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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.
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