May 19, 2019 UPDATE

ENVIRONMENT - Bucharest is playing host on Monday and Tuesday to the informal meeting of EU Ministers of the Environment, hosted on the sidelines of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The event will be co-presided by Romanian Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Gratiela Gavrilescu and Minister of Waters and Forests, Ioan Denes. Attending will also be Environment Ministers from European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and EU candidate states, European Commissioner for Climate Policy and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete and the EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The meeting's first session will occasion a debate on climate change - Innovative solutions and the role of citizens towards a low carbon future: how to reap better the opportunities related to lifestyle, circularity, spatial planning.

EXTREME WEATHER ALERT - Meteorologists on Sunday issued a new code yellow alert against heavy rain and extreme weather phenomena in place until Monday morning for 9 counties in the southwest. Thunderstorms, strong wind and hail storms will be reported locally. Meteorologists have also extended their general weather alert for heavy rain until Tuesday evening. Saturday's flash storms flooded people's households in northern Moldavia, Botosani, Suceava and Bacau counties being the most affected. Over 3,000 firefighters have been deployed over the past few days to support the local authorities and citizens in tens of towns and villages, to pump out water from households following recent rainfalls and flash floods.

IT&C - The city of Otopeni near Bucharest is as of Sunday playing host to the biggest IT&C drill at NATO level, Steadfast Cobalt 2019. The drill will run until June 2. According to a Defense Ministry release, taking part are over 1,200 Romanian and foreign military from 35 IT&C NATO structures. Steadfast Cobalt 2019 is aimed at providing joint training and cross-border support for NATO operations and exercising standard procedures in order to attain interoperability of human and technical resources.

FILM - Corneliu Porumboiu's La Gomera was premiered on Saturday at the Canne Film Festival. The film competes for the Palme d'Or alongside features by Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Terrence Malick and the Dardenne brothers. Corneliu Porumboiu returns to Cannes after winning in 2015 Un Certain Regard for his film The Treasure. In 2009 his film Police, Adjective was also rewarded with the grand prize of the jury and the FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section. Also at Cannes, in 2006, his debut feature 12:08 East of Bucharest won the Camera d'Or prize. Also on Saturday, in the Semaine de la Critique section, Adi Voicu's Last Trip to the Seaside was premiered.

EUROVISION - The Netherlands' representative Duncan Laurence won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with his song, Arcade. The winner was elected following the vote of the jury and fans from the 41 participant countries. This is the first time the Netherlands win the trophy after 44 years. For the second consecutive year, Romania failed to qualify to the Eurovision final.

LONG NIGHT OF MUSEUMS- Romania hosted the 15th edition of the Long Night of Museums, with over 100 cultural venues being open on Saturday night all across the country, offering exhibitions, screenings, theatre plays and concerts. Launched by the French Ministry of Culture and held under the patronage of the Council of Europe, UNESCOand the International Museum Council, in Romania the event is organized by the National Museum Network.

TABLE TENNIS - The Romanian men's table tennis team on Sunday won Group 1 in the 2019 European Championship preliminaries after defeating Serbia 3-1 in Bucharest. Both teams had previously secured qualification to the final tournament to be hosted over September 3-8 by Nantes, France, after winning 3-nil against Lithuania on Saturday.

(Translated by V. Palcu)