Radio România Internațional

Tag: bridge

  • August 19, 2024

    August 19, 2024

    HEAT WAVE A persistent heat wave is reported in Romania, with code red, orange and yellow alerts issued in most regions of the country. The temperature-humidity index is above 80%, while highs range between 29 and 39 degrees Celsius. In Bucharest, the temperature is expected to reach 37 degrees Celsius, after 31 degrees Celsius reported at noon.

     

    EU PM Marcel Ciolacu makes a visit to Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, to talk with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about the seats Romania will hold in the future Commission. According to governmental sources, Bucharest may appoint the new commissioner for enlargement, who will be nominated from among the Social Democratic MEPs. Meanwhile, also this week, the government is scheduled to discuss the national strategy for the defence industry. Its goals are to ensure the development, revamping and upgrading of defence facilities, and to promote research, development and innovation by opening excellence centres and by attracting foreign and Romanian investors.

     

    CAR SCRAPPING A new session of the “Rabla Plus” national car scrapping programme, aimed at facilitating the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles by individuals, public institutions and local administration units, has been launched today. According to the Environment Fund Authority, applicants receive a voucher for the purchase of a new vehicle, in return for scrapping 1 or 2 vehicles older than 6 years. The voucher for the purchase of an EV is worth approx. EUR 5,000, and the one for a hybrid car or electric motorcycle is around EUR 2,600, irrespective of the number of cars scrapped. For public institutions, the voucher amounts to EUR 24,000.

     

    PENSIONS Millions of Romanian pensioners will receive pension benefits based on a new calculation formula as of September 1. The authorities promise this new system would remove all inequities in the pension system. According to official data, after recalculation the average public pension benefits will increase from around EUR 460 to around EUR 540. The finance minister, Marcel Boloș, says that in the forthcoming period the pressure on the public deficit will increase. Under the new regulations, in order to receive public pension benefits in Romania the minimum payment contribution period will be 15 years, with the retirement age planned to reach 65 for both men and women in 2035.

     

    BACCALAUREATE The autumn session of the baccalaureate exam is under way in Romania. After the Romanian language and literature test on Monday, written tests will be held in mathematics and history in the next few days, followed by tests in the subjects chosen by the applicants. The final results will be announced on August 30. Over 33,000 applicants have enrolled for the exam this autumn, following an over 78% pass rate at the June session.

     

    UKRAINE Ukraine continues its attacks in Russia’s Kursk region, where it destroyed a second strategic bridge on Sunday. Military analysts quoted by Reuters say there are 3 strategic bridges facilitating military supply for the Russian forces in Kursk. Kyiv claims to have seized some 1,150 square km and over 80 settlements so far. This is the 14th day of the Ukrainian strike, the first by a foreign army in Russia since WWII, with Moscow seemingly unable to initiate large-scale defence operations. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reiterated that Kyiv’s goal is to create a buffer zone to protect Ukraine’s border regions from Russian bombings. Meanwhile, Belarus announced the mobilisation of one-third of its army at the border, in response to the Ukrainian operations. At the start of the offensive in Kursk, Belarus, Russia’s closest ally and the country that allowed Russia to use its territory to attack Ukraine, claimed that Ukrainian military drones had violated its air space. (AMP)

  • A new bridge over the Danube

    A new bridge over the Danube

    Romania and Bulgaria
    will together build a third bridge over the Danube. The two countries submitted
    to the European Commission a joint project for a preliminary blueprint study
    and at this stage, its implementation has already begun. The location of the
    new road-rail bridge will be close to the cities of Giurgiu and Ruse and
    Romania is going to support this technical solution. The European Commission is
    also supporting the project, as the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina
    Valean has explained. Romania is the only EU country that gets money for the construction
    of roads through the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience, the European
    official went on to say.




    The support
    comes against the issues currently faced by the Friendship Bridge, the main
    connection between Romania and Bulgaria, which is 70 years old and extremely
    overcrowded. At present, roughly 2 thousand lorries and over 4 thousand cars
    are crossing the bridge on a daily basis. The second bridge over the Danube, at
    Calafat-Vidin is also very busy.


