Radio România Internațional

Tag: motorway

  • April 20, 2024 UPDATE

    April 20, 2024 UPDATE

    PLANES Three F-16 jet fighters Romania bought from Norway landed at the Air Base 71 in Campia Turzii, central Romania on Friday. This has been the second batch of these multi-role fighters Romania bought from Norway; the first batch arrived in November, last year. According to the National Defence Ministry, the 32 F-16s Romania is going to receive by the end of next year are meant to consolidate the country’s air defence adjusted to the regional security challenges. They are going to play a major role in keeping an allied posture of defence and deterrence on the eastern flank and will ensure transition towards the fifth generation, the F-35 planes Romania is going to get, as minister Angel Tilvar says. The Romanian air forces now boast 20 F-16 jet fighters.

     

    RATING In the past year agencies have reconfirmed Romania’s sovereign rating and stable prospect, but there is room for improvement, such as the lower-cost access to funding on international capital markets and for attracting foreign investment – the country’s Finance Minister Marcel Bolos says in a Facebook post. During a working visit he paid to Washington, the Romanian official held talks with representatives of famous rating agencies, such as Standard&Poor’s and Moody’s on Romania’s economic particularities and the strategies aimed at ensuring macro-economic stability. Bolos also attended the spring proceedings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. According to Bolos, in order to raise economic competitiveness and create an appropriate environment for durable investment, Bucharest is focusing on fiscal consolidation, on raising investment in infrastructure and education, on boosting private investment and the promotion of an effective and transparent economic governance.

     

    HOLIDAY The Romanian Black Sea resorts are stepping up preparations for the upcoming mini-holiday on May 1st and the Orthodox Easter, to be celebrated on May 5th and which actually opens the summer holiday season in Romania. Owners of hotels, restaurants and guest houses in the region are expecting a large number of tourists as many rooms have already been booked. According to Corina Martin, secretary general of the Federation of Employers’ Associations, over 80 thousand people are expected to spend the mini-holiday in the aforementioned seaside resorts. The largest number of tourists is expected in the resort of Mamaia. Between May 1st and 7th the resort will be hosting the International Electronic Music Festival, Sunwaves, which is expected to bring together roughly 6 thousand tourists from abroad, a gastronomic festival and outdoor concerts given by Romania’s top artists.

     

    VISIT Over April 22 and 24, the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis will be paying a formal visit to the Republic of Korea, upon the invitation of his counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol. The Republic of Korea is the first country in the Asia-Pacific area with which Romania raised its relations at the level of strategic partnership in 2008. On the occasion of Iohannis’ upcoming visit to Seoul, this partnership will be consolidated through a document, which sets the cooperation directions for the next 10 years. Relevant documents are expected to be signed in the field of defence, nuclear energy, investment and foreign trade, cooperation in emergency situations and disaster management, cooperation in the field of culture, mass-media, youth and sports. In the Republic of Korea, the Romanian president will be meeting representatives of the Romanian community and business environment and will be visiting an exhibition of Romanian traditional art.

     

    SPORTS According to the Facebook page of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, Romanian athlete Bianca Ghelber managed to clear the Olympic qualification threshold in the hammer throw event in Nairobi, Kenya. Ghelber’s third throw measured 74.06 m, 6 centimeters over the threshold imposed by the World Athletics. She ended the contest on the second position after Janee Kassanavoid of the USA, which threw 75.99 meters. For Bianca Ghelber, that would be the fourth participation in the Olympic Games, after Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Tokyo 2020. Team Romania now boasts 79 qualified athletes in ten sporting contests, athletics, swimming, boxing, kayak-canoe, rowing, gymnastics, water polo, table tennis, wrestling. Weightlifters Mihaela Cambei and Loredana Toma have also qualified, but are still to be officially recognized.

     

    ROAD A 2.2 kilometer section of modernized motorway was opened in Galati, a Romanian port on the Danube, on Saturday. The new section will ease the access to Europe of transporters from Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. The section is part of a complex 140 million euro project, which also includes a goods terminal in the port of Galati, the only Romanian one along the Rhine-Danube corridor benefitting from a double-gauge rail infrastructure. The other investment stages are scheduled to unfold by the end of next year.

