Radio România Internațional

Tag: Greece

  • August 20, 2021

    August 20, 2021

    COVID Ro – The daily number of new coronavirus cases in Romania is increasing. 628 new cases were reported on Friday. At the same time, the death toll recorded over the past 24 hours reached 14. As many as 1,200 patients are currently in hospitals, of whom over 167 are in intensive care. The pace of the national vaccination campaign against Covid-19 remains low, just over 5 million Romanians having been fully vaccinated since December last year. On the other hand, the Romanian Government on Thursday approved a decision on granting humanitarian aid, free of charge, to the Republic of Korea, consisting of 450,000 doses of Moderna vaccine.



    Kabul – 14 Romanian citizens have today arrived at the Kabul international airport and are ready for evacuation by air — the Romanian Foreign Ministry officials report. They are employees of a security company operating in Afghanistan and have been in a military base. The 14 will be evacuated with the next flight of the Romanian military aircraft currently stationed in Islamabad. This is the 3rd such evacuation flight after last night’s flight when another Romanian citizen, a NATO agency employee, was evacuated together with a Bulgarian, a Briton and an American. A first evacuation flight of a Romanian citizen, also an employee of a NATO agency, took place on Wednesday night with a Romanian military aircraft, which brought him to Islamabad. The aircraft will continue to be stationed in the Pakistani capital, being ready to travel to Kabul for the evacuation of other Romanian citizens, when they arrive at the international airport. The Romanian authorities are in permanent contact with the Romanian citizens located in various places in Kabul. 33 Romanian citizens are reported to be in Afghanistan at present, more than half being employees of a NATO agency, a UN program and a security company. At the same time, steps have already been taken to identify and contact the Afghan citizens who collaborated with the Romanian troops during their mission in Afghanistan or the Afghan citizens currently benefiting from Romanian scholarship or who have been accepted to study in Romania. To the extent that they can reach the airport in Kabul, they will be evacuated by a Romanian aircraft.



    Greece – Romania has decided to send another 142 firefighters to Greece to help put out the fires — the Romanian PM Florin Cîţu announced in a Facebook post. He said he made the decision together with the interior minister, and the countrys president, Klaus Iohannis, had been briefed on their decision. A vegetation fire intensified by the change of the wind direction has been active for several days west of Athens. The fire is difficult to put out because, according to the Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, there are no roads or routes through the pine forests in the region which the firefighters and their vehicles can use to reach the fire outbreak. We remind you that, two weeks ago, 108 Romanian firefighters with over 20 special vehicles were deployed in Greece, in Evia, to help put out the vegetation fires that were devastating the island. The way the Romanian firefighters acted was appreciated by the population, their Greek colleagues and the press.



    Sibiu festival – Sibiu, in central Romania, is hosting, as of Friday, the 28th edition of the International Theater Festival, the biggest such event dedicated to the arts in Romania and one of the most important in Europe. For 10 days the public will have the chance to attend more than 600 theater and dance shows, concerts and workshops in such venues as fortresses and historical sites. 2,000 artists from 38 countries are participating in the festival. The Sibiu Festival will take place both with physical attendance and in hybrid and online formats. 40 events have been scheduled for Friday, the festival’s first day, involving artists from 15 countries. (LS)

  • AUGUST 9, 2021 UPDATE

    AUGUST 9, 2021 UPDATE

    CLIMATE Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Monday said the latest UN
    report on climate change must be an alarm signal for everybody adding that he
    would get actively involved in all the processes aimed at solving the climate
    crisis. The Romanian president says that firm action is needed and that must be
    coordinated at national, European and international levels in order for the right
    public policies to be implemented. The magnitude and fast pace of these
    human-induced changes do not allow us to postpone decisions and measures to
    curb their dramatic effects, president Iohannis wrote in a Facebook message. According
    to the UN latest report on climate published on Monday, mankind will be facing
    a significant rise in temperatures, heavy rainfalls in some areas and drought
    caused by greenhouse gases. The UN experts believe the tendency is affecting
    every inhabited area while some changes, such as increased sea levels, are to
    be seen for hundreds and even thousands of years. ‘It is unequivocal’ the
    report says, ‘that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land’. Scientists
    say that if carbon emissions are halved by 2030, their devastating effects can
    be stopped. Britain is to stage a major conference on climate change in Glasgow
    over October 31st – November 12th.




    FIRES 45
    Romanian firefighters continue their mission in the Spatari area on the Greek
    island of Evia. The intervention is facilitated by six fire engines, two tanks,
    and six rescuers whose mission is to ensure the supply of trucks with water and
    use chainsaws to create corridors that help contain the fires. According
    to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, Romanian firefighters use
    drones to monitor new fire outbreaks. These are the deadliest fires in Greek
    history and have devastated northern Evia, burning down more than 35,000
    hectares of pine forest and hundreds of homes. Thousands of residents and
    tourists have been evacuated by sea from the affected regions. In another
    development, two planes of Romanian Air Forces have joined the firefighting
    efforts in neighboring North Macedonia, a country also affected by forest
    fires. The Romanian firefighters accomplished three missions on Monday and nine
    missions since their deployment three days ago.






    AID A
    plane belonging to Romania’s Air Forces on Monday carried to Tunisia approximately
    180,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by Astra Zeneca, as well as antigen
    tests and sanitary materials, to help manage the pandemic in that country,
    the Romanian Defense Ministry announced. Romania was among the states that
    received a request for international assistance from the Tunisian government,
    by activating the European Civil Protection Mechanism. This mechanism
    coordinates the response to natural and man-made disasters at EU level,
    enabling coordinated, effective and rapid assistance to support affected
    populations.






    BUDGET In
    Bucharest, the Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu continues, this week, talks on
    budget adjustment, with his ministers, but also with the leaders of the ruling
    center-right coalition. According to the draft, the Ministry of Health will
    receive the largest amount, followed by the Ministry of Finance and the
    Ministry of Development. On the other hand, the Ministry of Labor, the Court of
    Accounts and the Senate will get less. The Prime Minister has reiterated that
    additional funds will be received only by ministries that reported a good
    budget execution in the first six months of the year. For his part, the Deputy
    Prime Minister Dan Barna, from USR-PLUS, has expressed his conviction that an
    adjustment formula will be found that will guarantee investments in the coming
    months of this year as well.


