Radio România Internațional

Tag: excessive

  • June 19, 2021 UPDATE

    June 19, 2021 UPDATE

    RAINFALLS New code orange and code yellow alerts for heavy rainfalls, storms and flash floods have been issued in Romania for most of the Romanian territory, except for the north-west. Hydrologists have also warned against possible flooding along 11 rivers until Monday night. Thousands of households were flooded or left without electricity following recent heavy rainfalls in Romania. According to the Inspectorate General for Emergency Situations, 49 towns and villages and the capital city were affected, with firefighters moving in to pump out the water in several households, over 100 yards and scores of streets in Bucharest alone. The wind caused several trees to fall over parked vehicles, and road traffic was also disrupted.



    COVID-19 The number of new Covid-19 cases
    in Romania
    continues to drop, with 63 new infection cases reported on Saturday, and 164 patients
    in intensive care. Hospitals are gradually resuming their regular activity and,
    according to some managers, they are better prepared for a possible surge in
    cases. Meanwhile, experts warn against the risk of a 4th wave of the
    coronavirus pandemic in Romania. The health minister Ioana Mihăilă said the Indian
    strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus may come to prevail in Romania as well, which is
    why it is all the more important that as many people be immunised. According to Romania’s representative in the World Health
    Organisation Alexandru Rafila, with the current vaccination trend, only 7
    million people at most will have been immunized by autumn, which is below the
    authorities’ target. Some 25,500 people received the vaccine in the past 24
    hours. So far over 8.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in
    Romania, with nearly 4.35 million people having received both doses of vaccine.



    DEFICIT The EUs Economic and Financial Council extended to 2024 the deadline for Romania to put an end to the excessive deficit situation. The Council said that an extension to the original deadline for Romania to correct its public deficit would be important in order not to compromise the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendation also says that, in order to meet the new deadline, Romania would need to achieve a general government deficit target of 6.2% of GDP next year, 4.4% of GDP in 2023, and 2.9% of GDP in 2024. Romania is expected to present the European Council with a report on its strategy regarding these targets by 15 October, the Romanian Finance Ministry announced.



    ACCIDENT At least 3 workers, one of them from Romania, died when a school under construction partly collapsed in Antwerp, Belgium, AFP reports. Nine others were injured in the incident on Friday afternoon. The school was still under construction, so no students were present.



    OECD The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu reconfirmed Romanias commitment to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as soon as possible. Aurescu had a meeting on Saturday with the organisations new secretary general, Mathias Cormann, on the sidelines of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya (Turkey). On the same occasion, the Romanian diplomat discussed the Black Sea security situation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.



    IRAN Hardliner Seyyed Ebrahim Rais al-Sadati won Fridays presidential election in Iran from the first round, with over 62% of the votes, according to preliminary results made public on Saturday. A former magistrate, the Conservative al-Sadati is close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters comments. The new president will have to resume the negotiations started in Vienna for the restart of the 2015 deal regulating the countrys nuclear activities.



    TENNIS Horia Tecău (Romania) / Kevin Krawietz (Germany) qualified into the doubles final of the tennis tournament in Halle (Germany), ATP 500, after defeating the Belgians Sander Gille / Joran Vliegen, 7-6, 7-5. Tecău and Krawietz are playing their 3rd final this season, after having lost the ones in Rotterdam and Barcelona. Also in tennis, the Romanians Monica Niculescu and Elena Gabriela Ruse Friday qualified into the doubles final of the ITF tournament in Nottingham (UK). They will play against the Australians Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • June 19, 2021

    June 19, 2021

    RAINFALLS A person died and another one went missing, thousands of households were flooded or left without electricity following recent heavy rainfall in Romania. According to the Inspectorate General for Emergency Situations, 49 towns and villages and the capital city Bucharest were affected by last nights rainfalls. An orange-code alert for further precipitation remains in place in most of the country until Sunday night, and flood warnings have also been issued in some regions.



    COVID-19 The number of new Covid-19 cases
    in Romania
    continues to drop, with 63 new infection cases reported on Saturday, and 164 patients
    in intensive care. Hospitals are gradually resuming their regular activity and,
    according to some managers, they are better prepared for a possible surge in
    cases. Meanwhile, experts warn against the risk of a 4th wave of the
    coronavisur pandemic in Romania. These experts include Romania’s representative
    in the World Health Organisation Alexandru Rafila, who says that with the
    current vaccination trend, only 7 million people at most will have been
    immunized by autumn, which is below the authorities’ target. So far some 4.6
    million people have received at least one dose of anti-Covid vaccine.



    DEFICIT The EUs Economic and Financial Council extended to 2024 the deadline for Romania to put an end to the excessive deficit situation. The Council said that an extension to the original deadline for Romania to correct its public deficit would be important in order not to compromise the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendation also says that, in order to meet the new deadline, Romania would need to achieve a general government deficit target of 6.2% of GDP next year, 4.4% of GDP in 2023, and 2.9% of GDP in 2024. Romania is expected to present the European Council with a report on its strategy regarding these targets by 15 October, the Romanian Finance Ministry announced.



