April 14, 2019 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 14.04.2019, 19:24

COUNCIL Romania’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Petre
Daea, on Monday will be chairing the proceedings of the EU Agriculture and
Fisheries Council in Luxembourg. This is the third suchlike council headed by
Romania since the country took over the EU rotating presidency. High on the
agenda there are the post-2020 CAP reform package, regulations regarding
strategic plans within the CAP – opinion exchanges on green farming, as well as
research and agriculture.

TENNIS A pair made up of Romanian tennis players
Sorana Cirstea and Andreea Mitu on Sunday won the doubles finals of the WTA
tournament in Lugano, Switzerland. In the finals, the Romanians clinched a 1-6,
6-2, 10-8 win against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
This has been the first finals this year for the two Romanian players. Cirstea
has four WTA titles won in doubles matches and five finals played, while Mitu
has three titles and a finals.

MARATHON Several thousands athletes participated on Sunday in the 9th
edition of the Cluj Napoca International Marathon, in north-western Romania.
The competition brought together athletes from 37 countries, such as the USA,
India, Japan or Kenya. The competition had a section for children, which
included the 400 and 800 meter races. According to organizers, several DJs
played music during the event encouraging the athletes all along the race
track.

POLL
Romania’s main opposition party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) estimates the
turnout in the EU parliamentary elections on May 26th and the
referendum on justice around 50%. Liberal leader Ludovic Orban believes the
Foreign Ministry will open only few polling stations for the Romanians abroad voicing
his concern about this situation. According to Orban, most of the Romanians who
left the country did it because of the lack of prospects and the way in which
the Social-Democrats ruled the country, and that means the Romanians abroad
would vote for the opposition. The fact they aren’t allowed to cast their vote
would affect the outcome of the elections. In another development, Calin
Popescu Tariceanu, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania,
(ALDE) currently ruling the country together with the Social Democrats, has said
that president Klaus Iohannis is using this referendum for a better start in
the presidential race. Iohannis has recently announced the issues to be voted
on during the referendum – a ban on amnesty and pardon for corruption offenses
as well as a ban on emergency ordinances for crimes, penalties and judicial
organization, correlated with the right of authorities to directly notify the
Constitutional Court over these ordinances.

SOLDIERS The four Romanian servicemen wounded in a bomb attack in
Afghanistan on Saturday are now out of danger. An improvised explosive device
went off close to the military vehicles of the Romanian Battalion 300 Saint
Andrew on a patrol mission on that day. The explosion was followed by an attack
with light infantry weapons by insurgents, which was repelled with support from
the US ground and air troops. The four wounded soldiers were stabilized and
transferred to the Kandahar Air base. In 2019, the Romanian army will dispatch
780 servicemen to Afghanistan, the Romanian defense ministry announced last
year. Romanian Battalion 300 participates in a NATO- coordinated mission, which
has brought together 16 thousand servicemen from 40 countries. The most
numerous contingents have been deployed by the USA, 85 hundred soldiers,
Germany 13 hundred and Italy with 9 hundred.

(translated by bill)