    (bill)







  • March 19, 2021 UPDATE

    March 19, 2021 UPDATE

    Covid-19RO. Some 5,600 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in Romania in 24 hours, out of 38,670 tests run nationwide, which means an infection rate of 14.46%, the Strategic Communication Group announced on Friday. Also, 143 Covid-19 related fatalities were reported during the same 24-hour interval. The number of people currently in intensive care has exceeded 1,300, a national record since the start of the pandemic. Over 887,000 people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Romania since last year. Bucharest and another eight counties are in the so-called red scenario, where the incidence of the virus exceeds 3 per one thousand inhabitants. Several localities around the capital city are now under lockdown. In another move, starting December 27, 2020, over 1.6 million people have been vaccinated in Romania, mostly with Pfizer- BioNTech and Moderna, but also AstraZeneca. On Monday, the vaccination campaign entered its third stage, for the general population. For the time being, the campaign is carried out in localities where the incidence rate exceeds 4.5 per one thousand inhabitants. The rest of the population can register on waiting lists on the online platform.

    AstraZeneca. The benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca outweigh the risks, is the conclusion reached on Friday by WHO experts. Several European countries, including France, Germany and Spain, have announced they will resume vaccination with the AstraZeneca serum, after European pharmaceutical agencies stated the vaccine is safe and effective. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency expressed confidence that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, following concerns after blood clots were identified in people who were given the serum. So far, over 45 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered in the European Economic Area.

    CVM. The European Commission supports the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism monitoring the Romanian judiciary by the end of 2021, Prime Minister Florin Cîţu said on a Facebook post. The announcement follows a meeting with European Commission vice-president, Vera Jourová. Florin Cîţu says the Government wants to eliminate and repair the amendments brought to the justice laws over 2017-2019, and shares the Commission’s desire to finalize by mid-2021 all commitments regarding the rule of law. The European Commission has mainly recommended the elimination of the Special Section Investigating Crime in Justice, the updating of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code, continuing the fight against corruption and defending freedom and pluralism of the press.

    Plan. The Government in Bucharest held a special meeting on Friday to discuss the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Prime Minister Florin Cîţu stated after the meeting that next week, the Government will adopt by means of a memorandum the mandate for the negotiation of the program. He also stated that the NRRP, which represents Romania’s priorities, allocates major resources for road and rail infrastructure, motorways, the gas network, the building of new hospitals, and also for social measures. The document has to be submitted to the European Commission in April, for Romania to benefit from more than 30 million Euro for development until 2026, when all the projects included in the plan must be completed.

    Visit. On Friday, the Romanian Interior Minister Lucian Bode paid a visit to Italy. During the meeting with his counterpart Luciana Lamorgese, he stated that Romania was expecting the EU to recognize, by quickly adopting the Decision on the country’s joining the Schengen agreement, the essential role it played in the EU’s security architecture. We recall that Romania’s and Bulgaria’s joining the Schengen area, initially set for March 2011, has been repeatedly postponed, because of the opposition of several member countries, claiming the lack of judiciary reforms in these countries. As regards the current situation of the migration flows into the EU, Lucian Bode gave assurances that the situation on Romania’s borders is under control and permanent monitoring. In another move, Lucian Bode stressed the fact that the largest Romanian community outside Romania’s borders lives in Italy, and their presence in the peninsula is a vector of the consolidated strategic partnership that Romania has with Italy.

    Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated he is ready to hold online talks with the American President Joe Biden, Reuters reports. The White House, on the other hand, says Biden doesn’t regret calling the Kremlin leader a killer. Moreover, Moscow believes Biden’s statements are a clear sign that Washington isn’t in the least interested in fixing relations with Moscow. On Wednesday, Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations, expressing at the same time its willingness to avoid an irreversible degradation of relations with the USA.

    Vacation. Greece will open in mid-April for tourists coming from the EU, including Romanians, Charis Theocharis, Greece’s tourism minister, told a news conference in Bucharest on Friday. The Athens official is visiting Romania at the invitation of his counterpart Claudiu Năsui. Initially, Greece announced that it would open its borders to tourists starting May 14, if the evolution of the pandemic allows it. Charis Theocharis also said that entry into Greece will only be allowed to those who before the trip were either vaccinated or acquired antibodies following a coronavirus infection or will have a negative test result for a recent COVID-19 test. He pointed out that all tourists can be subjected to random tests, in the same way as last year. However, a significant difference compared to 2020 are the rapid tests, due to which the quarantine, for positive cases, will be instituted immediately, without the waiting time of 24 hours, the Greek minister said. He stated that Romania is the first country he visits after finalizing the plan to open the tourist season in Greece. Romania is one of the five largest markets for Greece, as in 2019, almost 1.4 million Romanians chose to spend their holidays in that country.

    Tennis. Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian (160 WTA) was defeated on Friday by Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia (39 WTA), in the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg, with 565 thousand dollars in prize money. That is still Jaqueline Cristian’s best performance of her career. On Thursday, she had ousted Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, a former winner at Roland Garros and seeded 6th in the competition. (MI)

  • July 4, 2020 UPDATE

    July 4, 2020 UPDATE

    COVID-19 Ro — The Romanian government is working on a bill which should allow the authorities to continue to isolate or quarantine the people infected with the new coronavirus, after the publishing of a Constitutional Court decision in the Official Gazette according to which patients can no longer be kept in hospital without their consent. The government is going to discuss the new law next week. For the moment, isolation and quarantine are no longer an obligation but a recommendation, and more and more hospitalized people have applied for being discharged. Still valid though is an article from the Criminal Code on thwarting the fight against diseases, and those who transmit the virus will have to assume the consequences of their acts, the authorities said. Doctors warn that infected people with little or no symptoms at all risk infecting other people if they do not observe isolation measures. The latest figures published by the Strategic Communication Group in Bucharest show 416 new confirmed cases of contamination in the past 24 hours, which takes the total number of cases to 28,500. Of the people infected, 20,861 have been discharged from hospital. 1,731 people have died from complications caused by COVID-19. The number of Romanian citizens from abroad who have died of COVID-19 has reached 122.