    (bill)

     

  • September 29, 2023 UPDATE

    September 29, 2023 UPDATE

    TAXES USR and the Force of the Right parties in
    opposition in Romania Friday notified the Constitutional Court with respect to
    the set of fiscal measures for which the Government has recently assumed
    responsibility. The 2 parties argue that many
    provisions in the bill are against the Constitution. Two members of the
    National Liberal Party (in the ruling coalition) have also signed the
    notification, the USR floor group leader Ionuţ Moşteanu said. According to him,
    the Cabinet has initiated a reform which is not implemented consistently and violates
    the principle of judicial security. The move by USR was criticised by another
    Opposition party, AUR, which is collecting signatures in Parliament to table a
    no-confidence motion. The finance minister, Marcel Boloş, claims however that
    the set of fiscal measures endorsed by the government is needed for Romania’s
    modernisation process, and a failure to solve the budget deficit issue would
    jeopardise the payment of EUR 75 billion in EU funding for Romania’s
    development projects.


    FUNDING Romania has received from the European Commission EUR 2.7
    bln in response to the second disbursement application under the National
    Recovery and Resilience Plan, submitted in December. The finance minister
    Marcel Boloş says Romania is among the first countries in the Union to complete
    the steps required for obtaining a second instalment of the funds. In a social
    media post, he said Romania has so far received combined payments of nearly EUR
    10 bln in grants and loans, out of the EUR 29 bln earmarked for the country
    under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.


    MOTORWAY The Development Ministry in Bucharest has approved a EUR 6
    bln investment for the mountain segment of the A8 Motorway, between Miercurea
    Nirajului (centre) and Leghin (north-east). The approx. 160-km segment
    includes 47 tunnels and over 250 overpasses. The project is to be approved in a
    Cabinet meeting, and then a bid would be initiated for the procurement of
    design and construction works. The project is to be finalised in 54 months. The
    Union Motorway (Târgu Mureş-Iaşi-Ungheni) will be over 300 km long, but so far contracts
    have only been signed for the 30 km between Leghin and Târgu Neamţ.


    EXHIBITION Nearly 100 works are included in the most
    important exhibition in the past 50 years in Romania devoted to the great
    sculptor Constantin Brâncuși. The exhibition opens on Saturday in western
    Romania as part of the Timişoara – European Capital of Culture programme.
    Sculptures, photos, archive documents and video materials will be on display at
    the National Art Museum in the city until the end of January. The works, whose
    insured value is half a billion euros, come from public and private collections
    in Romania and abroad, including famous galleries such as the Pompidou centre in
    Paris and Tate in London.


    DEFENCE Romania will procure all the military equipment needed to
    enhance the security at the Black Sea, the Romanian defence minister Angel
    Tîlvăr said during a visit at a military equipment producer in Timişoara. He
    emphasised that Romania is a safe country and not involved in any conflict with
    anyone, but that incidents such as the Russian drone falling on Romanian
    territory are still possible. We are doing our best and have made public the
    additional measures we took after drone pieces were found in Romania, he added.
    He also mentioned the Army is still interested in attracting young members,
    especially since a large number of military staff have retired recently. (AMP)

  • September 21, 2023

    September 21, 2023

    ACCIDENT A
    criminal investigation was initiated with respect to the blast that occurred last
    night on a gas pipeline on the Moldova Motorway construction site in eastern
    Romania, in which four people died and 5 others were injured. Two men with burn
    wounds affecting 30% and 40% of their bodies, respectively, were transferred to hospitals in
    Bucharest. Prosecutors are investigating manslaughter and bodily harm offences,
    as well as failure to take or observe work safety measures. According to the
    Vrancea Emergency Inspectorate, the blast was caused by the construction works
    conducted in the vicinity of the pipeline, which was also carrying natural gas
    to the neighbouring Republic of Moldova.


