Radio România Internațional

Tag: air pollution

  • March 5, 2024

    March 5, 2024

    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies today dismissed the simple motion against Finance Minister Marcel Boloș, filed by USR and Forța Dreptei opposition parties. The motion was debated yesterday, opposition members criticising the Minister for introducing a 10% tax on medical leave to cover the holes in the state budget. Minister Boloș is also accused of violating the law that stipulates that any tax must be enacted six months after its introduction. Marcel Boloș denied all accusations, slamming the opposition’s motion as a politicized initiative. The healthcare system is underfunded, and the government sought to discourage medical leave, which would bring less benefits to working employees, the Finance Minister said in response.

     

     

    TALKS – The president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, today met his Moldovan counterpart, Maia Sandu. The head of state reiterated Romania’s firm support for Moldova’s EU integration efforts. President Iohannis is also expected to receive the president of Spain’s People’s Party, Alberto Núnez Feijóo, as well as the president of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber. Talks follow one day ahead of the EPP Congress scheduled to take place in Bucharest on Wednesday and Thursday.

     

     

    SCHENGEN – Romania is ready to join the Schengen area, not just with its air and maritime borders, which is expected to happen at the end of March, Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu said on the sidelines of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. Romania could strengthen Schengen, which is why it is unfair our country should only be partly integrated in this area, Minister Predoiu went on to say. Romania reduced migration by nearly 60% last year, while only 40 people illegally crossed the Serbian border thanks to a pilot program, the Romanian official said. His Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, said Vienna is in no hurry to make a decision regarding Romania’s full accession to the Schengen area.

     

     

    OECD – Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that in 2026, Romania will manage to achieve one of its key objectives, namely to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). To that end, we need to implement reforms stipulated in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the head of government added. The OECD comprises the world’s most developed states, which together account for 70% of global production and trade and 90% of foreign direct investment.

     

     

    BACCALAUREATE MOCK EXAMS– The mock Baccalaureate exam series continues today with the mandatory written exam for each profile, according to the timetable published by the Education Ministry. On Monday, high-school pupils took the Romanian language and literature written test. On Wednesday, they will sit an optional written test for each profile. Representatives of national minorities will sit the Romanian language and literature exam on March 7. Preliminary results will be announced on March 15. The Baccalaureate mock exams are held in over 1,320 schooling units, and will be taken by some 146,000 pupils, the Education Ministry reports.

     

     

    POLLUTION – Bucharest was ranked 35 in a list of the most polluted world capitals, according to a platform providing independent data on air quality. Other cities such as Berlin, Istanbul, Brussels or Warsaw rank above Romania, with in top position. The capital of Vietnam on Monday was blanketed by a thick haze of heavy pollution, caused by high levels of particulates from vehicle emissions and construction-linked fine dust. Air pollution is known to cause respiratory diseases and other chronic illnesses.

     

     

    HANDBALL – The Romanian men’s handball team, Dinamo Bucharest, is today playing Sporting Lisbon of Portugal at home in its first fixture in the EHF European League main group 4. In the same group, CSM Constanța is taking on Fucshe Berlin, the defending champions. Having secured 3rd place in the group tables, Dinamo will play the playoff match against the team in second place in group 3, possibly Bjerringbro-Silkeborg of Denmark. The first leg will be played in Bucharest on March 26, while the return leg will take place on April 2 away from home. CSM Constanța, on the other hand, is bottom of the group tables and is thus eliminated. (VP)

     

  • March 2, 2020

    March 2, 2020

    COVID-19 – The Group
    for Strategic Communication on Monday announced some 52 people are being
    quarantined in institutional centers while over 8,000 are under house
    monitoring. So far 3 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, of whom one
    person has recovered, and the other two are in good health. On the other hand,
    the global death toll of the coronavirus has exceeded 3,000 with 80,000 being
    infected worldwide, mostly in China, where the number of victims is constantly decreasing.
    South Korea and Italy are of particular concern right now, reporting dozens of
    deaths. In Italy 500 new infections were reported in a single day. Several
    major events at European level have been canceled.