    State
    Secretary with the Transport Ministry, Ionuţ Săvoiu, has offered details about
    the new project.




    Ionut Savoiu: Talks are underway these
    days for the construction of bridges between Romania and Ukraine, between
    Romania and Bulgaria. We enjoy the support of the European Commission for
    another bridge over the Danube at Giurgiu-Ruse. And we are going to do anything
    we can so that this one will be a road-rail bridge. I am convinced the
    feasibility survey will enable us to make the right decision in this respect
    and I am looking forward to getting this survey. We know the two sides want
    this survey to be launched a.s.a.p and I am pretty sure the outcome of this
    process will be a good bridge. And I say this from my perspective as an expert
    in the field.




    According to
    the authorities, a survey will be conducted on the various routes leading up to
    the new bridge. The greenlight for funding the new project is expected in early
    2024. The timetable also includes a contract to be concluded with the European
    Commission until mid-2024, and its implementation until the end of 2026 with
    the two sides deciding on the location and the ways of funding the new bridge.
    Besides the European funds available, the possibility of using the mechanisms
    of the private-public partnership is also being considered.




    This would
    lead to a significant reduction of the implementation deadlines and is expected
    to attract additional funds. In another development the railway linking the
    Romanian city of Giurgiu to the Bulgarian city of Ruse, which has been
    non-operational since 2005 will be reopened at Gradistea over the Arges River,
    where a 1.3 km bridge is being constructed. At the same time the national
    company CFR Infrastructure has obtained roughly 500 million Euros worth of EU
    funding for the streamlining and electrification of the Bucharest-Giurgiu railway.


    (bill)

  • The Romanian Prime Minister in Ukraine

    The Romanian Prime Minister in Ukraine


    The one-day visit by the Romanian delegation headed by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to the neighboring Ukraine, invaded by the Russian troops, has occasioned the signing of a memorandum on strengthening cooperation and ensuring the safe transit of the Ukrainian products towards the world markets. This also includes an appendix for the strategy of developing the road infrastructure and the border checkpoints between the two countries. The European Commission has promptly hailed the agreement in Kyiv, which confirms the consistent support Romania gives to Ukraine in order for the latter to export its farm and industry products, a major source for war expenses.


    “Romania has a pivotal role in the functioning of the Solidarity Lanes and is engaging constructively with all the parties concerned, including through the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes Joint Coordination Platform. The Commission encourages such close cooperation between the EU Member States and Ukraine”, a communiqué of the EU Executive says.


    During the meeting between Marcel Ciolacu and Denis Shmyhal an agreement has been signed for the construction of a road bridge over the Tisa River as well as a series of documents on cooperation in the fields of defence and pharmaceutics industry. In Kyiv, the Romanian Prime Minister has been received by the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky and held talks with Parliament chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk


    Ciolacu has reminded the hosts that in order to join the EU, Ukraine must comply with clear principles including the rights of minorities. Over 400 thousand ethnic Romanians are living in the neighboring country mostly in northern Bukovina, the north and south of Bessarabia and the Hertza Land, all Romanian territories annexed through an ultimatum by the Stalinist Soviet Union back in 1941 and inherited by Ukraine as a successor state in 1991.


    After the invasion, numerous ethnic Romanians have gone to fight for Ukraine in the war against Russia.


    The good news with which Ciolacu came back was that the authorities there no longer recognize the so-called Moldovan language, under which Romanians used to be discriminated against. Rejected by all the linguists, the concept of the Moldovan language was coined in the first years of the Bolshevik regime out of a purely ideological reason: the creation of a false ethnic identity, which should legitimize Moscows imperialist tendencies. Even the last head of the political police KGB in the Republic, General Tudor Botnaru, admitted more than three decades ago, that “everything had been made to diminish the love for a literary Romanian language in order to promote primitive Moldovan principles.”