    OECD The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu reconfirmed Romanias commitment to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as soon as possible. Aurescu had a meeting on Saturday with the organisations new secretary general, Mathias Cormann, on the sidelines of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya (Turkey). On the same occasion, the Romanian diplomat discussed the Black Sea security situation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.



    IRAN Hardliner Seyyed Ebrahim Rais al-Sadati won Fridays presidential election in Iran from the first round, with over 62% of the votes, according to preliminary results made public today. A former magistrate, the Conservative al-Sadati is close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters comments. The new president will have to resume the negotiations started in Vienna for the restart of the 2015 deal regulating the countrys nuclear activities.



    TENNIS Horia Tecău (Romania) / Kevin Krawietz (Germany) qualified into the doubles final of the tennis tournament in Halle (Germany), ATP 500, after defeating the Belgians Sander Gille / Joran Vliegen, 7-6, 7-5. Tecău and Krawietz are playing their 3rd final this season, after having lost the ones in Rotterdam and Barcelona. Also in tennis, the Romanians Monica Niculescu and Elena Gabriela Ruse Friday qualified into the doubles final of the ITF tournament in Nottingham (UK). They will play against the Australians Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders.



    FOOTBALL The European Football Championship continues. Today, Hungary is scheduled to play against France in Budapest, in Group F, Portugal takes on Germany in Munich, in the same group, and Spain plays against Poland in Seville, in Group E. on Friday, Sweden defeated Slovakia 1-0, in Sankt Petersburg, in Group E; Croatia and the Czech Republic drew 1-1, in Glasgow, in Group D, while in London, also in Group D, the match between England and Scotland ended in a blank draw. The Czech Patrik Schick is currently the championships top scorer. The Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen was discharged from hospital, after successful surgery, 6 days after collapsing on the pitch 43 minutes into the match against Finland. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • June 18, 2021 UPDATE

    June 18, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 On Friday 70 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported in Romania, out of over 32,000 tests performed. Also, 6 deaths were reported. The number of patients in intensive care has dropped below 200. The head of the vaccination campaign in Romania, Valeriu Gheorghita, has announced that vaccination coverage at national level stands at 25% of the eligible population. 29,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in the past 24 hours, accounting for less than one-third of the number reported during peak vaccination periods. Since the start of the national vaccine roll-out, on December 27, more than 4.6 million people have been immunised in Romania, of whom 4.3 million with both doses. According to a survey by the Research Institute for Quality of Life, even if most Romanians are aware of the threat posed by the coronavirus, some 2 million are against vaccination, and 800,000 say the pandemic is not real.



    PROTEST Romanian freight carriers Friday deliberately hampered traffic on the main roads in the country. The protest came after the Transport Ministry announced that it will change the way the road fee, known as the vignette, is going to be calculated from now on, namely per kilometer and depending on pollution standards, rather than on duration, as it is now. Transport companies are also unhappy with the inspections conducted by the tax authorities, which plan to levy taxes on drivers daily allowances when traveling abroad.



    COMMEMORATION On Friday, for the first time, Romania commemorated the Day of Communist Regime Deportation Victims. Deportation under the Romanian communist regime was inspired by the Soviet gulag model. Such actions started in 1944, and targeted ethnic Germans accused of collaboration with the Nazi authorities. That was followed by the relocation of the families of land owners, factories or other commercial enterprises. The peasants who opposed collectivisation were also deported. The most tragic episode in this respect took place on June 18, 1951, when about 44,000 people on a 25 km strip on the border with Yugoslavia were deported to Bărăgan (south), in one of the most secret, quick and repressive actions ever organised by the communist authorities. After 1955, former political detainees released from prisons were sent to various localities, most of them in the Bărăgan villages already built as a result of the 1951 deportation. In 1967, the deportation of Romanian citizens was declared illegal even by the communist authorities.



    DEFICIT The European Council Friday adopted the recommendation under the excessive deficit procedure for Romania. The recommendation establishes that Romania should put an end to the excessive deficit situation by 2024 at the latest. The procedure was launched in April 2020, after Romania exceeded the 3% budget deficit ceiling in 2019. The Council said that an extension to the current deadline for Romania to correct its public deficit would be important in order not to compromise the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendation also says that, in order to meet the new deadline, Romania would need to achieve a general government deficit target of 8.0% of GDP in 2021, 6.2% of GDP in 2022, 4.4% of GDP in 2023, and 2.9% of GDP in 2024, which is in line with the Romanian governments objectives.



    UN The UN General Assembly Friday appointed the Portuguese António Guterres to a second 5-year term as secretary general. Guterres, 72, had been endorsed on June 8 by the UN Security Council, the most difficult stage of the selection of a new secretary general, in that it requires the consensus of the worlds major powers. The former Portuguese Socialist PM had no challengers and will begin his second term on January 1, 2022. Prior to this position with the UN, Antonio Guterres served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees for a 10-year period.



    TENNIS Horia Tecău (Romania) / Kevin Krawietz (Germany) qualified into the doubles final of the tennis tournament in Halle (Germany), ATP 500, after defeating the Belgians Sander Gille / Joran Vliegen, 7-6, 7-5. Tecău and Krawietz are playing their 3rd final this season, after having lost the ones in Rotterdam and Barcelona. (tr. A.M. Popescu)