    GOVERNMENT – The Liberals are today
    starting negotiations with parliamentary parties with a view to forming a new
    majority that would support the investiture of Florin Citu’s Cabinet. The
    Social-Democrats in opposition have criticized Florin Citu and accused the
    Liberals of continuing to support the idea of early elections. The Save Romania
    Union will make a decision depending on how negotiations unfold and on the
    strict observance of their own priorities, namely the election of mayors in two
    rounds. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians has warned that any
    negotiation made after the presentation of the list of Ministers and the
    governing program is bound to fail. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
    claims the Liberals have presented the list of Ministers to ensure the new
    Cabinet is rejected by Parliament, while the People’s Movement Party says a
    Liberal Government supported by a minority in Parliament is unlikely to be
    invested. Florin Cîţu’s nomination by president Klaus Iohannis came after the
    Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the president’s first choice,
    the interim prime minister and leader of the National Liberal Party Ludovic
    Orban. The latter’s government had been dismissed through a vote of
    no-confidence at the beginning of February.




    INVESTIGATION -
    The head of the Maramures County Council and the president of the
    Social-Democratic branch in Maramures, Gabriel Zetea, announced he would be
    appointing today an interim manager of the Emergency County Hospital after its
    manager and former Health Minister Sorina Pintea was arrested. Zetea wants to
    exclude Pintea from the Social-Democratic Party along with anyone who might be
    involved in the investigation, pending the end of the trial. Pintea was placed
    under pre-trial arrest for 30 days for aggravated bribe taking. According to
    anticorruption prosecutors, Pintea received 10,000 euros and the equivalent in
    lei of around 25,000 euros between December 2019 and February 2020 from a
    company, via an intermediary, accounting for 7% of the value of a contract
    signed with that company to carry out rehabilitation works at a medical unit.




    POLLUTION – The
    latest spike in pollution levels reported in Bucharest was caused by a number
    of factors, such as uncontrolled vegetation fires and a fire, but the air
    quality is currently showing signs of returning to normal parameters, Romania’s
    Environment Minister told a press conference on Monday. National and private
    networks for monitoring air quality on Sunday night and Monday morning reported
    record-high pollution levels, exceeding the legal threshold by over 1,000%.
    Romania was supposed to submit by April 1, 2019 all national programs aimed at
    controlling pollution to the European Commission. For its failure to do so, the
    European Commission has launched infringement procedures against Romania.




    EUROVISION – Roxen will be representing
    Romania in the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Alcohol You. The
    song won Sunday’s national selection contest. The jury picked the song out of a
    total of five songs that were selected for the final, each having prepared a
    special show. The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted by Rotterdam, the
    Netherlands, under the slogan Open Up. The semi-finals will take place on May
    12 and 14, and the final on May 16. A total of 26 countries will take part in
    the contest. Last year’s winner was Duncan Laurence, the representative of the
    Netherlands, with his song Arcade. Romania’s best performance in the
    Eurovision Song Contest was third place, which it obtained twice, in 2005 in
    Kiev, with Let Me Try, performed by Luminita Anghel and Sistem, and in 2010
    in Oslo with Playing with Fire, performed by Paula Seling and Ovi.


    (Translated
    by V. Palcu)

  • Initiatives for Cleaner Air

    Initiatives for Cleaner Air


    Every year, over 400,000 Europeans die prematurely because of air pollution, with many more suffering from respiratory and cardiovascular ailments for the same reason. 25,000 are from Romania. Romania, alongside other countries in the EU, namely the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, and the UK, was recently warned on violating air pollution standards, and asked to take measures to remedy the situation. In the meantime, the Romanian Environment Ministry sent to Brussels a plan of proposals for reducing air pollution.



    Invited to Radio Romania, Dorina Mocanu, General Director of the Evaluation, Impact and Control of Pollution General Directorate, explained: “Evaluation of the air quality in Romania is done in 13 conurbations and 41 zones, in line with European directives. It is true that Romania, like many other European states, has a major problem with the high level of PM10 particles in suspension in some urban areas, the main cause being road traffic, home heating, and, less so but not insignificantly, construction sites. I want to specify that the infringement procedure was launched for three conurbations in Romania, namely Bucharest, Iasi, and Brasov, for too high a value for the PM10 index, particles in suspension, for which the Commission issued a warning in 2014.”



    In late January, upon the request of the European Commissioner for Environment, Karmenu Vella, Romania reported the stage of the measures taken by the local authorities in the three aforementioned conurbations, the timetable and the measures for the upcoming period.



    Here is Dorina Mocanu once again: “These measures can be divided into three categories: the ones having to do with road traffic and referring to traffic management, which includes the program of incentives for renewing the car fleet by scrapping old cars, the national program for creating an infrastructure for electric cars, modernizing public transportation, including shifting to electric public transportation. A second category of measures refers to residential heating measures for energy efficiency by insulating the building envelopes, by modernizing the heating system, installing heating systems that use renewable energy, replacing old heating systems with newer ones. Most of these measures are already being financed, or able to be financed, from environmental programs. And, last but not least, the third set of measures refers to green areas.”