    COVID-19 world — The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world has exceeded 11.2 million, with the number of deaths nearing 530 thousand. As many as 6.4 million people have recovered from coronavius infection, shows the online platform Worldometers.info. The US continues to report an increased number of COVID-19 contaminations reaching a total number of 2.9 million cases. More than 132 thousand Americans have died from corona infection. At the same time, the EC on Friday gave its conditional approval for the use of antiviral Remdesivir in severe COVID-19 patients following an accelerated review process, making it the region’s first authorized therapy to treat the virus, AFP reports. “We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to secure efficient treatments or vaccine against the coronavirus,” said Stella Kyriakides, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, in a statement. In Latin America, Anvisa, the authority regulating the Brazilian medical system, approved, also on Friday, the start of clinical studies for a possible vaccine against the coronavirus developed by the Chinese company Sinovac. The announcement was made in the context in which Brazil has exceeded the threshold of 1.5 million cases of Covid-19 infection, being the second hardest hit country, after the US. More than 63,000 Brazilians have died from coronavirus infection.



    Independence Day – The strategic partnership between Romania and the US is stronger than ever, said the Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu in a message conveyed on Saturday on the occasion of the US Independence Day. He added that he was looking forward to further consolidating the two countries’ excellent cooperation to the benefit of their citizens. Bucharest remains firmly committed to supporting a strong trans-Atlantic relation, and Romania will always be a strategic and stalwart ally of the US, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis had previously said. Other Romanian high-ranking officials also conveyed messages on the occasion of the US Independence Day. In turn, the US Ambassador to Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman, underlined that Washington remained committed to helping improve the rule of law in Romania as well as to ensuring the country’s sovereignty and security.



    Theater — The International Theater Festival in Sibiu (in central Romania), held online for the first time due to the pandemic, started on Saturday the series of free rebroadcasting of the shows and events of this year’s edition, which unfolded between June 12 and 21. Rebroadcasting of the shows will take place over the period July-December, exclusively on the festival’s website (www.sibfest.ro/fits-online). The first shows rebroadcast on Saturday are ‘Magic tales’ and ‘The bull and the rabbit’ by Marian Ralea. Other shows that spectators can watch on Saturday are ‘After the battle’ by Pippo Delbono or the first part of the show ‘Brothers and Sisters’ directed by Lev Dodin.



    EU — Budget restrictions for the EU member states will be applied again after the recession caused by the pandemic comes to an end, said the vice-president of the EC, Valdis Dombrovskis, in an interview to the Italian publication Corriere della Sera. The European Pact for stability and growth requires a public deficit of maximum 3% of the GDP and a public debt that should not go beyond 60% of the GDP. The Pact remains active, Dombrovskis added, explaining that the suspension clause was activated. The governments that report higher deficits during the crisis should take into account the sustainability of such policies, the EC official has warned.



    Greece — The Romanian Foreign Ministry — MAE has urgently resumed diplomatic efforts to urge the Greek authorities to streamline traffic flow at the border-crossing point Kulata- Promachonas between Bulgaria and Greece. On Saturday the line of vehicles waiting to go through the border checkpoint exceeded 10 kms. MAE officials warn that the Greek competent authorities can change, without prior notice, the conditions for entering the Greek territory, depending on the number of new cases of COVID-19 infection reported. The situation at the aforementioned cross-border point was generated by the decision of the Greek authorities to test all the citizens of non-EU countries, in the context of the pandemic. (tr. L. Simion)

  • July 3, 2020 UPDATE

    July 3, 2020 UPDATE

    COVID-19 Another 420 cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been reported in Romania, taking the total number of contaminations to 28,166, the Strategic Communication Group announced on Friday. Over the past 24 hours 21 people have died, taking the death toll to 1,708. 224 people are still in intensive care, while 20,433 patients have recovered. Another 7 Romanian nationals infected with the coronavirus died in Germany, with the total number of Romanians living abroad who died during the pandemic reaching 122. The Romanian health minister Nelu Tătaru has said that at present there is no risk of reinstating the state of emergency in the context of the coronavirus pandemic but the state of alert might be extended, if necessary. He provided data pointing to a steady increase in the number of contaminations over the past 3 weeks, and pointed out that restrictions may be further lifted only if the evolution of the pandemic allows it. The state of alert introduced in Romania is due to end in mid-July.



    PANDEMIC As many as 11 million cases of COVID-19 contamination have been reported around the world since the start of the pandemic with around 6 million people having recovered. More than 520,000 people have died. The US, Brazil and Great Britain are the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. The US has reported more than 2.7 million cases. News agencies write that the number of cases in the US is higher than ever, since the onset of the pandemic and more and more people are being hospitalized in Houston (Texas) and Phoenix (Arizona).



    SCHENGEN Joining Europes border-free area remains a priority for Romania, the foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu reiterated in Bucharest on Friday, at the conference occasioned by the start of Germanys presidency of the Council of the EU. More flexibility is required in this respect, and the current crisis has proved that including Romania and Bulgaria in the Schengen area would be a gain, Bogdan Aurescu said. In turn, the German Ambassador to Bucharest, Cord Meier-Klodt, sent a message of unity and solidarity, emphasizing that the motto of the German presidency is “Together for Europes recovery. On July 1, Germany took over the 6-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. Romanias and Bulgarias Schengen accession has been repeatedly postponed because of the opposition of some member states, primarily over the absence of reforms in the judiciary.



    FRANCE The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has appointed Jean Castex as the new PM of France. A conservative politician aged 62, Castex was re-elected on Sunday mayor of a small town in southern France. In April he had been appointed by Macron to prepare a strategy for lifting the COVID-19 lockdown. Radio Romanias correspondent in Paris mentions that the outgoing PM, Edouard Philippe, stepped down on Friday morning.



    IMMIGRANTS The Romanian border police have identified 23 citizens from Syria, Palestine and Egypt who were trying to illegally cross the border from Romania into Hungary. During the investigation they stated they were trying to reach Germany, Austria and Sweden. The driver of the van transporting the immigrants is being investigated for immigrant trafficking and is going to be taken into temporary custody for 30 days.



    CANNES The Romanian short film ‘Contraindications by Lucia Chicoş has been selected for the Cinefondation section of the Cannes International Film Festival. The director is a student with the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest and the film is 19 minutes long. The other countries participating in the Cinefondation section this year are Israel, Great Britain, Argentina, Hungary, India, Switzerland, the US, South Korea, France, Poland, Portugal, Germany and Slovenia.



