PM Sorin Grindeanu says Romania’s joining the OECD is a priority for his cabinet./ Simona Halep reaches quarterfinals of Rome tournament.
OECD. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Thursday in Bucharest that Romania's accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a priority for his cabinet. He asked his ministers to convey the message in their foreign actions that Romania is interested in becoming a member of this organisation. The prime minister said Romania has made constant and accelerated progress in recent years in order to assimilate the OECD instruments and has taken part in the organisation's working structures. We are involved in active consultation with and are interested in cooperating more closely with the OECD in many key areas, such as macroeconomic policies, corporate governance, the liberalisation of capital flows and migration, the Prime Minister also said. At present, the OECD has 34 members, which together account for around 60% of the world economy.
Cyberattack. The cyberattack against the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, countered last Friday, was a surgical strike targeting specific employees, said Anton Rog, the head of the national cyberintelligence centre of the Romanian Intelligence Service. He also said that such attacks are usually the act of a state agent. Previously, the Romanian Intelligence Service said that, most likely, the attempt originated from an entity associated with the cybercrime group APT28/ Fancy Bear, connected with previous events of this kind. Also according to Rog, the event was different from the WannaCry ransomware attack last week, which affected state institutions and private entities from over 150 countries, including Romania. The Romanian Intelligence Service also said it had information about another cyber attack, but no concrete data about its scale or whether it affected Romania. IT experts quoted by France Presse said a new wide-scale cyber attack, known as Adylkuzz, affected hundreds of thousands of computers on Wednesday.
Award. Romania's president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday awarded the Competition Council with the order of the Industrial and Commercial Merit in rank of officer to mark the latter's 20th anniversary. The president emphasised the Council's role in creating conditions of fair competition in Romania, so that businesses may act according to clear rules. The president also said that the Council has recently completed around 140 investigations in various economic sectors.
Senate speaker. The Speaker of the Romanian Senate Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has travelled to Poland to attend the summit of Parliament speakers from Central and Eastern Europe. On the agenda are issues like regional security, cooperation and the development of infrastructure on the north-south axis, as well as the role of national parliaments in international politics. Tariceanu will give a talk on the importance of observing the fundamental values that define a modern society, which Romania adopted when it joined the EU in 2007, when he was Prime Minister.
Committee of Ministers. The Romanian foreign minister Teodor Melescanu is attending the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers in Nicosia, Cyprus. According to the foreign ministry in Bucharest, the main topic on the agenda of talks is the consolidation of democratic security in Europe, with emphasis on the challenges posed by racism, xenophobia, social exclusion, extremism and terrorism. The Council of Ministers is made up of a representative from each of the 47 Council of Europe member states.
Tennis. World no. 4 Simona Halep, Romania's only tennis player still in competition in Rome, on Thursday defeated Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, world no. 17, to reach the tournament's quartefinals. This was the seventh time the two players faced each other, with Halep winning all previous matches. She also won the Madrid title for the second time in a row. In the men's doubles in Rome, the Romanian-Pakistani pair Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi lost in straight sets on Thursday to the Polish-Brazilian pair Lukasz Kubot and Felipe Melo.
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