Tag: fuels

  • March 25, 2024 UPDATE

    March 25, 2024 UPDATE

     

    MOTION In Bucharest, the Chamber of Deputies discussed on Monday a simple motion against the agriculture minister Florin Barbu (Social Democratic Party), accused of having backed a bill allowing the reed in the Danube Delta to be used for the financial benefit of certain politicians. The simple motion, called “Praising Ceauşescu will not save the Romanian agriculture,” was tabled by Save Romania Union in opposition, after the agriculture minister’s appreciative discourse about the country’s former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. USR also accused Florin Barbu of having treated the protesting farmers with contempt and of having ignored the MPs requests to present his activity. Barbu dismissed the motion as “a complete joke” and a string of “battle cries, propaganda and many untruths.” The Chamber is to vote on the motion on Tuesday.

     

    DRUG TRAFFICKING The Romanian police will be able to monitor and identify drug traffickers more efficiently once a new special register in this field has become operational. The bill regulating the register was signed into law by president Klaus Iohannis on Monday. Depending on the sentence received in court, traffickers will be entered into the registry for 5 to 20 years, during which the police will be aware of the risks of the monitored person selling banned substances again, the justice minister Alina Gorghiu explained. Drug using and trafficking have seen an upward trend in Romania lately. More than one tonne of drugs was seized last year, and also last year Romanian antidrug structures seized the largest amount of Ecstasy so far (230,000 tablets), the justice minister said.

    SCHENGEN Full Schengen accession by the end of this year is achievable, the Romanian interior minister Cătălin Predoiu believes. He says Romania has already completed preparation for lifting checks at the EU internal air and maritime borders, as approved by the EU Council as of the end of this week. Predoiu added that Romania and Austria cooperate very well in fields like border protection and fighting illegal migration and cross-border crime, and said he suggested extending the cooperation between the 2 countries beyond Schengen, with a focus on fighting drug trafficking and human trafficking.

    INVESTIGATION Romanian prosecutors subordinated to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office seized assets worth EUR 2.4 mln from an Italian suspect subject to an investigation in Bologna concerning cross-border fuel trafficking. The total damages in the case amount to EUR 92 mln. In Romania, prosecutors seized 18 properties owned by the suspect, have frozen 14 bank accounts and assets in Romanian companies. Three Italian nationals are probed into for bringing into Italy oil products from refineries in Croatia and Slovenia, in order to resell them for lower prices to Romanian and British companies, and to bill them to Italian shell companies run by members of the crime group, the EPPO explained.

    ALERT The government of France has raised the terror alert warning to its highest level after Friday’s massacre in Moscow. The country’s PM, Gabriel Attal, said in a social media post that “the decision was taken in light of the Islamic State’s claiming responsibility for the attack and the threats weighing on our country.” France has seen some of the bloodiest terror attacks masterminded by Islamist fighters, such as the ones in 2015-2016, which left roughly 300 dead and hundreds wounded. The government in Paris has explained that the Islamist organisation has been recently involved in a series of attempted attacks, which have been thwarted by police forces in several European countries, such as France and Germany, and the PM Monday morning summoned the heads of the services responsible for the country’s security and safety.

    HANDBALL The Romanian women’s handball side Dunarea Braila has qualified for the final tournament of the EHF European League after a 26-25 home win against the Croatian side Podravka Vegeta on Sunday in the second round of the quarter finals. Dunarea, which also won the first game against Podravka, is Romania’s second representative in the EHF Finals Women, due on June 1 and 2 in Graz, Austria, after Gloria Bistrita. Romania’s champions CSM Bucharest have qualified for the quarter finals of the Champions League in women’s handball after a double win against the Slovenian side Krim Mercator Ljubljana and will be playing in the quarters against the French side Metz Handball.

  • Greener cars for the EU

    Greener cars for the EU

    As of 2035 the
    European Union is phasing out the sale of new vehicles running on diesel and
    petrol. Member states
    have reached a final agreement on the proposal, and the vote was given at a
    meeting of EU energy ministers.


    Under the new rules, in the next 12 years
    vehicle CO2 emissions are to be cut by 55% compared to 2021 figures. As for
    vans, the target is 50% by 2035, but as of that date emissions are to be cut by
    100%, which means the end of internal combustion engine production. This type
    of engines will be allowed nonetheless after that date, provided that they use
    climate-neutral e-fuels. This exemption is the outcome of Germany’s pushback on
    the new legislation over the past month.


    Climate-neutral fuels, currently under
    development, are synthetic and their use generates emissions, however their
    neutrality is given by the fact that they are produced by capturing CO2 from
    the atmosphere using electricity from renewable sources, and the same amount of
    CO2 captured for their production is released through their use.


    Biofuels will also be banned as of 2035, on
    grounds that they are generated in agriculture and already have a carbon
    footprint. The use of environment-friendly fuels will be regulated in
    subsequent legislation. But experts are already wondering what type of energy
    will be accepted in order to produce them.


    One option could be nuclear electricity, a
    resource increasingly appreciated by the European Commission for EU’s
    transition to an emission-free economy. Countries like France, Poland and
    Romania are trying to obtain recognition and advantages for the production of both
    the electricity itself, and of synthetic fuels like hydrogen. Opposing the use
    of nuclear energy are Germany, Austria and Spania.


    Meanwhile, Norway has set the tightest deadline for giving up internal combustion engines. The country is a world leader
    in terms of electric car market share, with nearly 79% of the sales in 2022
    consisting in plug-in electric vehicles.


    Internal combustion engines are being
    phased out precisely as the sales of Dacia,
    the car made by the French group Renault in Piteşti, Romania, among other
    locations, have been rising across Europe. According to
    the company, Dacia is ranking 3rd
    in Europe by sales to individual buyers, accounting for a record-high 7.6%
    market share. Ford is the
    second-largest player in the Romanian automotive market, thanks to a production
    facility in Craiova operated by the Turkish-US joint ventureFord Otosan. (AMP)