Radio România Internațional

Tag: memorandum of understanding

  • March 5, 2020 UPDATE

    March 5, 2020 UPDATE

    CORONAVIRUS – Three out of the six people diagnosed with
    coronavirus in Romania have been declared cured, authorities say. One was
    discharged and two remain under medical care pending their discharge. The other
    three are currently in special medical centers for infectious disease in
    Timisoara, Cluj and Iasi, their condition being stable. According to official
    data, 35 people are in quarantine in Romania, and more than 11,700 are in
    isolation at home. Two Romanian citizens infected with coronavirus and hospitalized
    in Japan have been declared cured and will be discharged. Meanwhile, Britain
    has decided to amend the legislation to ease access to medical leave. In France
    the outbreak has spread to all regions while in Israel a quarantine is imposed
    on all persons arriving from several west-European countries. Hungary has
    announced its first cases. Italy, the country with the third biggest outbreak
    after China and South Korea, has closed down all schools and universities until
    March 15. Schools have been closed in 13 states, affecting 290 million students.
    In continental China the death toll has exceeded 3,000. COVID-19 has spread to
    80 countries and territories. The total number of infections stands at 95,000
    worldwide, with over 3,300 people having died to the virus.




    GOVERNMENT – Parliament’s specialist committees on Thursday
    gave a positive opinion to the nomination of Bogdan Aurescu as Foreign
    Minister, Marcel Bolos as Minister for European Funds, Marcel Vela as Interior
    Minister and Virgil Popescu as Economy Minister, who were proposed by Prime Minister
    designate Florin Citu. The candidates for minister of transport, infrastructure
    and communications, sports, defense, agriculture and the environment have also
    received the green light, while the candidates for minister of labour, health,
    education, culture, finance, development and justice have received negative
    opinions. The opinions are consultative and the vote of investiture is expected
    next week. The only change from the Orban government is the position of finance
    minister, where Lucian Ovidiu Heiuş is proposed to replace the former occupant,
    the Prime Minister designate. Citu was nominated by president Klaus Iohannis
    after the Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the designation of the
    acting Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, whose cabinet had been dismissed in a vote
    of no-confidence.




    VISIT – Cluj Mayor Emil Boc on Thursday announced the
    city would compete in the 2020 European Capital of Innovation, a competition
    won last year by Nantes, France. The decision was taken after the European
    commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth Mariya
    Gabriel officially opened the competition on the sidelines of the StartupCity
    Cluj-Napoca conference. European cities with over 100,000 inhabitants can
    enroll. The grand prize is 1 million euros. The European official met with
    Education Minister Monica Anisie, who underlined the key role of education in
    the Commission’s latest initiatives, namely the European Green Deal and A Strong
    Social Europe for Just Transitions. Minister Anisie highlighted the need for
    the Commission to disburse proper financial resources to ensure school
    infrastructure becomes sustainable. Mariya Gabriel in turn said that research
    and education are key to creating innovative ecosystems, in partnership with
    the business sector.




    POVERTY – In 2018, children were the age group at highest
    risk of poverty and social exclusion in almost half of the EU member states.
    The percentage varies from 13.1% in Slovenia and 13.2% in the Czech Republic to
    38.1% in Romania and 33.7% in Bulgaria, according to the data made public on
    Thursday by the European statistical office Eurostat. The risk of poverty and
    social exclusion affected 23.4% of EU’s children, 22.1% of its adults aged
    between 18 and 64 and 18.4% of people over the age of 65. The biggest gaps were
    noted in France, Romania and Slovakia, where the rate among children was more
    than 5% higher than the rest of the population.




    MEMORANDUM – Six EU member states, including Romania, signed
    in Zagreb a memorandum of understanding on mutual assistance in the field of
    cyber security, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU defense
    ministers. The project, which is coordinated by Lithuania, aims at creating
    multinational response networks and teams made up of EU cyber security experts.
    The other signatories are Croatia, Poland, Estonia and Holland. In 2017, 25 EU
    member states joined PESCO, an initiative allowing countries to cooperate more
    closely to consolidate their military capacity, laying the foundations of the
    so-called European defense union. This covers concrete projects, including the
    creation of a medical union, a logistical center and the development of joint
    standards for military radio communication.


    (Translated by C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)







  • Bucharest and Chisinau have a privileged relationship

    Bucharest and Chisinau have a privileged relationship

    The short visit that Romanias Prime Minister Victor Ponta paid to Chisinau on Thursday has strengthened even more the ties between the two neighboring countries, which share a common history, culture and language. Romania has been and will continue to be an unconditional and staunch supporter of the EU accession of the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, Victor Ponta has said. In an interview on Radio Chisinau, Ponta has emphasized how important it is to Romania, for Moldova to stick to its European agenda, given the complicated regional context.



    Victor Ponta: “This is the most important thing, because, in the end, what else can you say to a brother or a friend other than to follow your countrys example, which turned out quite well. It is not easy to do so, as it involves sacrifices and difficult situations to go through, but your future is, just like ours, with the EU.



    The Romanian Prime Minister has announced that he will propose in the upcoming period a series of extensive economic projects in strategic fields for Moldova, supported by Bucharest and for which financing and investment sources have already been found. A Romanian-Moldovan memorandum of understanding on projects needed to interconnect the two countries natural gas and electricity networks has been signed in Chisinau. It provides for the extension of the Ungheni-Iasi gas pipeline that will supply the entire Moldovan territory with Romanian natural gas.



    The memorandum also stipulates that the first interconnection of the electricity lines between Isaccea and Vulcanesti, in southern Romania, to be extended up to Chisinau, will be operated in the initial stage of the project. In turn, Moldovan prime minister Chiril Gaburici has said that implementing these projects will allow for the diversification of energy resources, which will secure Moldova in this respect.



    Chiril Gaburici: “The prerequisites for Moldovas integration into the EU energy market are being created by developing these projects. These interconnections that we make on the natural gas and electricity market do not mean that we plan to give up on other traditional partners. They only provide for a diversification of these resources and enhance the countrys energy security.



    The amount needed for the Romanian-Moldovan energy interconnection projects stands at around 750 million euros, of which 421 million on Moldovas territory alone. The projects deadline is 2018.