Radio România Internațional

Tag: 3SI Summit

  • August 1, 2023

    August 1, 2023

    MARKUP – The markup for 14 categories of foodstuffs is curbed for a
    limited period of three months according to a government decree adopted in late
    June. Prices for dairy products, meat, vegetable and fruit are therefore
    expected to go down. Farmers will not be obliged to set a cap on prices,
    government officials say. Failure to observe the new legislation will incur
    fines up to 400,000 EUR.




    CAR SCRAPPING – A new car scrapping scheme
    was launched in Romania with a view to scrapping old vehicles owned by
    individual car owners. Apart from the funds provided by the Environment
    Ministry, accounting for 80% of the program’s budget, local authorities also
    contribute 20%. Whereas the first phase in April was addressed to City Halls,
    in the second phase individual car owners can apply. The deadline for
    applications is set for August 31 or until the funds are depleted. The number
    of beneficiaries was set according to the population of each administrative
    unit. The program was supposed to kick off in 2022, but has been repeatedly
    delayed.




    3SI – Bucharest will host a new Summit
    of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) on September 6, held under the high
    patronage of president Klaus Iohannis. The summit will be followed by the 3SI
    Business Forum. Attending will be Senate Speaker Nicolae Ciucă and Prime
    Minister Marcel Ciolacu. The 3SI brings together 12 EU member states from the
    Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech
    Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and
    Slovenia. Political and economic support for Ukraine will rank high on the
    summit’s agenda.




    BORDER POLICE – The Border Police
    announced increased traffic on Romania’s borders despite additional measures to
    ease traffic. The overcrowding of borders is owed to many Romanians in the
    Diaspora coming home to spend their summer holidays with their families and
    friends, while many Romanians choose holiday destinations abroad. The
    authorities urge drivers to use all border crossing points. The Arad Border
    Police spokesman Alexandru Dincă said that border police staff are working at
    full capacity and additional control lanes have been added depending on the
    dynamic of traffic flows. At the same time, mobile control stations will be
    deployed in order to ensure optimal border crossing.




    UNEMPLOYMENT – The unemployment rate
    stood at 5.4% in June, down by 0.1% compared to May, the National Statistics
    Institute reports. The number of unemployed stood at nearly 445 thousand in
    June, a decrease also compared to the same period of 2022. Broken down in terms
    of gender, the unemployment rate for men exceeded that of women by 0.8%. Youth
    unemployment stands at some 22%.




    JUSTICE – Justice Minister Alina
    Gorghiu met with US Ambassador in Romania, Kathleen Kavalec. The agenda for
    talks included bilateral judicial cooperation, combating human trafficking and
    the digitization of the justice system in Romania. Minister Gorghiu said the
    Strategic Partnership with the USA is key to promoting human rights and the
    rule of law. The Romanian official hailed the good level of bilateral relations
    in the justice field, and suggested new areas of cooperation, such as legal
    education in Romanian schools. Alina Gorghiu highlighted the importance of a
    predictable legislation for the development of the business sector and boosting
    foreign direct investment in Romanian economy. The Romanian official expressed
    Romania’s firm commitment to combat corruption and implement the
    recommendations of the 2022 Rule of Law Report of the Venice Commission. With
    regard to human trafficking, Alina Gorghiu said the Justice Ministry has
    fulfilled its obligations as per the 2022 Report on Human Trafficking and other
    country-specific reports in this field.




    SPORT – Romanian athletes on Monday won
    five medals – three gold, one silver and one bronze – at the Francophone Games
    held in Kinshasa, Congo. In wrestling, our athletes scooped two gold medals,
    one silver and one bronze. Romania’s table tennis team also won gold after
    defeating Tunisia in the final. On Sunday, Romania grabbed three medals – two
    gold and one silver – in the free wrestling competition. Romania thus ranks
    first in the medal standings with 7 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze, followed by
    Morocco and Cameroon. 57 Romanian athletes represent Romania at the 9th
    edition of the Francophone Games in athletics, women’s basketball, free
    wrestling, African wrestling, road bicycle racing, table tennis and judo. The
    competition is hosted by Congo over July 28 – August 6. (VP)