    (bill)


  • July 6, 2023

    July 6, 2023

    BRIDGE Romanian president Klaus
    Iohannis has today said that the suspended bridge over the Danube at Braila in
    south-eastern Romania, is the biggest construction Romania has seen in the past
    tree decades, which proves that major infrastructure projects can be finalised.
    Iohannis added that Romania has access to a significant volume of European
    funds and a good part of it has been devoted to the development of the
    country’s infrastructure. The inauguration ceremony of this bridge, the biggest
    ever built in Romania and the third in Europe, has been attended by the
    country’s president and by its Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu. This is the last
    bridge over the Danube before its flowing into the Black Sea and has been
    designed to last 120 years. The almost 2 kilometer bridge will link the
    south-eastern counties of Braila and Tulcea and raise the area’s economic
    potential. The project’s total value has exceeded 400 million euros, 85% coming
    from European funds.






    CSAT Romania’s Higher Defence Council
    also known as the CSAT is to convene in Bucharest today for talks over the
    country’s objectives at the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius. Also high on the
    agenda is the number of troops available for missions and operations outside
    the country’s borders next year. The council last convened on April 11th when
    one of the decisions was the purchase of the state-of-the-art jet fighters
    F-35. Other issues on the agenda included the latest security developments in
    the Black Sea region, against the background of the Russian aggression in
    Ukraine and the external interventions against the democratic process in the Republic
    of Moldova.






    TENNIS The game pitching Romanian
    tennis player Irina Begu and Canadian Rebecca Marino, in the first round of the
    Wimbledon tennis tournament, which was interrupted last night in the second set
    due to the darkness, is to resume today. Begu won the first set and the game’s
    victor will be up against Ana Blinkova of Russia in the second round. Three
    Romanians are playing today at Wimbledon: Ana Bogdan, who comes after a win
    against Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and will meet US challenger, Alycia Parks,
    Jaqueline Cristian who will be playing Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, after her
    win against Italian Lucia Bronzetti and Sorana Cirstea, who yesterday defeated
    Tatjana Maria of Germany and will be next up against Jelena Ostapenko of
    Latvia.








    NEVERSEA The city of Constanta, in south-eastern
    Romania, is hosting the fifth edition of Neversea, the biggest beach festival
    in Europe. The event is expected to bring together music lovers from all over
    the world, from Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, Bulgaria and
    Israel. Over one thousand policemen, gendarmes, border police, anti-drug
    officers and 700 private security guards are to supervise the festival. Special
    emphasis is to be laid on the prevention and fighting drug consumption and
    trafficking. Neversea organizers are expecting 260 thousand people to attend this
    four-day festival on the Black Sea coast.






    VISIT The Prime Minister of
    Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, paid a two-day visit to Berlin where he held talks
    with the country’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with representatives of the Federal
    Parliament, of the business environment and of the Romanian Diaspora.
    Chancellor Scholz reiterated his country’s support for Romania’s accession to
    the Schengen zone this year. In turn, Prime Minister Ciolacu underlined the
    importance of bilateral cooperation and the significant potential of this
    country, recalling that Germany is Romania’s most important trade partner.


    (bill)

  • June 23, 2023 UPDATE

    June 23, 2023 UPDATE

    SECURITY We are under an obligation to provide
    security to the Republic of Moldova, because Romanians also live there, PM Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday.
    The previous day the Romanian Foreign Ministry firmly condemned the statements
    made by the Russian-installed
    governor in occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo. The Romanian diplomacy says in a
    Twitter post that such statements addressed to the Republic of Moldova, but
    which also refer to a part of the territory of Romania, a member of NATO, are
    unacceptable and that targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime. The
    reaction comes after Saldo threatened that the Russian army could attack a
    bridge over Prut River, in response to an alleged Ukrainian attack on one of
    the bridges connecting Kherson to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea annexed by
    Moscow 9 years ago. Chisinau has summoned the Russian ambassador to the
    Republic of Moldova, Oleg Vasnetsov, for explanations. Created on some of
    the eastern Romanian territories annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1940, the
    Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence from Moscow in 1991.


    STOCK MARKET In Romania, the Association of Fund Administrators
    welcomed the historic decision to list Hidroelectrica, through the sale of the
    stake held by Proprietatea Fund. The Association chief, Horia Gustă, says the
    listing is a huge development opportunity for the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which
    thus consolidates its entry in the big league of European financial markets. Moreover,
    the company’s presence will attract significant sums of money and major
    international investment funds into Romania. In turn, Hidroelectrica’s CEO
    Bogdan Badea says he expects nearly EUR 10 bln in capitalisation.
    Hidroelectrica is the country’s largest electricity producer and it recently
    became one of the most important energy suppliers for households.


