June 19, 2022 UPDATE

Three Seas Initiative. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, will participate, on Monday, in the 7th Three Seas Initiative Summit, and in the 4th edition of the Business Forum of the Initiative, both organized in Riga, Latvia. The leaders of the participating states will analyze how to position themselves in the current European security situation created by the war in Ukraine. They will also discuss the contribution that the Three Seas Initiative can bring, through the implementation of strategic interconnection projects, in the three core areas of the Initiative: transport, energy and digital. According to the Romanian Presidential Administration, President Klaus Iohannis will reiterate Romania's support for Ukraine both bilaterally and multilaterally. At the same time, Klaus Iohannis will highlight the importance of the Initiative providing similar support to the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, as states that, like Ukraine, have a vocation to become members of the European Union. The Three Seas Initiative is a presidential political platform that brings together the 12 member states of the European Union located between the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.

Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the troops fighting the invading Russian army in the south. He's met with military personnel defending the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv and Odessa near the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. The president also went to the former Mykolaiv regional administration headquarters, which was destroyed by Russian bombing, which also killed 37 people there. A port and industrial city with almost half a million inhabitants before the war, Mykolaiv remained under Ukrainian control, but is close to the Kherson region, which is almost entirely occupied by the Russians. The city is an important target for Moscow, because it is on the way to Odessa, the largest port in Ukraine, located only 130 kilometers south of the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, mostly Romanian-speaking) and before the blockade imposed by the Russian military fleet , the main outlet for Ukrainian grain exports. "Russia has turned the Black Sea into a war zone by blocking shipments of grain and fertilizers from Ukraine," and has limited its own exports, said EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell, who accused Moscow of "blackmail." In eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas coal basin, heavy fighting continues for the towns of Severodonetsk and Lysiciansk. Kyiv officials say they fear that their country could be attacked again and again from the north, on the territory of Belarus, one of Russia's most docile allies.

Refugees. Nearly 11,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered neighboring Romania in the past 24 hours, up 19% from the previous day. According to the Border Police, almost 6,700 refugees crossed the border with Ukraine, and about 1,100 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania via the border with the Republic of Moldova. In both cases figures are on the rise. Since the invasion of their country by the Russian army on February 24, more than 1,200,000 Ukrainians have entered Romania.

Baccalaureate. The written tests for the summer session of the Baccalaureate begin in Romania on Monday. More than 126,000 high school graduates registered for the exam, the lowest number since the anti-communist revolution of 1989. The first test to be held is in Romanian language and literature. The compulsory profile test will take place on Tuesday, and the optional one will take place on Wednesday. The mother tongue and literature exam is scheduled for students of national minorities on Thursday. The first results will be announced  on June 27, when appeals can be filed. The final grades will be published on July 1. Also next week, on Thursday, the first results of the National Assessment will be announced, an exam for those who've graduated from the 8th grade.

ANAF. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) has announced that checks on individuals who cannot justify their assets will start on July 1st.  Those taxpayers are targeted, for whom there are very big differences, of at least 50 thousand lei (the equivalent of 10 thousand euros) between the revenues estimated by the controllers of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and those declared by the respective persons - said ANAF President Lucian Hey. He stated that the institution he runs has found such differences between the estimated revenues and those declared in the case of over 560 thousand people and stressed that the number of control teams in this field will increase from 22, as they are today, to almost 100.

Tennis. On Sunday, Romanian tennis players Simona Halep and Sorana Cirstea lost the semifinals of the WTA 250 tournament in Birmingham, England, thus failing to qualify for the last round. Halep, second seed at the tournament, was defeated by the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Cirstea lost to the Chinese player Shuai Zhang 4-6, 6-1, 7-6. (MI)