TOUR The first lady of the United States, Jill
Biden, has arrived in Romania, the first leg of a European tour, which will
also take her to Slovakia. The plane carrying her landed at the Mihail
Kogalniceanu airbase in south-eastern Romania, where Jill Biden will be meeting
the US troops stationed there. On Saturday, when America celebrates Mother’s
Day, Jill Biden will be visiting Ukrainian mothers and children who had to flee
their country because of the war as well as aid workers and teachers who are
helping these children to get integrated into a stable and safe school
environment. Jill Biden will be meeting members of the Romanian government in
Bucharest, too.
GRANTS The government in Bucharest on Friday approved 60 million Euros
in grants to four fields of the economy, such as the food industry,
acquaculture, fish farming and agriculture – the Minister of Investment and
European Projects, Marcel Bolos has announced. 5 thousand euros are to be
granted to small enterprises, natural persons, authorised natural persons,
family and individual enterprises doing businesses in the aforementioned
fields. The total budget for this measure is around 50 million euros and will
have over 10 thousand beneficiaries. The second measure is represented by the
grants for working capital with a budget of 250 million euros. Grants of 15% of
the turnover will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises, though they
are not to exceed 120 thousand euros. The number of beneficiaries has been
estimated at ten thousand.
REFUGEES Over 860 thousand Ukrainian nationals
have entered Romania since the Russian invasion of their country, which began
on February 24. According to data released by the Border Police Inspectorate,
since the onset of the invasion until Thursday at 24 hours, 866,916 Ukrainian
citizens entered Romania. Since February 10th, before the beginning of the
conflict, 901,445 Ukrainians have entered Romania.
SURVEY A flash Eurobarometer survey carried out in all EU
member states shows the vast majority of EU citizens approve of Brussels’
response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and believe that Ukraine is part of the
European family. Romanians also believe that the EU has shown solidarity with
Ukraine, with 82% saying they are pleased with the response of their fellow
nationals.
VISIT The situation in Ukraine was high on the agenda of the formal
talks the presidents of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, and Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda
held on Friday. Iohannis said that Romania supports the consolidation of the
set of actions against Russia adding the only acceptable alternative must have
as a result the restauration of the territorial integrity of the neighboring
Ukraine. On the other hand, Iohannis announced that Romania would be hosting in
Bucharest jointly with Germany and France the second edition of the support
platform for the ex-soviet Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova and invited
Lithuania to get involved. In turn, the Lithuanian president underlined the
importance of the Romanian-Lithuanian cooperation for strengthening NATO’s eastern
flank. Lithuania would continue to offer support to Ukraine and its refugees,
Nauseda said adding that on Saturday he would be visiting the Republic of
Moldova, the country who received the largest number of refugees in relation to
its population. During a phone call with the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu
on Friday, Iohannis reiterated Romania’s full solidarity with the Republic of
Moldova. The two officials revised new assistance options, which Bucharest can
continue to offer in all aspects of this crisis.
(bill)