    IMMIGRANTS 43 foreign citizens were caught, Friday morning, trying
    to cross Romania’s western border illegally. They were hidden in a truck driven
    by a Romanian national, which was carrying parcels on the Romania-Hungary
    route. The authorities found that the people hidden among the goods are from
    Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. The foreigners are being
    investigated for attempted fraudulent crossing of the state border, and the truck
    driver for migrant trafficking.


    FOOD The large chain stores in Romania have agreed, in the framework
    of the dialogue started with the Government, that they could voluntarily reduce
    the shelf prices of 10 basic food categories. The announcement was made by
    Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, but talks will continue. In order for the
    reduction to be implemented, either a voluntary agreement of the sellers or an
    emergency ordinance is being considered, but in both cases, the prime minister promised
    that the government does not want to put pressure on Romanian producers.


    THEATRE The Sibiu International Theatre Festival began on Friday in
    central Romania. The event, which has a 30-year long tradition, brings to
    Romania 5,000 artists from 75 countries, in hundreds of events to be held until
    2 July.




    FOOTBALL On Saturday in Bucharest Romania takes on Ukraine,
    in Group B of the European Under-21 Football Championship, which it hosts
    together with Georgia. In the same group, Spain will play against Croatia. In
    the debut matches, the Under-21 national team was beaten 3-0 by Spain, while
    Ukraine defeated Croatia 2-0. The final tournament takes place between 21 June and
    8 July, and it brings together 16 teams, divided into four groups. Two are
    hosted by Romania, in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca (north-west), and two by
    Georgia. Two quarter-finals and a semi-final will also take place in Romania.
    The top three finishers qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris. Romania
    is at its 3rd consecutive participation in the competition, with a total
    of 4 final tournament presences, starting with 1998, when it hosted the final
    tournament for the first time. The country’s best performance was in 2019, when
    it reached the semi-finals, which secured the national team’s qualification in
    the Tokyo Olympics. (AMP)

  • May 11, 2023 UPDATE

    May 11, 2023 UPDATE

    PLANT Romania will have the first tyre
    plant without carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Construction works already
    started on this plant in Oradea north-western Romania on Thursday. The total value
    of this investment stands at around 600 million Euros and is being made by a
    well-known Finnish consortium. The Romanian government’s contribution stands at
    100 million Euros. The output is due to commence next year and the new factory
    will provide hundreds of new jobs. The investment was launched in the presence
    of Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, who said: It is very important in
    the moves currently underway at the EU and world level to protect the
    environment and is an example to be followed.








    RISK Romania runs the risk of staying in the middle-income
    trap and unless it changes its present outdated economic model, it would find
    it very difficult to become a state with a developed economy, NATO Deputy
    Secretary General Romanian Mircea Geoana said. In my opinion, Romania’s
    present economic model is outdated. It has far too long been based on small
    incomes, cheap labour and exports with much too little added value to be able
    to be competitive and climb the ladder of the developed nations. That’s why it
    is very clear that we need to build our future by learning from what went wrong
    in the past years Geoana said at the Future is now summit held in Bucharest.
    According to him only few countries have managed to get out of the
    middle-income trap like South-Korea for instance. He has also mentioned the
    efforts in this direction made by countries in our region such as the Czech
    Republic, Estonia and Poland.








    FESTIVAL The Cinefemina Film Festival
    has kicked off in Bucharest. The festival promotes and supports women working
    in the European film industry by screening features and short films directed by
    talented women filmmakers and producers. Running until May 14, the festival
    will bring to cinema halls 12 European features and 5 short films. Produced by
    film studios from Italy, France, Greece, Romania, Austria, the Netherlands,
    Portugal, Poland, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Hungary, the productions tackle a
    variety of genres, from comedy, drama to romance. This year, apart from film
    screenings, organizers have also prepared meetings with filmmakers as well as
    experts in a number of related fields, representatives of NGOs and journalists.
    These debates are aimed at promoting women in industries traditionally
    dominated by men.








