February 28, 2019 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 28.02.2019, 19:56

Summit – The presidents of Romania,
Bulgaria, the Check Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia adopted on Thursday in Kosice,
Slovakia, at the end of the summit of the Bucharest 9 Format, a declaration that stresses the
importance of an advanced NATO presence from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In
the declaration, the nine European leaders highlight the concern for the
conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the recent tension in the Sea of Azov and the
Black Sea. At the meeting, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis voiced worries
about the latest developments in the Black Sea area, saying that the military
actions reported lately show that Russia continues to be a threat to stability
in the region. According to Klaus Iohannis, the allied states should do more, and
there is need for a robust ground, air and sea presence. Also, the eastern
partners should be supported more in order to enhance their defense capability
in the face of any kind of threat, be it military, cybernetic or mere
propaganda. The Romanian president also said that the relationship between the
EU and NATO must be based on a close cooperation. The B9 format was launched at
the initiative of the Romanian and Polish presidents. The first summit was held
in November 2015 in Bucharest, and the second in Warsaw in June 2018.

NATO – The legislative process by which Romania is to ratify the
protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO will be finalized soon,
said Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila after talks with her counterpart
in Skopje, Zoran Zaev. Dancila gave assurances that Romania fully supports
North Macedonia in becoming NATO’s 30th allied state as soon as possible, as
well as its European path. Talks also looked at bilateral cooperation. The
Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Wednesday passed unanimously a bill to
ratify the protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to the North Atlantic
Treaty.

Military – Some 500 military from the US land forces deployed to
Europe are arriving, together with their equipment, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu
air base in south-eastern Romania. According to a press release from the
Romanian defense ministry, the US military will be stationed in Romania for
nine months, before being replaced by other combat units, thus ensuring a
consistent presence in Europe, based on continuous rotation, as part of the
United States’ commitment to ensure the security of NATO’s eastern flank. The
US troops will take part in multinational exercises alongside military of the
Romanian Land Forces. In another development, more than 1,000 military will be
taking part in the first multinational exercise organized by the Romanian Navy
in 2019 and entitled Poseidon 19, to be carried out between the 1st and the 8th
of March in the Romanian territorial waters and the international waters in the
western part of the Black Sea. Participating are 10 Romanian vessels, four
military ships from Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and Turkey and two speed boats for
divers. The air exercises will be carried out by a Puma Naval helicopter, two
MiG 21 Lancer planes and two F-16 planes of the Romanian Air Force.

EU – Between 28th
of February and 1st of March, the Romanian communications minister Alexandru
Petrescu is chairing the informal meeting of telecommunications ministers and
the Third Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting hosted byBucharest.
On this occasion, the EU ministers for digital economy and their
representatives are having talks with their counterparts from Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine about
expanding the benefits of the digital single market to include the
east-European partners. The informal meeting is attended by the EU telecommunications
ministers and the European Commissioner for Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip.
Talks focus on artificial intelligence and the Digital Single Market Strategy
post- 2020.

Protest – The judges of the Bucharest Tribunal have suspended their
activity from Thursday until the 7th of March to protest against an emergency decree
that has brought new changes to the Romanian justice legislation. All ongoing
cases will be postponed for seven days, with the exception of urgent cases.
Magistrates demand the repeal of the decree in question and call for measures
to suspend the activity of the special department for the investigation of
crimes in the judiciary until the Court of Justice of the European Union rules
on the challenge concerning this department. The judges of the Bucharest
Tribunal are thus joining the protests staged in recent days by prosecutor’s
offices, courts and magistrates’ associations from across Romania.

Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Mihaela Buzarnescu (31 WTA)
lost on Wednesday to the Canadian player of Romanian origin Bianca Andreescu (71
WTA) in the eighth finals of the WTA tournament in Acapulco, Mexico. The
competition is worth a total of 250,000 dollars in prize money. Andreescu will
next play China’s Saisai Zheng (40 WTA). Buzarnescu also lost in the doubles’
competition, alongside Irina Bara, the top seeds being defeated by the
German-US pair Tatjana Maria and Christina McHale.