    GREECE The Romanian authorities are making diplomatic efforts to deal with the situation of the long queues of Romanian tourists waiting to enter Greece. The Romanian Foreign Ministry officials have called on the Greek authorities to identify solutions to streamline traffic flow through the only opened border-crossing point between Bulgaria and Greece, namely Kulata – Promachonas. The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu talked on the phone with his Greek counterpart and suggested the opening of other checkpoints too, given that the tourist season has begun. The Greek side has announced they are looking into the situation and are trying to work out solutions to solve the problem. As of this month, Greece has introduced random tests for foreign tourists who reach the Greek territory by air, road or sea. After testing, tourists will wait for the result in self-isolation at their tourist destination. (tr. L. Simion, A.M. Popescu)

  • July 3, 2020

    July 3, 2020

    Pandemic — Another 420 cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been reported in Romania, taking the total number of contaminations to 28,166 — the Strategic Communication Group announced on Friday. Over the past 24 hours 21 people have died, taking the death toll to 1,708. 20,433 people have recovered from the disease. The Romanian health minister Nelu Tătaru has said that at present there is no risk of reinstating the state of emergency in the context of the coronavirus pandemic but the state of alert might be extended, if necessary. He provided data according to which, over the past 3 weeks, a constant increase in the number of contaminations was reported, and has pointed out that restrictions may be further lifted if the evolution of the pandemic allows it.



    Coronavirus world — As many as 11 million cases of COVID-19 contamination have been reported around the world since the start of the pandemic with around 6 million people having recovered. More than 520 thousand people have died. The US, Brazil and Great Britain are the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. The US has reported more than 2.7 million cases. News agencies write that the number of cases in the IS is higher than ever, since the onset of the pandemic and more and more people are being hospitalized in Houston (Texas) and Phoenix (Arizona).



    France — The French government headed by PM Edourd Philippe has stepped down. An Elysee Palace communiqué writes that the PM and his team will continue to deal with the country’s current affairs until the designation of a new executive. On Thursday President Emmanuel Macron had stated that he intended to open a new path with a new team. According to him, economic recovery, the continuation of the reform of the social protection system and of the environment system, the defense of the European sovereignty and so on, will be on the new road map of the future government.



    Immigrants — The Romanian border police have identified 23 citizens from Syria, Palestine and Egypt who were trying to illegally cross the border from Romania into Hungary. During the inquiry they stated they intended to reach Germany, Austria and Sweden. The driver of the van transporting the immigrants is being investigated for immigrant trafficking and is going to be taken into temporary custody for 30 days.



    Cannes — The Romanian short film ‘Contraindications’ by Lucia Chicoş has been singled out for the Cinefondation section of the Cannes International Film Festival. The director is a student with the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest and the film has a duration of 19 minutes. The other countries participating in the Cinefondation section this year are Israel, Great Britain, Argentina, Hungary, India, Switzerland, the US, South Korea, France, Poland, Portugal, Germany and Slovenia.



    Greece — The Romanian authorities are making diplomatic efforts to deal with the situation of the long queues of Romanian tourists waiting to enter the Greek territory. The Romanian Foreign Ministry officials have called on the Greek authorities to identify solutions to streamline traffic flow through the only opened border-crossing point between Bulgaria and Greece, namely Kulata — Promachonas. The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu talked on the phone with his Greek counterpart and suggested the opening of other border checkpoints too, given that the tourist season has begun. The Greek side has announced they are looking into the situation and are trying to work out solutions to solve the problem. As of this month, Greece has introduced random tests for foreign tourists who reach the Greek territory by air, road or sea. After testing, tourists will wait for the result in self-isolation at their tourist destination. (tr. L. Simion)

  • February 29, 2020

    February 29, 2020

    COVID19 Romania has 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, with the patients current state reported as good. Another 52 people are quarantined across the country, and 8,796 under home monitoring. The healthcare authorities in the counties Timiş in the west and Maramureş in the north-west are running investigations to establish the people who were in contact with the 2 persons who tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday. Both of them had travelled to Italy recently. The first patient in Romania, a 25 year old man from Gorj County, in the south, is feeling well, and Fridays tests came out negative, doctors say. If the next test is also negative, the patient will be discharged. In Europe, Italy remains the most affected country. As the epidemic spread, stock exchanges across the world reported total losses of over 5 trillion US dollars. The BBC says the US financial markets have not been hit so hard since the 2008 financial crisis. Investors fear that the growing number of coronavirus cases outside China may turn the disease into a pandemic.



    ARREST The former healthcare minister in the Social Democratic government Sorina Pintea, currently the manager of the Baia Mare Emergency Hospital in the north-west of the country, was detained on Saturday by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for continuing bribe taking. According to the DNA, between December 2019 and February 28, this year, Pintea received 10,000 euros and 25,000 euros from a business operator, in 2 instalments, accounting for 7% of the value of a public procurement contract concerning the design and building of a cardiovascular and thoracic surgery unit. The contract was signed in 2019 by the hospital with the company in question. Pintea allegedly received the money in exchange for completing some of her duties as a manager and authorising officer, anti-corruption prosecutors say. They requested the Bucharest Court to approve a 30-day pre-trial arrest order against Pintea. Sorina Pintea was a healthcare minister in Viorica Dancilas left-wing government dismissed last October.



    DISEASE Romania has too few doctors able to diagnose rare diseases, experts warn today, the International Rare Disease Day. They say investments in medical equipment in the field of genetics, which are vital for accurate diagnoses, are scarce. Physicians also warn that rare disease patients and their families face severe challenges in terms of access to care. So far more than 6,000 different rare diseases have been identified, most of which are without treatment across the world. In Romania, such diseases are underdiagnosed.



    MIGRANTS Greece prevented 4,000 migrants to enter its territory “illegally from Turkey, a spokesman for the Greek government announced on Saturday after an emergency meeting chaired by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, AFP and Reuters report. On Friday, the country faced a mass, organised and illegal border crossing attempt, but it managed to overcome it, the government spokesperson explained. He added that Greece protected its borders and the borders of the EU. Also on Saturday, in an address in Istanbul, Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country will open its borders to enable migrants to leave, and criticised the EU for not helping Ankara enough. Turkey says it was forced to ease border controls for the refugees trying to reach the EU from Turkey, because of the pressure of the refugees coming from Syria amid clashes in the rebel stronghold of Idlib.



    SLOVAKIA Slovakia is voting on Saturday for a new Parliament, hoping to fight corruption, frequently linked to the populist, left-of-centre ruling party Smer-SD. The vote may be crucial for the history of the country, which is still outraged by the murder of anti-corruption journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee in 2018, AFP reports. His killing, ordered by a businessman with political connections, mobilised the public, and polls suggest that the ruling party Smer-SD is running shoulder to shoulder with the centre-right opposition party OLaNO, which turned the fight against corruption into its rallying call. The double murder in 2018 triggered massive street protests against the government, and prime minister Robert Fico had to resign.



