September 10, 2020 UPDATE
A news update
Newsroom, 10.09.2020, 20:47
Brexit — The European Commission has given a deadline to the UK, namely the end of the month, to withdraw the draft law bringing back into discussion the commitments made as part of the Brexit agreement. The information was made public after an emergency meeting called on Thursday in London between the British secretary Michael Gove in charge of applying the Brexit agreement and the EC vice president for inter-institutional relations Maros Sefcovic. The latter says the British government has seriously affected trust among the two sides. Under the agreement regarding Northern Ireland, this British province should observe some of the EU rules after the post-Brexit transition period, which comes to an end on December 31, 2020, so as to guarantee the absence of a physical border with the Republic of Ireland which is a member of the EU and to avoid the resurgence of tensions in this region. The UK officially left the EU on January 31, several days after the signing of a Brexit agreement which included the conditions for exiting the EU. The UK then entered a period of transition when it continued to apply the European rules. Brussels and London use the period of transition to negotiate an agreement on their future relation, especially the commercial relation, hoping that it could be enforced as of January 1, 2021. In another development, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi says there will be no trade agreement between the UK and the US if London does not observe provisions from the Brexit agreement agreed upon with Brussels, which could endanger the Northern Ireland peace agreement.
Senate — The Romanian Senate marked on Thursday, in a solemn session, 30 years of existence after the anti-Communist revolution of December 1989. The Senate interim speaker Robert Cazanciuc says the Senate has been and continues to be a pillar of stability, a body ensuring the country’s balance and a guarantor of the Constitution. Nicolae Văcăroiu, who had the longest mandate at the helm of the Senate, has underlined that the Parliament’ upper chamber has adopted at least 20 thousand laws in 30 years. Mircea Geoană, a former Senate speaker and currently NATO Deputy Secretary General, has conveyed a message reading that the MPs pay a key role in setting the strategic line of any country. The MEP Vasile Blaga, also a former Senate speaker, has underlined that the institution is meant to serve the Romanian people and its fundamental interests.
Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Patricia Ţig on Thursday defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi, seeded 8th, in the eighth-finals of the WTA tournament in Istanbul, which has total prizes up for grabs worth some 225,500 dollars. In the doubles, Romanian Andreea Mitu and Belarusian Lidia Morozova, winners of the Prague tournament this weekend, were defeated by top seeds Alexa Guarachi (Chile) / Desirae Krawczyk (USA). (tr. L. Simion)
