Radio România Internațional

Tag: Oros

  • September 28, 2021 UPDATE

    September 28, 2021 UPDATE

    Covid — On Tuesday over 11,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Romania, which is an absolute record since the beginning of the pandemic, out of over 73,000 tests, which is also a record. Most cases are in Bucharest, almost 2,000, and the contamination rate in the capital has exceeded 5.5 cases per thousand inhabitants. Over 660 localities have over 3 Covid-19 cases per thousand inhabitants, accumulated in 14 days. On Tuesday, the authorities announced that 1,267 seriously ill patients are being treated in intensive care, including 17 minors. 208 Covid- associated deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, the 3rd dose of Covid vaccine started being administered in Romania on Tuesday, as the country is in the grips of the 4th pandemic wave, when the number of infections and hospitalized people is skyrocketing. Over 20 thousand Romanians got vaccinated with the 3rd dose on the first day of the campaign, the authorities showed. Over 22 thousand have been vaccinated in the past 24 hours with the 1st or 2nd dose. The coordinator of the vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, said on Tuesday that the COVID vaccine coverage in Romania stands at about 33%, and in Bucharest at 51.1%.



    Resignation – The Liberal Adrian Oros resigned the position of minister of agriculture and rural development, saying that “for prime minister Florin Cîţu, agriculture and the food industry were never priorities”. He says the ministry’s budget for this year is 60% that of last year, which has a negative impact on ongoing projects, and that no major project in agriculture was included in the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience. Adrian Oros was the only minister in the Cîţu cabinet to support Ludovic Orban as leader of the National Liberal Party. Cîţu won the leadership of the party for the next four years. At the beginning of September, the Save Romania Union USR – PLUS Alliance withdrew from the ruling coalition with the Liberals and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania following a disagreement over a regional development fund and filed a no-confidence motion in Parliament, refusing to return to government with Cîţu as prime minister.



    Motion — The censure motion submitted to Parliament by the Social Democratic Party (in opposition) on Tuesday will be read on Thursday, in a plenary session, and will be debated and voted next Tuesday, the joint Permanent Bureaus of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate have decided. As for the censure motion initiated by USR PLUS, former no. 2 in the government coalition, and the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians – AUR, the joint Permanent Bureaus did not set a timetable. They decided to wait for the motivation of the Constitutional Court’s decision regarding the notification submitted by the Liberal prime minister Florin Cîţu related to the existence of a constitutional conflict between the Government and Parliament. On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court admitted the notification of the prime minister in relation to this censure motion, but claims that the motion can be debated and voted. The motion was registered on September 3 and read in the Parliament’s plenary session on September 9. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania – UDMR, which remained in the governing coalition alongside the National Liberal Party – PNL, has called for urgently restoring the governing coalition to overcome the political crisis.



    Certificate – The European Covid certificate may become mandatory for Romanian healthcare staff working in the public and private sectors, under a new bill proposed by the health ministry. The certificate serves as proof that a person is fully vaccinated against Covid, has tested negative for the virus or has recovered from the infection in the last six months. Medical staff who does not meet any of the three conditions face suspension for a month and even termination of the labor contract later on. The bill also stipulates that the staff will have to pay for the Covid tests. Employers will only cover testing costs for persons who are advised against getting the vaccine for health reasons.



    Ash cloud – The ash cloud released into the atmosphere after the eruption of the volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands reached the territory of Romania. The particles containing sulfur dioxide and other chemicals have been pushed by the wind through the west of Romania, spreading across the country. The particles will start disappearing as of Wednesday. Romanian experts are monitoring the air quality and have given assurances that there are no reasons for concern at the moment. Meanwhile, on the island in the Atlantic Ocean, the population of the non-evacuated areas was advised to stay in their homes and not to open the windows. The volcano released lava into the atmosphere again, accompanied by toxic gases.