    RUSSIA Hundreds of Russian opposition supporters gathered in Moscow on Saturday to protest the constitutional reforms initiated by president Vladimir Putin and to pay tribute to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, murdered 5 years ago near Kremlin, AFP reports. In Sankt-Petersburg, nearly 2,000 people rallied in the centre of the city. The authorised march is the first important public gathering since Putin announced a Constitution review set to strengthen the role of the president and of the State Council. The killing of Boris Nemtsov in February 2015 had huge echoes in Russia and abroad. Nemtsov was in the middle of an investigation into the involvement of the Russian Army in the east Ukraine war.



    HANDBALL Romanias womens handball champions, CSM Ramnicu Valcea, play today at home against the Swedish side Savehof, in the Champions League Main Group 2. In Main Group 1 in the same competition, vice-champions CSM Bucharest play away from home on Sunday against the French team Metz. The Romanian teams are ranking 4th in their respective groups and CSM is the only one having secured a place in the quarter-finals. In mens handball, champions Dinamo Bucharest take on Sporting Lisbon, on Sunday night, after a 26-25 win away from home. If they go past the Portuguese team, Dinamo move into the Champions League round of 16.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Repatriation of Queen Mother Helen

    Repatriation of Queen Mother Helen

    “The Queen of the four exiles, as Queen Mother Helen has been dubbed, will be brought back to Romania, the adoptive home country that she will never again leave. The Queens remains were disinterred in Switzerland and brought to be reburied in the royal burial site in Curtea de Arges, southern Romania, alongside her son, King Michael I, and the other members of the Royal Family—Carol I, Ferdinand I and Carol II, and queens Elizabeth, Marie and Anne.



    Helens first exile began in 1910, when the entire Greek Royal family, including Princess Helen, born on May 3, 1896, was forced to leave Greece following a coup against her grandfather, King George I. Seven years later, in 1917, Helens family was once again forced into exile.



    In 1921 she married Crown Prince Carol II of Romania and gave birth to her only son, Michael, but 7 years later she divorced Carol following an infidelity scandal. Helen was sent into her 3rd exile by her former husband, King Carol II, so in late 1931 she moved to Germany and then to Italy, where she lived until 1940.



    In January 1948, Queen Mother Helen left Romania for good, together with her son, King Michael I, who had been deposed by the new communist power in Bucharest. Helen spent the last part of her life in Italy and Switzerland, close to her sons family. She passed away on November 28, 1982, and was buried in Bois-de-Vaux cemetery in Lausanne.



    The troubled history of the Greek and Romanian royal houses turned Helens life into a tragic destiny. However, those who knew her say the Queen Mother was a prototype of integrity, dignity, honour and wisdom. She was also a fascinating, discreet and elegant woman, with a refined sense of humour. It was her who taught King Michael and his daughters to have faith, to love their family and to have compassion for those in need.



    In the 1940s, Queen Mother Helen saved many from the Nazi persecution. This is why in 1993 Israel gave her the title of Righteous among the Nations, in recognition for her efforts to prevent the extermination of Romanian Jews. Queen Mother Helen equally opposed the abuses of the Soviet occupation in Romania, and struggled, together with King Michael I, to make Romania a part of the free world again. Unfortunately, she had to witness the Soviets increasingly tight grip on the country.



    It is only now, 30 years after the fall of the communist regime, that Helen returns to her adoptive country.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • August 16, 2019 UPDATE

    August 16, 2019 UPDATE

    Tiganesti transmitter – The short wave transmitter located in Tiganesti, near Bucharest, which broadcasts RRI’s programs, has been provisionally mended by RADIOCOM, the broadcasting service provider. Therefore, you can tune in again to RRI’s broadcasts on the short wave frequencies announced.



    Nominations — The Romanian PM Viorica Dancila announced that she would forward next week to President Klaus Iohannis her proposals for the ministries whose interim leadership expired on August 15. The PM said the nominations for the vacant positions of deputy prime minister and minister will be discussed in a meeting of the Social Democratic Party’s executive committee before being forwarded to the president of the state. At present, Romania has interim ministers at the helm of the education and interior ministries and an interim deputy prime minister for economic issues.



    Vote — As many as 9 thousand Romanians from aboard have registered for the postal vote through the portal www.votstrainatate.ro, 20 days after the website was launched — the Permanent Electoral Authority has announced. According to a communiqué the Authority made public on Friday, the figure exceeds the total number of registrations for the postal vote reported at the 2016 parliamentary elections. The website was created by the Permanent Electoral Authority to have a better record of the Romanians who left the country and to helpe them be better informed in relation to the voting process in the run up to the November presidential election. The Ministry for the Romanians abroad has announced that over 5 million and a half Romanians have left the country. Together with the Romanians in the historical communities, the total number of Romanians living outside the country’s borders nears 10 million.



    BRUA — The BRUA gas pipeline that will convey gas from the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria will be finalized in December 2020, with a one-year delay. The information is carried by the Transgaz company’s financial report for the first 6 months of the year. Last month the economy ministry announced that Transgaz already finalized half of the pipeline and that the three compressor stations are 80%-90% completed. Phase I of the BRUA project needs a total investment of almost 500 million Euros. The EU provided a grant of 179 million Euros for building this gas pipeline. The Romanian state, through the economy ministry, holds almost 60% of the shares in Transgaz. The rest are traded on the stock exchange.



    Greece weather — All the Romanians who have asked for the support of Romania’s diplomatic corps officials from Greece were brought back on the continent safe and sound from Samothrace — Samothraki island, shows a communiqué of the Romanian Foreign Ministry issued on Friday. No other requests for help have been reported at the Romanian embassy in Athens or at Romania’s General Consulate in Thessaloniki. Greek authorities have announced the situation on the island is back to normal. As many as 1,500 tourists of whom lots of Romanians remained stranded for a week on the island of Samothrace in northern Greece after several means of transport linking the island to the continent ran out of order because of the bad weather. (translation by L. Simion)

  • July 20, 2019 UPDATE

    July 20, 2019 UPDATE

    PROSECUTOR The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, told president Klaus Iohannis over the telephone on Friday that France would withdraw Jean-François Bohnerts candidacy and would back the Romanian Laura Codruța Kövesi instead for the post of head of the European Public Prosecutors Office, the Romanian Presidency announced. Previously, the European Parliament reaffirmed its support for the former head of Romanias Anti-Corruption Directorate becoming the chief EU prosecutor. This spring the European Parliament decided to back Kovesis candidacy, whereas the EU Council preferred the French Jean-Francois Bohnert. Several rounds of negotiations between the 2 institutions yielded no results. Under the rules of organisation of the new EPPO, the Parliament and Council must jointly appoint the EU chief prosecutor, for a non-renewable 7-year term in office.