    TAXES The
    Cabinet had a first discussion on the set of measures aimed at the long-term
    rebalancing of the state budget and at facilitating the absorption of tens of
    billions in EU funding. Apart from cutting down public
    spending, the bill focuses on fighting tax evasion, introduces taxes on large
    profits and wealth, and eliminates tax privileges. Ahead of the Cabinet meeting,
    the measures were discussed in the three-party Social Dialogue Council, which
    brings together government officials and representatives of employer
    associations and trade unions.


    UN The wider
    Black Sea area must be protected against the effects of Russia’s war against
    Ukraine, the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis said in his address at the UN
    General Assembly in New York. The Romanian official added that his country
    would not let down its most vulnerable partners, and mentioned the transit of
    Ukrainian grain via Romania, a topic he also approached in talks with the
    president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of the European
    Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister, Mariya
    Gabriel. President Iohannis also said Romania was concerned with the effects of
    climate change, of pollution, of energy insecurity, and is making visible
    efforts to fight them. According to him, climate education is a priority for
    Romania, and the climate-security interconnection should rank higher on the UN
    agenda. Stay tuned for more details on the Romanian president’s address at the
    UN after the news.


    WHEAT Egypt’s General
    Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) announced having purchased 120,000
    tonnes of wheat from Romania in an international purchasing tender, Reuters
    reports. GASC also said that since early June Cairo has imported approx. 2.14
    million tonnes of wheat, mainly from Russia (1.5 million tonnes) and Romania
    (420,000 tonnes). Egypt is the world’s largest wheat buyer, mainly for its
    national bread subsidy programme benefiting more than 70 million of its 103
    million citizens.


    BUCHAREST The
    Romanian capital city is celebrating these days 564 years since its first
    mention in official documents. Maps, plans, archive images and 3-dimensional
    scale models showcasing the 19th Century history of the city are
    displayed in an exhibition opened until Sunday at the ARCUB Cultural Centre. On
    Saturday, around 200 arts high school students will dance in front of the
    National History Museum of Romania, and the music of old-time Bucharest will be
    performed in the George Enescu Festival Square in front of the Romanian
    Athenaeum. (AMP)

  • September 17, 2023 – UPDATE

    September 17, 2023 – UPDATE

    UN President Klaus Iohannis will be leading Romania’s
    delegation to the 78th session of the UN General Assembly between
    September 18 and 22 in New York. In his address, Mr. Iohannis will present
    Romania’s views on current global developments, highlighting Romania’s foreign
    policy priorities and its contribution to reaching the goals on the UN
    multilateral agenda. President Iohannis will also attend the Summit on
    Sustainable Development Goals, and will be a guest of honour at the World
    Leaders Forum organised by the prestigious Columbia University in New York, where
    he will be discussing Romania’s outlook on the war in Ukraine and its impact on
    Black Sea security.


    PENSIONS A new
    version of the special pension law, comprising the amendments requested by the
    Constitutional Court, will be endorsed by the end of September, said the
    interim Chamber of Deputies speaker, Alfred Simonis. He added the law covers
    all categories of special pensions, but because the special benefits paid to
    magistrates and other categories cannot be scrapped, as it happened in the case
    of MPs, taxation will be introduced, which the Court has accepted. Also,
    Simonis said, ceilings must be introduced for each particular profession, so as
    to eliminate special pensions of EUR 8,000 or even EUR 14,000 a month. The
    Constitutional Court last month sent back to Parliament the new draft pension
    law, on grounds that pension benefits currently being paid cannot be readjusted
    to different principles than the ones in the law under which they have been
    granted.


    CEREMONY A military and religious ceremony was held on
    Sunday at the Heroes’ Cross on Caraiman Peak in central Romania, to celebrate
    95 years since the monument was unveiled. Included in the Guinness Book of
    Records, the 40m cross is the highest such monument placed on a mountain top in
    the world. It was erected at an altitude of 2,291 m between 1926 and 1928, at
    the initiative of and with support from Queen Marie and King Ferdinand of
    Romania, as a tribute to WW1 heroes.