    Greenpeace Romania is closely monitoring the situation, warning that there is a risk of fines amounting to hundreds of thousands of Euros a day. Alin Tănase, coordinator for energy campaigns with Greenpeace Romania, told Radio Romania that the most toxic substances are powders in suspension and nitrogen oxides, usually generated by cars.



    He told us what should be done to deal with this: “As far as I know, the deadline is in mid-March, when the Commission decides what states of the nine under warning will be sent to the European Court of Justice, implicitly resulting in fines. Not much has been done, which is why the Commission is threatening with fines. Because some cities have exceeded their limits for some pollution factors, they are obligated to put together plans to improve air quality. As far as we can see from the plans issued so far, I am referring to the plan in Bucharest, there are a series of measures that help more, others that help less, among them widening the boulevards — there are a few mentioned in the plan, because by this measure cars would run faster, which means that they would spend less time idling, producing less pollution. However, my opinion is that this is a back and forth measure, because if you widen the streets you encourage car traffic. In addition to this measure, there is another one that provides for several kilometers of bike paths separated from motorized traffic in the city, because a great problem we find with pollution in Bucharest is wind erosion, which stirs up the dust in areas devoid of vegetation. There are also measures of encouraging public transportation, even replacing the heavy polluters with electric means of transportation, and I am referring to electric buses.”



    In May, at the latest, Bucharest will have an Integrated Air Quality Plan, approved by the Minister of the Environment, Gratiela Gavrilescu.

  • 22 February, 2018

    22 February, 2018

    EU. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will attend an informal
    meeting of the European Council held on Friday in Brussels, the president’s
    office has announced. Talks will tackle the multiannual financial framework
    beyond 2020 and institutional aspects of the European Union. Klaus Iohannis is
    expected to emphasise that during its presidency of the EU Council in the first
    part of next year, Romania will seek a political agreement on a modern and
    efficient EU budget beyond 2020. The talks in Brussels are also expected to
    look at issues related to the composition of the European Parliament for the
    2019-2024 parliamentary term. The Romanian president backs the Parliament’s
    proposal for a new distribution of seats in the next term, which will increase
    Romania’s seats to 33, one more than it currently has.




    Anticorruption. The Romanian justice minister Tudorel
    Toader will today present the conclusions of a report on the managerial
    activity of the National Anticorruption Directorate. Last week, he cut short an
    official visit to Japan after prime minister Viorica Dancila asked him to
    return to Romania and clarify allegations about the National Anticorruption
    Directorate circulating in the media. Earlier, the former Social Democrat MP
    Vlad Cosma, who received a 5-year-sentence for corruption in a court of first
    instance, accused anticorruption investigators of using him to fabricate
    evidence against other Social Democratic politicians. The head of the
    Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi firmly denied her investigators were using any
    illegal means, while president Klaus Iohannis reiterated his trust in the
    anticorruption body. On Wednesday evening, some 100 persons gathered in front
    of the president’s office to protest against the Directorate head, accusing her
    of a number of abuses, and against what they called the president’s
    passiveness.




    Transparency Internationa. Romania remains on the 25th position in the European
    Union in a ranking made by Transparency International in its corruption
    perceptions index. The only EU members to score lower than Romania are Hungary
    and Bulgaria. Made public in Berlin on Wednesday, the ranking looks at the
    public sector in 180 states as perceived by the business community and
    independent experts.




    Human rights. In its annual human rights report, Amnesty
    International has criticised the attempt to decriminalise acts of corruption
    and the conditions in Romanian prisons. Published on Thursday in London, the
    report mentions that the attempt of the government coalition in Bucharest to
    ease anti-corruption legislation last year sparked wide-scale street protests
    in Romania and abroad. The Amnesty International report also notes that
    European and international institutions criticised the overcrowding of prisons
    and the detention conditions. Another observation made by Amnesty International
    is that in 2017, the Rroma in Romania faced discriminatory practices from the
    authorities.




    Flu. The flu has killed 47 people in Romania this season
    according to the latest toll published by the National Centre for the
    Supervision and Control of Communicable Diseases. 500 people have the flu
    virus, mostly in Bucharest and the counties of Constanta, in the south-east,
    Brasov, in the centre, and Iasi, in the north-east. The authorities advise
    people to get vaccinated, and the health ministry says around 80,000 vaccine
    doses are still available. So far 920,000 have received vaccination. The
    healthcare minister Sorina Pintea says Romania is not faced with a flu
    epidemic.