    VISIT The Romanian State Secretary Maria Magdalena Grigore had bilateral meetings with high-ranking UN officials, during a visit she is making to the USA. According to a news release issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the topics included means to meet sustainable development goals, transport connectivity, the cooperation between Romania and the UN Development Programme, Romanias contribution to peacekeeping missions, international humanitarian assistance and economic developments in the world. Maria Grigore emphasised the importance of the UN in the current world context, and mentioned the progress made by Romania as an emerging donor, both in the field of official development assistance and of humanitarian aid.




    INVESTMENTS A delegation from the Romanian Ministry for the Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship is in Japan until July 26th, to attract Japanese investors in Romania. According to the Ministry, the agenda of the visit includes meetings and talks in Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto and Tokyo, with Japanese governmental officials and representatives of the local business and banking community, concerning the new business opportunities entailed by the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan. Meetings will also be held with representatives of major Japanese corporations. The talks are aimed at identifying trade and investment projects of mutual interest. Last year, the bilateral trade amounted to 710 million US dollars. The main Romanian products exported to Japan included tobacco, wood, honey, vehicle components and accessories, clothes, pharmaceuticals and electrical appliances, whereas Romanias imports from Japan consisted in automobiles, tools and equipment, metal and chemical products, optical and photographic equipment and devices.




    FESTIVAL The 11th Film and Histories Festival continues in Rasnov, central Romania. Until July 28th, a special new venue in the centre of the town will be hosting film screenings, theatre performances, Baroque and rock music concerts. Conferences and roundtable talks will also be organised, on topics such as the 1989 Romanian Revolution, economic freedom, the music of freedom, freedom won and lost, cinema and freedom. Other topics approached include the Romanian migration, Europes post-Brexit future, the digital society and minorities. The 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing and the 70th anniversary of the founding of NATO will also be marked. The 2019 edition of the Festival will also host a Summer School for 72 university students and 23 high school students from Romania and the neighbouring Republic of Moldova.




    HOLIDAY In a military and religious ceremony held in Bucharest on Romanian Aviation Day, celebrated every year on 20th of July, the Romanian Defence Minister Gabriel Les thanked the Romanian military and civil aviators for their devotion and paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives. On the same day, Orthodox and Catholic Christians in Romania celebrated Prophet Elijahs feast day. According to the Bible, the prophet lived nearly 2,800 years ago and brought back faith in the Hebrew God among the people of Israel. Elijah did not die like a human, but was taken to heavens in a chariot of fire. Due to this biographic detail, St. Elijah is the patron saint of the Romanian Air Forces. Nearly 130,000 Romanians also celebrated their name day on Prophet Elijahs Feast Day.



    PHYSICS Romanias team, made up of 4 students from Bucharest, Iaşi (north-east), Timişoara (west) and Baia Mare (north), won 3 gold medals and a silver medal in the first edition of the Balkan Physics Olympiad, held in Thessaloniki, Greece between July 14th and 18th, the National Education Ministry announced. Taking part were secondary school and high school students aged 16 or under at the time of the competition. Eleven countries attended this first edition of the Olympiad.




    YOUTH Romania will be represented by 103 athletes in the 15th Summer European Youth Olympic Festival, held between July 21st and 27th in Baku (Azerbaijan). The Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee announced the participants are athletes aged between 14 and 18, who will take part in the athletics, cycling, artistic gymnastics, handball, swimming, judo, wrestling, tennis and volleyball events. The Committee also says the Romanian delegations objective is to come home with 8 to 10 medals from Baku.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Romania is in for more extreme weather

    Romania is in for more extreme weather

    Yellow, orange and red warnings for
    bad weather have been issued for some regions or even for the entire Romanian
    territory almost on a daily basis in recent weeks. On Tuesday alone, several yellow
    and orange warnings for unstable weather were issued for almost all of the
    country’s southern regions.






    In Galati, eastern Romania, a man lost
    his life in a thunderstorm. The bad weather has also caused material damage
    including in capital city Bucharest, where gale force winds knocked over trees,
    posts and billboards, blocking traffic and damaging vehicles.






    Several bridges have been destroyed
    by flooding in the country’s south. Rail traffic has also been disrupted by the
    heavy downpours which caused delays of up to 30 hours on some routes. Hundreds
    of households in eastern and south-eastern Romania were left without
    electricity on Tuesday night.






    Firefighters have been deployed to
    towns and villages in 13 counties across the country in an attempt to remove
    the bad weather effects. They took action to pump water out of scores of
    households, yards and basements. After these extreme phenomena, Romania is
    bracing up for a new heatwave with temperatures above 30 degrees centigrade and
    almost two weeks of muggy weather in almost all its territory.






    The heatwave is also affecting the whole
    continent. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued several travel alerts especially
    for Greece, currently facing a higher risk of forest fire, and for France,
    which is also bracing up for hot temperatures in most of its regions. Record
    highs of 39-40 degrees centigrade are to be witnessed in Germany and the
    heatwave is also expected to be felt in the north of the continent in countries
    like Sweden and Denmark.

    (translated by bill)





  • January 12, 2019 UPDATE

    January 12, 2019 UPDATE

    EU Romanias PM Viorica Dancila will be on a visit to Strasbourg on Monday and Tuesday. She will present to the European Parliament the priorities of the first Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union and have meetings with EU officials. On Friday, during talks with the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and with members of the College of EU Commissioners in Bucharest, Viorica Dancila emphasised that the Romanian presidency will seek to achieve consensus among Member States over the multi-annual financial framework, and is looking for “small, but reliable steps in this respect. According to the Romanian PM, the talks held on Friday between members of the Romanian Government and of the College of Commissioners were structured into 3 thematic sections and focused on EU priorities like the single market, the consolidation of the Economic and Monetary Union, migration, security and justice.