    FLIGHTS The Romanian airline TAROM announces new flights to and from Chișinău,
    in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, as of September 24. TAROM will operate
    additional flights over weekends, to reach a total of 21 weekly return flights,
    with prices starting at EUR 85.


    MOTORWAYS As of next week Romania will have 1,000 km of
    motorway in use, with the opening of the Nuşfalău – Suplacu de Barcău segment
    of the A3 Transilvania motoway. Next month the first 20 km of the Bucharest
    ring motorway will also be opened, and next year the first 2 segments of the Ploieşti-Buzău
    motorway are scheduled to be completed.


    SCHENGEN Austria’s opposition to Romania’s Schengen
    accession is not targeted against Bucharest, but against this freedom of
    movement system, said the Austrian minister for the EU, Karoline Edtstadler. The
    statement comes after Bucharest warned it would sue Vienna over its veto to
    Romania’s accession. Karoline Edtstadler told the media she understood the
    position of Romanian authorities, but added Austria cannot close its eyes to an
    already flawed system. She explained the EU should ensure efficient protection of its external
    borders before envisioning a Europe without internal
    borders. In
    an interview to Austrian mass media, Romania’s PM
    Marcel Ciolacu said that in case of further opposition from Austria, Romania
    will have to take the matter to court and demand compensation for the losses
    incurred because of its failure to join the Schengen area.


    NATO NATO’s secretary general
    Jens Stoltenberg has warned in an interview published on Sunday, that we must
    not expect a swift end to the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv carries on its
    counteroffensive against Russian forces, AFP reports. The war began in February 2022, when
    Russian troops invaded Ukraine. As for Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO, Jens Stoltenberg promised
    that sooner or later, Ukraine will be a NATO member. In July’s NATO summit in
    Vilnius, Alliance leaders agreed that Kyiv may join NATO once
    certain conditions are fulfilled, with the US and Germany emphasising that
    these conditions include reforms to protect democracy and the rule of law. In
    mid-June the Ukrainian army launched a counteroffensive to push out the Russian
    troops from the south and east of the country, but so far only a limited number
    of localities have been freed.


    TABLE TENNIS Romania’s women’s team was defeated by Germany,
    3-0, on Sunday, in the European Table Tennis Championships final in Malmo (Sweden).
    Elizabeta Samara lost to Xiaona Shan 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-8), Bernadette Szocs was
    defeated by Ying Han 3-1 (14-16, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10), and Nina Mittelham beat
    Andreea Dragoman 3-2 (5-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 12-10), after the Romanian player
    lost two match points. Romania was already a European vice-champion, after
    winning the silver in 2021, at home in Cluj-Napoca.



    RUGBY Defending world champions, South
    Africa Sunday defeated 76-0 Romania’s national rugby team in a World Cup Group
    B match in Bordeaux (France). A week ago Romania lost to Ireland 82-8 (33-8). Romania’s rugby team is next to play against
    Scotland on September 30 and against Tonga on October 8, in Lille. (AMP)

  • On road infrastructure and car fleet renewal

    On road infrastructure and car fleet renewal

    The weak point of Romania’s road infrastructure is the small number of motorways, covering only 950 km in total. This is the lowest motorway density in Europe, compared to the country’s surface. Last year, 30 km were added to the Romanian high speed road network and authorities plan to keep extending it this year as well.



    A contract with an experienced Turkish construction company for the design and construction of the second section of the A1 Sibiu-Pitesti motorway was signed on Monday. With a length of 32 kilometers, the Boița-Cornetu segment is the first motorway segment in Romania crossing a mountain. Its cost was put at 4.2 billion lei. It has 49 bridges and viaducts, seven tunnels and one wildlife crossing. The contractor has 50 months to build it.



