January 17, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.01.2023, 20:00

CVM – The success of having the Cooperation and Verification
Mechanism (CVM) lifted must be doubled this year by Romania’s well-deserved
accession to the Schengen area, President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday at the
annual meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions in Romania. Iohannis said
Bucharest is fully prepared for it and gave assurances that efforts will be
made at all levels to ensure a favorable decision in this respect. Romania is
an important part of the solution to the current security challenges at
European level and has brought and continues to bring an important contribution
to the consolidation of EU security, Iohannis also said.

AIRCRAFT – AWACS NATO airborne radar systems
landed in Romania. Specializing in air surveillance, the systems are deployed
to Romania in the context of strengthening Allied defense capabilities in the
Black Sea region. Since the invasion of Ukraine, AWACS aircraft carried out
periodic patrols in eastern Europe and in the Baltic Sea region to identify
Russian aircraft closing in on NATO borders. Three such aircraft will be
deployed to the Otopeni air base, together with a unit made up of 180 NATO
servicemen and pilots. The mission is scheduled to take several weeks. The
aircraft are not equipped with any weapons, but are fitted with electronic
surveillance equipment. AWACS aircraft have a detection range of 400 kilometers
over a 360-degree coverage at high altitudes.

PNRR -
Romania’s Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, on Tuesday presided the extraordinary meeting of the Coordination
Committee of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). On this
occasion, Romanian officials discussed implementation progress after submitting
the first two payment requests. The Romanian Prime Minister warned that
attracting European funds presents an opportunity for the future of Romania,
adding that Romania reported its highest absorption rate last year, accounting
for some 11.3 billion EUR. Nicolae Ciucă called on participants to make sure all commitments are fulfilled
in connection to the third payment request, which Romania has to submit to the
European Commission by the end of March.

CULTURE
– 2023 will be a year of important Romanian cultural events, Culture Minister
Lucian Romașcanu announced on the Radio Romania Culture channel. The opening of
the cultural programme Timișoara, European Capital of Culture is set for
February 17, with over 50 events scheduled to take place in the western
Romanian city. Minister Romașcanu also said that a number of concerts as part of
the George Enescu International Festival will be held in Timișoara. Among the
major cultural events of the year are the 30th edition of the Sibiu
International Theatre Festival and the National Theatre Festival in Bucharest.

TENNIS -
Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea
(42 WTA) on Tuesday lost to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan (47 WTA) 1-2 at the
Australian Open. Cîrstea and Putintseva
met five times. The Romanian player won in Mallorca in 2016 and Nurnberg in
2017, whereas Putintseva won in Contrexeville in 2015, Istanbul in 2018 and
Nurnberg in 2019. Also on Tuesday, Romanian tennis player Patricia Maria Țig
(790 WTA in protected rankings) was due to play Shuai Zhang of China (24 WTA).
This is the first confrontation between the two players. The match pitting
Irina Begu (28 WTA) against Elizabeth Mandlik of the United States (130 WTA) was rescheduled for Wednesday due to
bad weather. (EE & VP)