March 1, 2018 UPDATE
First Vice President of the European Commission visited Romania Thursday, Dubai tournament under way
Newsroom, 01.03.2018, 19:44
Visit — The situation of the Romanian justice system was the central topic of discussions the First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans held on Thursday in Bucharest with the Romanian officials: President Klaus Iohannis, PM Viorica Dancila, the speakers of Parliament’s two chambers, Calin Popescu Tariceanu and Liviu Dragnea, the leaders of the ruling coalition, as well as with the members of the parliamentary committee in charge of modifying the justice laws. Mr. Timmermans also had meetings with representatives of the justice system. Fresh from these talks the European official had a press conference in which he said that contact with the Romanian authorities would be intensified on the issue of the judiciary. He praised the progress Romania reported in this field after EU accession in 2007. Mr. Timmermans also underlined that the EC’s ambition was to be able to stop the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for Romania by 2019, given that Romania will take over the presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019.
Weather — Code yellow and code orange alerts for cold weather have been issued for the whole of Romania until Friday evening. The skies will be overcast and light snowfalls are expected in all of the country’s regions. Minimum temperatures will drop to minus 24 degrees C while the highs will not exceed plus 2 degrees C. Schools remained closed for the entire week in the capital Bucharest and several counties in the southeast. Several national and county roads in the south and east of the territory are still closed. Because of the strong winds, the Black Sea ports remained closed. Trains have reported delays, many have been cancelled and airports are operating in winter conditions. According to the authorities, problems related to electric power and natural gas supply have been dealt with.
Brexit — The EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, on Thursday said that London’s stand regarding the future relations with the community bloc leaves room for a free trade agreement between the two sides. According to Barnier, the only possible model remains that of a free trade agreement, as recently happened with Canada, Japan and South Korea. He added that Great Britain would remain a member of the European Customs Union but it would have to accept more responsibilities, among which border controls with the EU. Barnier said that the success of Brexit negotiations entailed accelerated talks, only 13 months ahead of the official date for Brexit.
Tennis — The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecău and Dutch Jean Julien Rojer on Thursday qualified to the semifinals of the Dubai tournament with prizes up for grabs worth more than 2.6 million dollars. They defeated 6-4, 6-4 the pair Marcin Matkowski (Poland)/ Uisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan). For a place in the final, Tecău and Rojer, 2nd seeded and title holders, will be up against the pair Ivan Dodig (Croatia) / Rajeev Ram (the US) on Friday. (news translated and updated by Lacramioara Simion)