    CHURCH Pope Francis, who will make a visit to mostly-Orthodox Romania between May 31st and June 2nd, will have a meeting with Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church, a Romanian Patriarchy spokesman announced. He emphasised that the good relations between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church translate, among others, in the hospitality with which Romanian communities have been received in many countries, especially in Italy, where many Romanian parishes hold religious services in locations made available by the local Catholic communities. On Friday the Vatican and the Romanian Presidency confirmed the Popes visit to Romania. He will visit the capital city Bucharest, the cities of Iaşi (in the north-east) and Blaj (centre), as well as the Marian shrine in Şumuleu Ciuc (centre). Pope Francis is the second Pope to visit Romania, after John Paul II who was in 1999 the first head of the Catholic Church to visit a mostly Orthodox country since the East-West Schism of 1054.




    PROCUREMENT Save Romania Union in opposition says the new scandal regarding the corvette procurement procedure proves that the Social Democratic Party in power in Romania is unable to complete at least one procurement contract without corruption suspicions. Save Romania Union believes this new standstill, concurrent with the attack against the armys Chief of Staff, whom the Defence Ministry seeks to replace, only destabilises NATOs eastern flanc and serves the interests of Russia, which seeks control over the Black Sea. Also in Opposition, the Peoples Movement Party says the Government has managed to compromise the army equipment procurement process as well as Romanias international commitments. The criticism comes after the Romanian Defence Ministry announced having suspended the purchase of 4 multi-role corvettes worth 1.6 billion euros. A news release issued by the Ministry says the Prosecutors Office has been notified of reasonable suspicions regarding the lawfulness of the procedure, liable to affect the national security interests. The bid should have been completed last year, but it was postponed several times already. The Defence Minister Gabriel Leş said the Prosecutors Office was only notified with respect to this case in order to make sure the security and lawfulness of the procurement procedure are guaranteed.




    PASSPORTS The new Romanian electronic passports, to be issued as of this week, will be virtually impossible to forge, said the head of the Directorate General for Passports Mirel Toancă on Saturday. He said each page of the new documents includes a stylised image of a well-known Romanian historic or tourist site, such as the Danube Delta, the Scărişoara Cave or Sighişoara medieval citadel. The fees for the issue of the new passports remain unchanged, and the ones valid at present will remain in use. Simple electronic passports are valid for 10 years, and temporary ones are valid 1 year.




    MACEDONIA Greeces PM Alexis Tsipras congratulated his Macedonian counterpart, Zoran Zaev, after a historic vote in Skopje to rename the country “The Republic of North Macedonia. Zoran Zaev won by a narrow margin the 2-thirds of the parliamentary votes needed for this goal, with the nationalists in Opposition boycotting the meeting. This is the last but one major obstacle to the settlement of a decade-long dispute with Greece over the name “Macedonia, which Athens claims for the north of Greece. According to the BBC, the next step is the ratification of the agreement by the Greek Parliament, paving the way for Macedonias prospective accession to the EU and NATO.




    PARIS Two firemen and a Spanish tourist died and over 40 people were injured on Saturday morning in a blast caused by an accidental gas leak in a building downtown Paris, AFP announced quoting sources from the Prosecutors Office. Previous reports mentioned 4 deaths. In other news, fresh clashes took place in the French capital between police and the “yellow vests in the 9th weekend of protests. A nation-wide debate designed to calm down the protesters is to be organised as of Tuesday. The movement started out as a protest against the rise in fuel prices, but later grew into a campaign targeting the entire fiscal and social policy of the French government.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • August 20, 2018

    August 20, 2018

    INVESTIGATION — Hearings will be made today at the Prosecutor General’s Office in connection with the anti-government meeting organised by the Romanians living abroad, on August 10. We recall the military prosecutors have opened a criminal case for such crimes as abusive conduct, abuse of office and professional misconduct, regarding the way in which the gendarmes intervened during the protest. The Interior Minister Carmen Dan has apologised to all those who suffered because of violence. The opposition considers however that minister Dan should have resigned.



    DNA — The Romanian justice minister, Tudorel Toader, has today announced that no prosecutor has applied for the position of chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Candidacies can be submitted by August 24, and the new procedure should be finalised by September 6. This is a new selection organised by the Justice Ministry, after Tudorel Toader rejected all the four candidacies that had been submitted. The minister is optimistic that there will be a candidate for this position until the deadline expires. The position of chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate has become vacant after Laura Codruţa Kövesi was revoked by a decree issued on July 9 by President Klaus Iohannis, who implemented a decision by the Constitutional Court.



    PEASANT CIVILISATION – Săpânţa, in the northern Romanian county of Maramureş, which has been designated the Peasant Cultural Capital of the Romanian around the world, has been the venue for a cultural project titled “The United Villages of Romania”. The project has been carried out jointly with Radio Romania. This annual meeting of villages, this year devoted to the Great Union Centennial, has been attended by 800 artists, singers and folk groups from 30 county capitals, as well as from the Romanian communities around the world. The initiator of the project is an Irishman who has been living in Romania for 24 years, Peter Hurley. He says he has been impressed by the fact that the old Romanian civilisation is surviving wherever there are Romanians.



    GREECE — After the debt crisis which has reduced its GDP by 25% and prompted it to take tough austerity measures, Greece is today completing a three year financial aid program. Loans worth 70 billion dollars have been granted to Greece under the European Stability Mechanism to support the Greek government’s efforts to reform the country’s struggling economy and for the recapitalisation of banks. The Greek government wants to implement a series of laws with a social impact, although deep going reforms of the social welfare system and of the fiscal system will not be started right away, news agencies report. Economists claim the Greek state has gone past the critical threshold, but the population will still have to make savings and carry the burden of austerity measures for many years to come.



    TENNIS— Romanian Simona Halep, no.1 WTA, has been defeated by the Dutch Kiki Bertens, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, in the finals of the Cincinnati tennis tournament, with 2,874,299 USD dollars in prize money up for grabs. This is the third final that Simona Halep lost in Cincinnati in the past four years, but thanks to this result, she will remain no.1 WTA for at least three weeks. The Cincinnati final was the 33rd in Simona Halep’s career, who boasts 18 titles.