  • June 20, 2022

    June 20, 2022

    3SI – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, is today attending the 7th
    edition of the Three Seas Initiative Summit and the 4th edition of
    the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum, both hosted by Riga, Latvia. Leaders
    of 3SI participant states will look at approaches to the current security
    framework in Europe in the context of the war in Ukraine. Participants will
    also discuss the contribution of the Three Seas Initiative by implementing
    strategic interconnection projects in the three key sectors of 3SI: transport,
    energy and digital infrastructure. According to the Romanian presidency,
    president Klaus Iohannis will reiterate Romania’s support for Ukraine at both
    bilateral and multilateral levels. At the same time, Klaus Iohannis will
    highlight the importance of providing the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and
    Ukraine with support in their efforts to join the European Union. The Three
    Seas Initiative is a political platform bringing together 12 EU Member States
    located between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas.




    MEETING – EU Foreign Ministers are today meeting in Luxembourg to
    discuss ways of getting millions of tons of grain out of Ukraine. Ukraine is
    currently unable to export its grain due to the Russian blockade in the Black
    Sea. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters. Over 20 million
    tons of grain are currently stockpiled in silos as a result of the Russian
    invasion. Moscow denies any responsibility for the food crisis and claims
    Western sanctions are responsible for the increase in food prices at global
    level and the shortage of food in underdeveloped countries that rely on grain
    imports.




    REFUGEES – The Border Police
    Inspectorate announced that 9,231 Ukrainian citizens entered on Sunday in
    Romania, down by 15% compared to the previous day. Some 1.2 million Ukrainian
    refugees have entered Romania since the start in the war in Ukraine on February
    24. In a message marking World Refugee Day on June 20, Prime Minister Nicolae
    Ciucă recalls that Romania displayed
    solidarity with Ukrainian refugees and will continue to provide them with all
    the necessary conditions to ensure their social and economic integration. The
    Prime Minister also said that, of the total number of Ukrainian refugees who
    entered Romania, 80,000 chose to stay, opting for the protection and security Romania
    provides.




    COMMEMORATION – Defense Minister Vasile Dîncu is today attending the unveiling of a
    monument devoted to the Romanian military who died in World War I and were
    entombed in Italy. The ceremony is hosted by the city of Bolzano in northern
    Italy. Minister Dîncu will
    also meet his Italian counterpart, Lorenzo Guerini. Representing a Latin marble
    cross, the war monument was built as part of a project carried out in 2021.




    BACCALAUREATE – The written tests of
    the Baccalaureate exam are scheduled this week. Over 126 thousand high school
    graduates have signed up for the exam, the lowest number reported since the
    1989 anticommunist revolution. Today pupils took the Romanian language and
    literature test. Tomorrow they will sit the specialty exam, while on Wednesday
    they will take the exam in a subject of their choice. On Thursday, pupils
    belonging to national minorities will take the mother tongue test.




    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies is
    today debating a simple motion filed by USR in opposition against Education
    Minister, Sorin Cîmpeanu,
    with the vote scheduled on Wednesday. USR claims Minister Cîmpeanu is responsible for the disaster in
    the education system, blaming him for the high school dropout rate and for
    operating changes in the way pupils are examined without consulting
    stakeholders.




    ELECTION IN FRANCE – The center-Liberal presidential alliance Ensemble! has lost the absolute majority
    in the Assemblée Nationale, following Sunday’s second round of the legislative
    election. Emmanuel Macron’s coalition grabbed 245 seats, 40 seats short of
    securing absolute majority. Ensemble! will
    face two opposition forces: the left-wing alliance NUPES, made up of the
    Communist, Green and Socialist parties, which grabbed 135 seats, and the
    far-right party National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, which surprisingly won 89
    seats. Therefore, Ensemble! has two
    choices: form a minority government or a government coalition with the traditional
    right, which won 61 seats. If none of the solutions works out, the ensuing
    political crisis might prompt the president to dissolve Parliament and call
    snap elections.