    Air pollution. The Romanian
    environment minister Gratiela Gavrilescu is today having talks in Bucharest with
    the European Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Karmenu Vella. Romania has requested the support of the European
    Commission as part of a mechanism designed to share expertise between national,
    regional and local public authorities in charge of implementing EU
    environmental law and policy within the EU member states. Last month, the
    European Commission demanded Romania and eight other EU states to take measures
    to reduce air pollution levels or face penalty procedures for exceeding the
    level of harmful substances in the air.






    European funds. The absorption rate of European funds is
    unsatisfactory and Romania risks losing 800 million euros under the Regional
    Operational Programme, prime minister Viorica Dancila said today at the General
    Assembly of the Union of County Councils. She called on the local and central
    authorities to share the problems they face in this respect so that solutions
    can be quickly found. The government’s mission is for Romania to climb to the
    top half of a ranking of the Union’s strongest economies by 2020, Dancila also
    said. To achieve this goal, her cabinet is considering investing more in
    infrastructure, increasing people’s incomes, reforming the administration and
    reducing bureaucracy.




    Europa League. The Romanian football vice-champions FCSB,
    formerly Steaua Bucharest, today face the Italian side Lazio Rome in a return
    match away as part of the Europa League last 32. A week ago, the Romanian side
    pulled off a surprising win at home, 1-nil. This is the first time after five
    years that FCSB have made it this far into the competition. Lazio Rome, who are
    managed by the famous ex-player Simone Inzaghi, were the odds-on favourites to
    win that match.



  • January 20, 2018 UPDATE

    January 20, 2018 UPDATE


    PROTEST – Dozens of thousands of people protested again in Bucharest and other cities across Romania on Saturday evening against the changes brought to the justice laws and the recent fiscal measures adopted by the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. The protest in Bucharest was attended by people from all over the country. The traffic in the area was disturbed and incidents were reported involving protesters and gendarmes. The protesters are accusing the ruling coalition in Romania of trying to subordinate the judiciary, by amending the legislation in the field. In December, several NGOs called on the Government to inform the Venice Commission about the justice laws and the changes in the criminal codes. Recently, the embassies in Bucharest of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland and Sweden have called, in a joint letter, on all the parties involved in the reform of the judiciary to avoid any action that would weaken the independence of the justice system and the fight against corruption.



    AJC– Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has received in Bucharest a delegation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), headed by President David Harris, on which occasion he stated that Bucharest authorities will continue to be extremely open to the Jewish community. In turn, David Harris has appreciated the way in which Romania acted while holding the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, between March 2016 and March 2017, stressing in particular the remarkable results obtained in the field of Holocaust education and research. During the meeting, the two parties also discussed the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US and the privileged ties between Romania and Israel, to the strengthening of which AJC would like to keep contributing. David Harris has also met with the Romanian interim prime-minister Mihai Fifor, who has stressed Romanias strategic role in the Black Sea area and the countrys firm commitment as a NATO member. Established in 1906, the American Jewish Committee is one of the oldest Jewish organisations in the USA, fighting against antisemitism at global level and promoting the observance of human rights.



    AIR POLLUTION– The European Commission has announced that on January 30th it will hold a ministerial meeting, involving the participation of nine member states, including Romania. The meeting will focus on the infringement procedure regarding failure to observe the agreed air pollution limits. The other member states, besides Romania, facing infringement are the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and the UK. In 2008, a directive was issued establishing the air quality limits that cannot be exceeded anywhere in the EU, obliging the Member States to limit the exposure of citizens to harmful air pollutants. According to the Commission, despite this directive, these limits are still being exceeded in more than 130 cities across Europe.



    BULGARIA – The German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to Sofia on Saturday, for talks with her Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borisov on the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of the EU. The talks focused on Bulgarias joining the Schengen agreement, the EU accession of the countries in the Western Balkans, the migration crisis and the relations with Turkey. Merkel hailed the way in which Bulgaria ensured the security of the EU borders, in particular the one with Turkey. She also appreciated the Bulgarian Prime Ministers initiative to organize an EU-Turkey summit, which would openly address all the important issues. The German chancellor has announced that Bulgarias accession to the Schengen area might start soon with air transportation.