    Things finally seem to move in terms of motorway construction in Romania. Works are currently under way on one of the most awaited motorways in the country, a fist segment of 13 km, linking Sibiu to Boița. The contractor says construction works will be completed in December. Works also started last year on the motorway section 5 between Pitesti and Curtea de Arges, with a length of 30 km, due to be completed in 2025. Transport Minister, Sorin Grindeanu, said he had a working meeting with the Serbian side on the topic of building the Timisoara-Belgrade motorway. According to Grindeanu, an accord in this respect accord will be signed in late March.



    On Tuesday, the government’s car fleet renewal programmes for physical persons, called Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus were launched. The bonus is 6,000 lei for an old car and 9,000 lei for two old cars. One or two additional bonuses of 1,500 lei will be granted if the cars handed over for scrapping are older than 15 years and have the Euro 3 or lower pollution rate. Another eco-bonus is the one worth 3,000 lei for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle.



    A novelty of Rabla Plus is the fact that an old car must be scrapped for the purchase of a new one. Also, for every new vehicle, a maximum of 2 cars can be scrapped. For the fully electric and hydrogen propulsion cars, the bonus is 51,000 lei and, if two old cars are scrapped, the bonus can go as high as 57,000 lei. In the case of both programmes, the value of the bonus cannot exceed 50% of the selling price of the new car. (EE)


  • European Money for Romania’s Infrastructure

    European Money for Romania’s Infrastructure

    Almost any debate on the dragging
    process of modernizing Romania begins and ends with the visible failure of all
    governments, irrespective of their political orientation, to build a reliable
    network of motorways like it happened in all the ex-communist countries close
    to the West.






    More than 30 years on from the
    demise of the communist dictatorship and after 13 years of EU membership,
    Romania only has 800 kilometers of motorways, out of which 100 inherited from the
    communist regime. None of these motorway routes is crossing its mountains
    though.






    However, things started to move in
    this direction as the European Commission on Thursday announced Romania would get
    more than 875 million Euros worth of EU funds for the first stage of the
    Sibiu-Pitesti motorway, which is going to cross the Southern Carpathians from
    the north to the south.






    The money Brussels approved
    comes from the Cohesion Fund aimed at bridging development gaps between various
    regions and EU countries. When complete, Romania will be relying on the first
    motorway across the Carpathians linking its western regions to the east from
    the port of Constanta to the border checkpoint of Nadlac. The section is
    designed to close the Rhine-Danube 4th European corridor.




    According to Lisa Ferreira, the
    European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, when ready the project will
    eliminate a major gap in the country’s transport network, increase transport
    safety and shorten distances implicitly cutting transportation costs for
    passengers and goods. Furthermore, this uninterrupted connection route crossing
    Romania will also benefit the entire Rhine-Danube corridor.






    The aforementioned motorway is
    divided into five sections and works have already commenced on one of
    them. A
    blueprint-construction contract has been signed for the 5th section
    and blueprint works are to kick off for this route shortly.






    Bidding procedures have already
    started for the 4th section of the motorway, while documents for the
    2nd and 3rd sections have been forwarded to the National
    Agency for Public Procurement where bidding procedures are to begin soon.






    Two other sections are going to
    cross the Eastern Carpathians; the first one, called the Union Road, links the
    cities of Targu Mures, Iasi and Ungheni and the second connects the cities of
    Brasov and Bacau. Both sections are connecting Transylvania to Moldova,
    Romania’s poorest historic province, which has no kilometer of highway yet.






    According to Prime Minister
    Ludovic Orban, Romania’s economic development hinges on upgrading the country’s
    infrastructure bringing it up to European standards. In another development,
    the European Commission on Thursday approved another 578 million Euros for
    Romania, to improve the country’s response capabilities in case of natural
    disasters and nuclear accidents. The money is to be used for the purchase of
    new equipment and for the training of personnel.




    (translated by bill)

  • October 26, 2019 UPDATE

    October 26, 2019 UPDATE

    MILITARY Nearly 1,400 Romanian and foreign troops with 220 vehicles are taking part in the multinational exercise Scorpions Legacy 2019, held between October 25 and November 8 in Cincu, Braşov County, in central Romania, the press office of the Multinational Brigade South-East announced. The goal of the exercise is to train the staff of the multinational brigade headquartered in Craiova and of the affiliated units in Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal, though computer-assisted command drills, field training practice and shooting practice. The Headquarters Multinational Brigade Southeast ensures high-level capability to command forces deployed in the south-east of the Allied territory, with an important contribution to NATOs collective defence.



