January 18, 2020 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 18.01.2020, 19:20
FORUM – Next week, Romanias president Klaus Iohannis will pay a visit to Israel. He will attend the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz – Birkenau concentration camp. The forum is titled “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Anti-Semitism” and will be held on January 23rd in Jerusalem. The presidents participation in this international forum is one in a string of actions undertaken by the Romanian state with the aim of strengthening education on the Holocaust, fighting anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, promoting the European values, tolerance and respect for fundamental freedoms and rights. On the sidelines of the forum, Klaus Iohannis will meet with his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin.
IHRA – On Sunday, the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will attend in Brussels the ministerial meeting of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), where he will give a speech and will take part in an exchange of opinions with his counterparts on the increase in the number of anti-Semitic and discriminatory acts, but also on concrete means to fight such trends. The event is organized by Luxembourg, which is currently holding the presidency of IHRA. The Alliance is based in Berlin and has 31 member states, 11 observatory states and 7 permanent international partners. It was established in 1998 and unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance and promote Holocaust education, remembrance and research worldwide. Romania held the presidency of the Alliance between March 2016 and March 2017.
ECHR – The European Court of Human Rights has sentenced Romania for violating one of its citizens right to freedom of expression. The citizen in question will get 5000 Euro worth of moral damages from the Romanian state. In 2012, he joined a meeting against the then president Traian Basescus centre-right regime and was fined for shouting slogans during the night. According to judges in Strasbourg, a person who protested against political decision-makers during a rally cannot be sanctioned by gendarmes for public nuisance. The courts decision is final.
PRELATE – Pope Francis sent Monsignor Ioan Bota, a papal prelate with the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Cluj-Gherla, in north-western Romania, a diploma and a letter, congratulating him on his 100th birthday. Monsignor Bota is the oldest papal prelate in Romania. He used to be a combat officer in the Romanian Royal Army, a war prisoner, a political detainee during the communist regime, a worker, teacher, priest and university professor at the Faculty of Greek-Catholic Theology of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. After the fall of communism, his merits as officer on the Eastern Front were recognized and he advanced in rank, up to Major General. We recall that last year, between May 31st and June 2nd, Pope Francis paid a visit to Romania under the logo “Lets Walk Together!”. He paid the visit 20 years after Pope John Paul II, the first Sovereign Pontiff to visit a predominantly Orthodox country.
BREXIT – After Brexit, London will not automatically expel the European citizens who have not requested the settled status, Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Brexit spokesman has stated. He has said that he was told there will be no automatic deportation of people, after the existing grace period, if they fail to apply for settled status. According to the settlement scheme valid post-Brexit, the European citizens who prove theyve resided in the UK for at least five years get the settled status, and the others get the pre-settled status, which will turn into settled when the five years have passed. So far, some 2.4 million EU citizens have received the right to live and work in the UK after Brexit. Most of them are Polish, Romanian and Italian.
TENNIS – The organizers of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, have announced theyve introduced a scaled air quality rating system to determine when play can be suspended following criticism after days of toxic smoke during qualifying. Several players were forced to retire because the air became impossible to breathe. The air quality in Melbourne, where the Australian Open is held, is currently some of the worst in the world, due to an intense bushfire season thats burned millions of acres across the country. Four Romanian players are in the main draw of the tournament: Simona Halep, Sorana Cirstea, Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu.