    GRANTS European Transport Commissioner
    Adina Vălean on Wednesday distributed two grants worth 60 million euros to
    Romanian beneficiaries for the construction of the rail bridge in Ungheni on
    the Romanian border with the Republic of Moldova and for the modernization of
    the Port of Constanța in the southeast. The funds are earmarked under the
    Connecting Europe Facility. Regarding the bridge in Ungheni, Commissioner Vălean
    said the project will be an extension of the A8 motorway to the Republic of
    Moldova, adding that Romania has applied for and secured funding for six
    bridges.




    (bill&VP)

  • June 10, 2022

    June 10, 2022

    Summit. Romania is today hosting a summit of the Bucharest Nine,
    an organisation initiated by the presidents of Romania, Klaus Johannis, and of
    Poland, Andrzej Duda. Attending the meeting are the heads of state of the member
    states on the NATO eastern flank that are part of the organisation: Bulgaria,
    the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. The
    agenda of the talks includes the preparation of the most important decisions of
    the upcoming NATO summit to be held in Madrid at the end of the month, with
    emphasis on the consequences of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine
    and NATO’s response. President Iohannis is expected to highlight the need to
    consolidate NATO’s deterrence and defence posture on the eastern flank in a
    balanced and unitary manner, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. NATO secretary
    general Jens Stoltenberg, who was diagnosed with shingles, will attend the
    summit remotely.




    IMF.
    The International Monetary Fund has improved Romania’s economic growth forecast
    to 3.5%-4.5% for 2022 and 2023, said the head of the mission for Romania Jan Kees Martijn. He said the uncertainty associated with
    this forecast is high, with risks of the war escalating and Russian gas
    deliveries being cut leading to a further rise in energy costs and reducing trade
    exchanges between European partners. The IMF official also said GDP reached the
    level before the crisis in the first quarter of the year after last autumn’s
    Covid wave. According to provisional data published on 7th June by
    the National Institute of Statistics, Romania’s GDP rose by 6.5% in the first
    quarter of the year compared with the same period last year.




    Bridge. Criminal investigations were opened following the collapse of a
    bridge on Siret river, in Neamţ county, in north-eastern Romania as it was being
    crossed by a truck and a van. The two drivers were injured. The bridge was
    reopened for road traffic last November after repair works and investigators are
    looking into what caused the bridge to collapse only six months after
    restoration. The president of the Neamţ county council Ionel Arsene, from the
    Social Democratic Party, in government, said last autumn that the bridge was safe
    for traffic. Official data show, however, that the reopening was not legally
    possible. The development ministry said the investment objective had not been
    finalised pending a final report and a team was sent at the site for an
    independent inquiry. In April, Arsene was convicted to 8 years and 4 months in
    prison for corruption, but he is still in office because the sentence was not final.






    Border. Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă and his Moldovan
    counterpart Natalia Gavriliţa today had talks in Bucharest about ways to
    improve border travel between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. According to
    a statement from the government’s spokesman Dan Cărbunaru, the two officials shared
    views on finding effective solutions, given the high pressure some border checkpoints,
    such as that in Galaţi, in the south-east. The Romanian defence ministry is
    deploying a new ferry to Isaccea, in the south-east, and will open two new
    checkpoints on the northern border.






    Sanctions. Companies in Romania controlled by
    Russian entities targeted by international sanctions will only be able to carry
    on their activity without their accounts being blocked if they are monitored by
    the state. The Romanian government issued an emergency order to this effect on
    Thursday. The aim is to protect Romanians’ jobs while complying with the
    European sanctions against Russia.






    Football.
    Romania’s national football side are preparing for their Saturday match against
    Finland in Bucharest, in Group 3 of League B of the UEFA Nations League.
    Romania have lost their first two group matches, nil-2 to Montenegro and nil-1
    to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Romania will next face Montenegro in Bucharest next
    week and will play their final two matches in September, against Finland away
    and against Bosnia and Herzegovina at
    home. (CM)