    MOTORWAY The Romanian Transport Ministry has submitted a funding application to the European Commission, concerning a 122 km-long motorway connecting Sibiu in central Romania to Pitesti in the south. According to the ministry, the first stage, for which funding is requested, consists in the construction of 53 km of motorway. The project amounts to a total 1.3 billion euros, 85% of which will come from the EU budget in non-reimbursable funds, and the balance from the Romanian government. The deadline for completion is December 2023.



    REPATRIATION Three Romanian citizens, 2 of them underage, were repatriated from Libya, via Tunisia and Turkey, the Foreign Ministry announced. The measure is part of the constant assistance and consular protection efforts made by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, via diplomatic offices in countries with major security risks. The Ministrys homepage continues to run a maximum-alert travel warning for Libya, reading “Major threat – leave country or area immediately!.



    MIGRANTS Border police from the Nădlac checkpoint, western Romania, found 20 citizens from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and India hiding in a truck while attempting to cross the border illegally. The police say they were trying to reach Western Europe. Investigations are now conducted against the truck driver, suspected of human trafficking and against the foreign citizens for attempted illegal border crossing.



    BREXIT The ambassadors of the 27 EU member states have deferred a decision regarding the Brexit postponement period to next week. Recently, they have agreed in principle on a new postponement of Britains exit from the Union, scheduled for October 31, and are now to reach a consensus on a new deadline. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, recommended a 3-month extension, to January 31. The European Parliament also agrees with this date, which would allow Britain to clarify its position and the EP to properly fulfil its duties.



    TENNIS The Romanian Simona Halep, number 5 in the world, landed in the Purple Group of the WTA Finals in Shenzhen (China), held between October 27 and November 3. On Monday she will play against the Romanian-born Canadian Simona Andreescu, no 4 WTA. Halep, winner of this years Wimbledon trophy, takes part in the tournament of the worlds elite 8 for the 6th time in her career. The Purple Group also includes Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) and Elina Svitolina (Ukraine), according to Fridays draw release. This edition has record-high prizes—14 million USD, twice as much as last year.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Road infrastructure projects

    Road infrastructure projects

    The contract for building the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway, crossing the Southern Carpathians from south to north, will be put out to tender on Monday. The announcement was made by PM Viorica Dancila, who said that an accord for a private-public partnership for the construction of the motorway will be signed by the end of the year.



    Viorica Dancila: “This is a long-awaited project, for which the Government has been making efforts in the past few months. Romanian and foreign investors are invited to submit tenders in the next 30 days. The contract will be awarded through a competitive selection process. Negotiations with the selected investors will follow, so that in December we could sign a public-private partnership deal for the construction of this motorway.



    No cost estimates have been made public yet. The Ploiesti and Brasov county capitals are currently connected by a European road crossing the countrys most popular mountain resorts. However, the heavy traffic here, especially on weekends and during holidays, has placed this road among the busiest in south-east Europe.



    The Opposition criticises the solution chosen for the financing of the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway, namely a public-private partnership, the same option as in the case of Moldavia motorway linking central and north-eastern Romania. The leader of the National Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, has called on the Romanian Government to apply for non-reimbursable EU funds for Moldavia motorway.



    Ludovic Orban: “In fact, by taking the decision to finance Moldavia motorway though a public-private partnership, the Social Democratic Government has conveyed the message that building this motorway segment is not a priority and that in fact it does not plan to build this vital motorway at all. It is clear, as confirmed by European Commissioner Corina Cretu, that this motorway segment can be financed from non-reimbursable European funds, under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme.



