway line connecting the capital Bucharest to Henri Coanda International Airport. This project is particularly important given that Romania will host some of the European Football Championships matches in 2020.

Moldova – Moldovas President, the pro-Russian Igor Dodon, who is also supreme commander of the countrys armed forces, signed a decree on Friday that forbids Moldovan military to take part in any activity abroad, without his consent. Also, Dodon asked the pro-Western Prime Minister Pavel Filip to dismiss the deputy defense minister Gheorghe Galbura and ordered an investigation in trying to find out who was to blame for his previous order, that banned Moldovan soldiers from taking part in military exercises in the neighbouring Ukraine, being disobeyed.

Celebration – Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Catholic believers in Romania celebrated on Friday the birth of St. Mary, the first important celebration of the new liturgical year that started on September 1st. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary also marks the transition from summer to autumn. Over two million Romanians celebrated their name day on Friday.

Education – Romania ranks third in the EU in terms of school dropout, according to the latest Eurostat report. The highest school dropout rates have been reported in Malta, 19.6%, Spain, 19% and Romania 18.5%. Croatia, Lithuania and Slovenia, on the other hand have the smallest school dropout levels. According to Eurostat, in the past 10 years the school dropout figures have decreased in all member states except from the Czech Republic, Romania and Croatia, where they went up. The target for 2020 is to reduce the school dropout rate in the EU to less than 10%.

Quake – A crisis cell of the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) has been activated after the earthquake in Mexico. Romanian citizens affected by the quake can require consular assistance at Romanias Embassy in Ciudad de Mexico. A 8.1 magnitude quake took place off the southern coast of Mexico late on Thursday, the most powerful such earthquake to hit the country in decades. The quake, which was stronger than the devastating 1985 one that killed thousands, tore through buildings, forced mass evacuations and triggered alerts as far away as Southeast Asia.

(Translated by E. Enache, updated by D. Vijeu)