    FARMING – Romania owns 33% of the total number of farms in the EU, but, as regards the area of land used in agriculture, the country is outranked by countries such as France or Spain, according to data made public by the National Statistics Institute. According to the institute, Romanias main problem is the fragmentation of agricultural land, which does not help farmers capitalize enough on their production. The study made by the NSI has also revealed that, in 2016, the number of farms dropped by 6% as compared to 2013, when the previous study was conducted.



    ATTACK – On Saturday, the Turkish army confirmed it launched a ground and air offensive against the YPG Kurdish militia in the Afrin region in northern Syria. To Ankara, YPG, Peoples Protection Units, is a terrorist organisation. The operation is regarded with concern by Washington, given that YPG is an ally to the US in the fight against the Islamic State. Ankara accuses YPG of being the Syrian branch of the PKK, which has been carrying out a rebellion in south-eastern Turkey for more than 30 years and is considered by Ankara and its western allies a terrorist organisation.



    AUSTRALIAN OPEN– The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number one in the WTA rankings, has today qualified for the next round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, after defeating the American Lauren Davis. The match against Davis was the most dramatic in her career and also the longest, as it lasted three hours and 45 minutes. In the fourth round, Simona Halep will take on the Japanese Naomi Osaka, no. 72 in the WTA classification. Also today, the pair made up of the Romanian Sorana Carstea and the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia has qualified for the last 16 of the womens doubles. Next they will play against the fourth seed Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, of the Czech Republic. In the mens doubles, the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer were defeated by the Australian Sam Groth/ Lleyton Hewitt. Another Romanian player, Ana Bogdan, was eliminated in the third round by the American Madison Keys.


    (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)


  • January 20, 2018

    January 20, 2018

    AJC – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has received in
    Bucharest a delegation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), headed by President
    David Harris, on which occasion he stated that Bucharest authorities will continue
    to be extremely open to the Jewish community. In turn, David Harris has
    appreciated the way in which Romania acted while holding the presidency of the
    International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance between March 2016 and March 2017,
    stressing in particular the remarkable results obtained in the field of Holocaust education
    and research. During the meeting, the two parties also discussed the
    Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US and the privileged ties
    between Romania and Israel, to the strengthening of which AJC would like to keep
    contributing. David Harris has also met with the Romanian interim
    prime-minister Mihai Fifor, who has stressed Romania’s strategic role in the
    Black Sea area and the country’s firm commitment as a NATO member. Established
    in 1906, the American Jewish Committee is one of the oldest Jewish
    organisations in the USA, fighting against antisemitism at global level and
    promoting the observance of human rights.








    AIR POLLUTION – The European Commission has announced
    that on January 30th it will hold a ministerial meeting, involving
    the participation of nine member states, including Romania. The meeting will
    focus on the infringement procedure regarding failure to observe the agreed air
    pollution limits. The other member states, besides Romania, facing infringement are the Czech Republic,
    Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and the UK. In 2008, a
    directive was issued establishing the air quality limits that cannot be
    exceeded anywhere in the EU, obliging the Member States to limit the exposure
    of citizens to harmful air pollutants. According to the Commission, despite
    this directive, these limits are still being exceeded in more than 130 cities
    across Europe.










    FARMING
    – Romania owns 33% of the total number of farms in the EU, but, as regards the
    area of land used in agriculture, the country is outranked by countries such as
    France or Spain, according to data made public by the National Statistics
    Institute. According to the institute, Romania’s main problem is the
    fragmentation of agricultural land, which does not help farmers capitalize
    enough on their production. The study made by the NSI has also revealed that, in
    2016, the number of farms dropped by 6% as compared to 2013, when the previous
    study was conducted.






    AUSTRALIAN OPEN – The
    Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number one in the WTA rankings, has today
    qualified for the next round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam
    tournament of the year, after defeating the American Lauren Davis. The match
    against Davis was the most dramatic in her career and also the longest, as it
    lasted three hours and 45 minutes. In the fourth round, Simona Halep will take
    on the Japanese Naomi Osaka, no. 72 in the WTA classification. Also today, the
    pair made up of the Romanian Sorana Carstea and the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad
    Maia has qualified for the last 16 of the women’s doubles. Next they will play
    against the fourth seed Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, of the Czech
    Republic. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch
    Jean-Julien Rojer were defeated by the Australian Sam Groth/ Lleyton Hewitt.
    Another Romanian player, Ana Bogdan, was eliminated in the third round by the
    American Madison Keys.



    (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)