  • July 31, 2018 UPDATE

    July 31, 2018 UPDATE

    ADMINISTRATIVE CODE – Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, on Tuesday notified the Constitutional Court with respect to the Administrative Code. The president claims, among other things, that the law has not been adopted transparently and that deficiencies in the parliamentary procedure have been reported. The president also says that the law, in its entirety, runs counter to the Constitution and he mentions, in that respect, tens of articles included in the new Administrative Code. The document was endorsed by Parliament on July 9.In its
    turn, the Constitutional Court announced on Tuesday the president’s notification
    regarding the Administrative Code will be debated upon on September 20.



    SWINE FEVER – The situation of African
    swine fever hotbeds in Romania was the focal point on the agenda of a
    government session on Tuesday. Attending the informal meeting were several members
    of the cabinet, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed
    Arafat, as well as representatives of the National Sanitary-Veterinary
    Authority. Romanian pig farmers having lost animals because of the African
    swine fever outbreak have so far received compensations of nearly 28,000 Euros.
    The compensations are granted both for the animals slaughtered in view of
    containing the swine fever hotbeds, and for collateral damages. In order to
    prevent the disease from spreading, restrictions have been introduced in
    certain areas regarding the transport of pork products, and citizens have been
    informed of relevant prevention measures. Since the beginning of the year, 440
    African swine fever hotbeds have been identified in Romania, both in large
    farms and individual households.



    CAR POLLUTING FEE – The Romanian environment minister, Graţiela Gavrilescu, announced on Tuesday that she will come up with a new version of the car polluting fee by the end of the year. The car polluting fee was introduced in Romania in January 2007, shortly after the country joined the EU. At that time, the first car registration fee was calculated in accordance with three elements: the age of the car, the type of catalyst and the engine capacity. After the fee had been repeatedly changed, in 2013, a tax was introduced in 2013, depending exclusively on the level of exhausted fumes. Four years later, in 2017, the authorities scrapped that fee.



    WORKERS – Over the past few years Romanian companies in hospitality, catering, light industry, agriculture and constructions have hired workers from outside the EU. Most of them come from countries with living standards below those in Romania, like the Philippines, Nepal, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Romanian employers have resorted to this strategy for various reasons, including the migration of domestic workers to more developed countries in western Europe, a drop in birth rates, labour mobility requirements and the inability of the national education system to adjust to the needs of the local labour market.



    SHEEP FARMING – Romania, the 4th largest sheep and goat breeding country in the EU, last year imported mutton and lamb worth 3.5 million Euros, from countries as far away as New Zealand. According to data made public by the National Statistics Institute, last year 11.5 million sheep and goats were bred in Romania, of which some 10 million sheep. Romania exported live stock worth over 180 million Euros and sheep and goat meat amounting to more than 35 million Euros. Sheep farming relies extensively on exports, because Romanians are not regular consumers of lamb and mutton.



    ASYLUM – 900 people applied for protection from the Romanian state in the first half of the year, 55% fewer than in the corresponding period of last year. According to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, the largest number of asylum seekers come from countries like Iraq, Syria and Iran, and the largest number of applications have been submitted to the centres in Bucharest and in Timişoara (in the west). Close to 950 other people have been included in an integration programme.



    GREECE – The Greek authorities made public the latest toll of the wildfires that ravaged several towns and villages near the capital city Athens last week: 92 dead, 25 missing and 28 unidentified burnt bodies. According to Radio Romanias correspondent, 4 foreign citizens are among the victims. On Monday the PM of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, visited the villages of Mati and Rafina. An investigation is under way, looking into the causes of the tragedy. (Translated by AM Popescu and D. Vijeu)

  • July 31, 2018

    July 31, 2018

    MOTORWAY – Traffic on the 3rd and 4th segments of A10 Motorway, connecting the towns of Sebeș and Turda, in central Romania, was opened on Monday night, 4 years after the works began. The 2 segments total 27 km. The entire motorway will be around 70 km long. The costs of the project amount to roughly 40 million euros, with 75% of the amount coming from the EU under the European Regional Development Fund, and 25% from the state budget.




    SWINE FEVER – Romanian pig farmers having lost animals because of the African swine fever outbreak have so far received compensations of nearly 28,000 euros, the relevant authorities have announced. The compensations are granted both for the animals slaughtered in view of containing the swine fever hotbeds, and for collateral damages. In order to prevent the disease from spreading, restrictions have been introduced in certain areas regarding the transport of pork products, and citizens have been informed of relevant prevention measures. Since the beginning of the year, 440 African swine fever hotbeds have been identified in Romania, both in large farms and individual households.




    WORKERS – Over the past few years Romanian companies in hospitality, catering, light industry, agriculture and constructions have hired workers from outside the EU. Most of them come from countries with living standards below those in Romania, like the Philippines, Nepal, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Romanian employers have resorted to this strategy for various reasons, including the migration of domestic workers to more developed countries in western Europe, a drop in birth rates, labour mobility requirements and the inability of the national education system to adjust to the needs of the local labour market.




    SHEEP FARMING – Romania, the 4th largest sheep and goat breeding country in the EU, last year imported mutton and lamb worth 3.5 million euros, from countries as far away as New Zealand. According to data made public by the National Statistics Institute, last year 11.5 million sheep and goats were bred in Romania, of which some 10 million sheep. Romania exported live stock worth over 180 million euros and sheep and goat meat amounting to more than 35 million euros. Sheep farming relies extensively on exports, because Romanians are not regular consumers of lamb and mutton.




    GREECE – The Greek authorities made public the latest toll of the wildfires that ravaged several towns and villages near the capital city Athens last week: 92 dead, 25 missing and 28 unidentified burnt bodies. According to Radio Romanias correspondent, 4 foreign citizens are among the victims. On Monday the PM of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, visited the villages of Mati and Rafina. An investigation is under way, looking into the causes of the tragedy.




    ASYLUM – 900 people applied for protection from the Romanian state in the first half of the year, 55% fewer than in the corresponding period of last year. According to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, the largest number of asylum seekers come from countries like Iraq, Syria and Iran, and the largest number of applications have been submitted to the centres in Bucharest and in Timişoara (in the west). Close to 950 other people have been included in an integration programme.




    MIGRATION – The US president Donald Trump praised the Italian PM Giuseppe Contes firm stance on migration, during a meeting with the Italian official at the White House on Monday. Trump added that many other countries in Europe and the world should do the same. Giuseppe Conte is heading a right-wing government whose Interior Minister has taken a tough position regarding immigrants. According to the Italian government, the people rescued from the Mediterranean should no longer be brought into Italian ports.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)