    SWIMMING – Romanian swimmers Robert Glință and David Popovici on Sunday qualified
    to the finals of the 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle events, respectively,
    at the World Swimming Championships hosted by Budapest, Hungary. Robert Glință qualified to the 100m backstroke
    event from the 8th position in the semi-finals, after finishing 13th
    in the qualifying heats. David Popovici grabbed the best result in the
    semi-finals, setting a new world junior record, after also grabbing the top
    position in the qualifying heats. Popovici is competing in his first senior
    championship. So far, Romania’s medal sheet in the World Championships includes
    2 gold, 1 silver and 6 bronze. The gold medals were won by Tamara Costache in
    1986 and Diana Mocanu in 2001, while the last medal was won by Camelia Potec in
    2009. (VP)





  • July 8, 2021 UPDATE

    July 8, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 ROMANIA – The Romanian
    government has approved, at the proposal of the National Committee for
    Emergency Situations, the extension of the state of alert across Romania for
    another 30 days, starting July 12. The prevention and control measures in force
    at the moment will continue to be applied, with some changes. The most
    important is the extension from 90 to 180 days of the period of exemption from
    these measures for those persons who have already had the infection. On the
    other hand, the head of the vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, has drawn
    attention to the fact that, as of mid-August, the number of COVID-19 cases in
    Romania will increase due to the new ‘Delta’ virus strain and he has again
    called for the population to get vaccinated. Since the beginning of the
    vaccination campaign in Romania, in December last year, almost 4.8 million
    people have been vaccinated, of whom about 4.6 million with both doses. 30 new
    cases of contamination and 3 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours,
    and 57 patients are in ICUs.




    COVID-19 WORLD – Dozens of
    new cases of infection with the ‘Delta’ strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and one
    case of ‘Beta’ infection have been identified in Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbor.
    In Japan, the Government announced a state of emergency amidst the growing
    number of COVID-19 infections. As a result, the Tokyo Olympics, a competition
    that is set to begin in two weeks’ time, will unfold without crowd attendance.
    The Delta strain of the novel coronavirus, first identified in India, continues
    to spread rapidly around the world. The Australian city of Sydney on Wednesday
    recorded the highest number of new cases this year, South Korea reported the
    highest rate since the onset of the pandemic, and a study published in London shows
    that the number of infections in England has increased 4 times since June until
    now. Spain saw an increase in the number of new cases, especially among young
    people. 1% of young people between 20 and 24 who have been infected should be
    hospitalized – the Spanish authorities have warned. Globally, more than 185
    million cases of infection have been reported so far and at least 4 million people
    have died, according to worldometers.info.
    Most cases and deaths were recorded in the United States, India and Brazil.




    DISMISSAL –
    Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday signed the decree dismissing
    Finance Minister, Alexandru Nazare. Under the same decree, Prime Minister Florin
    Cîţu will take over as interim Finance Minister. Prime Minister Cîţu explained
    that, upon evaluating the activity of the finance ministry, he discovered
    delays of some important projects which are aimed at eliminating tax evasion
    and attracting European funds. Nazare is the second Minister sacked by the
    ruling PNL-USR-PLUS-UDMR coalition after former Health Minister, Vlad
    Voiculescu.




    3SI – The
    economies of countries in Central and Eastern Europe will grow faster than
    those of countries in Western Europe over the next years, IMF Director
    Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday on the sidelines of the Three Seas
    Initiative (3SI) summit hosted by Sofia, Bulgaria. The IMF official said the
    combined GDP of the 12 3SI member states could this year return to the level
    reported before the pandemic. The organization is a flexible, informal
    political platform at presidential level, bringing together the 12 EU member
    states located between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea.
    Romania is represented by President Klaus Iohannis, who will emphasize the
    importance of implementing priority strategic interconnection projects, with a
    focus on projects of high interest for Romania, namely Rail2Sea ​​and Via
    Carpatia. From Bucharest’s standpoint, these projects are essential for the
    Initiative to really bring about long-term economic development, and to make
    the economy of participating states more strategically resilient. We recall
    that Bucharest hosted the Three Seas Initiative summit in September 2018.




    UKRAINE – On the sidelines of Ukraine Reform
    Conference, organized in hybrid format in Vilnius, Foreign Minister, Bogdan
    Aurescu, said Romania continues to support the sovereignty and territorial
    integrity of this country, reiterating Bucharest’s firm commitment to oppose
    the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Bogdan Aurescu said
    Romania supports Ukraine’s European track and its process of comprehensive and
    inclusive reforms, based on the country’s commitments under the Association
    Agreement signed with the European Union. Ukraine Reform Conference is an
    international annual event organized since 2017, bringing together officials
    from Ukraine and partner states, representatives of the EU, NATO and G7, of the
    business community and civil society. (LS & VP)