Radio România Internațional

Tag: foodstuff

  • 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)

  • Foodstuff Quality under Investigation

    Foodstuff Quality under Investigation

    Perhaps Romania could find a way to put together laws enabling the authorities to expose those companies that see Romanians as second-class citizens, and to treat these companies accordingly, PM Mihai Tudose snapped, disgruntled with the double standards used by some foreign foodstuff producers. The Agriculture Minister Petre Daea had previously criticized something that many Romanians who traveled abroad had already noticed, namely the lower quality of the products sold in Romania as compared to the corresponding products sold in Western European countries. According to a recent report, out of 29 products analysed at the Institute for Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, 9 were found to have such differences in terms of quality, including canned fish, bacon, ham and mortadella.



    After Petre Daea said the European legislation did not allow him to make public the name of the respective producers, PM Mihai Tudose asked the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader to find a legal solution to help Romanians buy healthier foodstuffs.



    Mihai Tudose: “There are no European regulations that enable us to do this. We may come up with a national law, and if the authorities cannot take these companies out of the market, we should at least make public the findings of our inquiries. We should put together a legislative framework enabling us to expose those companies that are scheming, so to say, and then let buyers decide for themselves. I don’t think these companies will have it easy after we make public the names of those who use double standards in Romania.”



    A prospective legal solution, the Justice Minister explained, will be based on the principle of equal treatment for all consumers in the European Union. Other East European countries have also been facing similar problems. Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland have complained, in their turn, about double standards in terms of foodstuff quality, and officials from these countries have called on the EU not to allow multinational corporations to use lower quality ingredients for the cheaper markets that they supply.



    On Thursday, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker agreed that inferior ingredients should not be used in supposedly identical products sold in Eastern Europe, and promised that the EU would do its best to put an end to such discrimination. The European Commission has already offered to finance food quality surveys in EU member countries.