    In turn, the European Commissioner for Regional Development, Corina Cretu, has harshly criticised Bucharest for the lack of infrastructure projects that could run on European funds. She has also said that 2 billion euros allotted for transport have already been lost, and that efforts are being made to avoid losing some of the funds earmarked for the 2014-2020 period. Romanian authorities have announced that around 100 km of motorway will be operational as of this year in the north-west and west of the country.



    Romania has less than 750 kms of motorway, of which around 100 were built during the communist period. According to the media, if the promises made by the countrys transport ministers in the past five years alone had been kept, Romania would now have 8,000 km of motorway.


    (translated by: Elena Enache)

  • 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)

  • March 7, 2016 UPDATE

    March 7, 2016 UPDATE

    The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who is on a state visit to Israel, met on Monday in Jerusalem with his counterpart, Reuven Rivlin. Romania, the President said, pays special attention to its relations with Israel, and his visit is intended to honour the tradition of the 68 years of constant diplomatic ties and, more importantly, to pave the way for further bilateral cooperation. The President added that Romania intends to become a regional centre in fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Holocaust education. Also on Monday, Iohannis had talks with PM Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday, Iohannis will have a meeting with the president of the Israeli Parliament, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, and will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. From Jerusalem, Iohannis will travel to the Palestinian territories, for official talks with President Mahmoud Abbas.



    Five thousand employees of Dacia, the largest carmaker in Romania, controlled by the French group Renault, took part in a protest on Monday in Mioveni, in the south of the country. People are primarily disgruntled with the delays in the building of the Pitesti-Sibiu motorway. This is a major route, because it reduces the way out of Romania for the vehicles intended for export. The Mioveni-based plant loses 30 euro/vehicle because of the infrastructure. The unionists also demand legislative measures to discourage the imports of second-hand cars, changes in the labour legislation and in healthcare laws.



    The largest military exercises ever organized by South Korea began on Monday, against the backdrop of tensions with the communist regime in Pyongyang. Some 300,000 South-Korean troops and 15,000 American ones take part in the manoeuvres, which will end in late-April. The UN Security Council decided last week to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang, after its recent nuclear and ballistic tests. The draft resolution introduced by the USA was unanimously approved, including by North Koreas only ally, China.

  • The state of infrastructure in Romania

    The state of infrastructure in Romania

    The employees of Renault’s Dacia factory in Mioveni, which produces 350,000 cars a year, on Thursday took to the streets to voice their concerns over the future of their jobs. Renault said recently that it was losing money because of the poor state of Romania’s transport infrastructure and warned that it may be facing a crucial choice unless the Sibiu-Pitesti motorway is built by 2020. Ford, which has a car factory in Craiova, has also complained about lack of good road infrastructure in Romania. The 8,000 Dacia employees who took part in the protest called on the authorities to respect their promise to build the motorway in question, while the vice-president of the Dacia trade union, Ion Iordache, threatened with more radical union action:



    “Our future depends on the construction of the Pitesti-Sibiu motorway. We have been repeatedly lied to by this government and other governments, who have promised to build this motorway. Renault has already said it will withdraw from Dacia in 2020 and by then it will be too late to do anything about it.”



    In another move, the National Trade Union Bloc on Thursday called on the government to debate and approve, as soon as possible, the country’s transport master plan including definite political, strategic and financial solutions to develop the modern transport infrastructure Romania so badly needs. The Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta called for an end to protests, saying they may determine the factory’s owners to move production to another country:



    “If these protests continue, the production will be moved to Morocco. I know very well the level of Dacia salaries and I know very well how many projects we have supported with state aid, so I urge union leaders to exercise reason. Don’t forget that Dacia has other options and I wouldn’t want the factory to be moved somewhere else as a result of the strikes. Let us be rational and everything will be fine.”



    However, the co-president of the National Liberal Party in opposition, Alina Gorghiu, has accused Victor Ponta of drastically reducing investments to secure a budget surplus. Meanwhile, the transport ministry has announced that, following recommendations from the European Commission, the 120-km-long motorway worth 1 billion euros has been included as a priority into Romania’s transport master plan and has a real chance of being finalised by 2020.