    Visit – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population), Natalia Gavriliţa, met on Tuesday, during her official visit to Brussels, with Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport, and Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy. According to a press release from the Moldovan government, the talks focused on the importance of transport as a connection element between the EU and the Republic of Moldova, but also as a potential for economic development for the Moldovan businesspeople, on the role of the Union in developing the energy sector in the Republic of Moldova, on possibilities of completing the projects started with the neighboring countries and which can be an alternative to the gas and electricity supply of the Republic of Moldova. (LS)

  • August 18, 2020

    August 18, 2020

    TALKS Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, is today participating
    in a working meeting with the country’s Prime Minister and other government
    members, the Presidential Administration has announced. The country’s Deputy
    Prime Minister Raluca Turcan, Finance Minister Florin Citu, Economy Minister
    Virgil Popescu, Transport Minister Lucian Bode and the Minister of Agriculture
    and Rural Development, Adrian Oros, are also attending.








    COVID-19 Authorities in Romania
    have so far confirmed over 71 thousand Covid-19 infections while roughly 33
    thousand patients have been cured and left hospitals. According to the
    Strategic Communication Group almost 500 patients are in intensive care units
    and the death toll stays around 3029. Authorities are concerned about the rising
    number of patients in need of intensive care. The country’s Liberal Prime
    Minister Ludovic Orban has announced the government’s intention to increase the
    capacity of the Intensive Care Units at the country’s main Infectious Diseases
    Institute Matei Bals in Bucharest as well as in other cities across the country
    like Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. According to the Prime Minister, Romania
    presently can treat one thousand patients in its IC units.








    PROTESTS Belarus has seen
    another night of protests against the country’s president Aleksandr Lukashenko.
    Protesters have denounced Lukashenko’s landslide victory in last Sunday’s
    election, which has been condemned amid widespread allegations of vote-rigging.
    Lukashenko seems to enjoy loyal support from security agencies around the
    country thanks to the people placed in high positions in the past 26 years. The
    country has seen a wave of protests after the Central Election Commission two
    days ago said that Lukashenko had won 80.1% of the votes. Hundreds of
    protesters have been wounded and two have died in clashes with police over the
    past week. Some 67 hundred have been arrested and many have reported torture at
    the hands of the security forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin says that
    Russia is ready to offer support if needed. This has been the strongest wave of
    protests against Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule since he took power 26 years
    ago.








    ELECTION Today is the last day to announce candidates
    running in the upcoming local elections in Romania on September 27th.
    The election campaign is due to commence on August 28th and end on
    September 26th. Bucharest’s incumbent mayor Gabriela Firea from the
    opposition PSD is running for a second term in office. The other candidates vying
    for the Bucharest mayor seat are Nicusor Dan, backed by the right-wing National
    Liberals and the USR-PLUS Alliance, the country’s former Prime Minister and
    ALDE leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the country’s former president and
    former mayor of Bucharest Traian Basescu.










    MOTION A censure motion the opposition Social Democrats
    (PSD) has tabled against the Liberal government led by Ludovic Orban is going
    to be read before Parliament in plenary session on Thursday. Debates and voting
    upon the aforementioned motion are yet to be set but the initiators of this
    motion suggestively titled ‘The PNL government -from pandemic to generalized
    bribe-taking’ have lashed out at the way in which the minority executive has
    managed the coronavirus pandemic and the measures aimed at economic recovery.
    Prime Minister Orban believes the PSD move is irresponsible adding the PNL is
    considering ways of challenging it at the Constitutional Court as a censure
    motion cannot be initiated during a Parliament recess.





  • From Drought to Heavy Rain

    From Drought to Heavy Rain


    The
    drought and the COVID-19 pandemic have turned 2020 into an atypical
    year in which agriculture will not be able to bring money to the
    state budget as producers, sellers and farmers have all incurred
    significant losses – Dragos Frumosu, head of the Trade Union
    Federation in the Food Industry has told in an interview to Radio
    Romania. According to him, new price hikes are expected in cereals,
    fodder, meat and bakery products. The EU countries will be trying to
    protect their productions to ensure domestic consumption and in this
    case exports of some products to Romania are likely to diminish.
    Dragos Frumosu has also mentioned some possible solutions to this
    situation.

    Dragos
    Frumosu:
    Proper management is the only solution in my opinion, we need to
    build our own state reserves so that we may ensure the necessary
    products until the next harvests. It is also very important to
    avoid price fluctuations all throughout the year and I believe all
    politicians are responsible for the situation Romanian agriculture is
    facing
    after
    30 years.





    The
    latest hail and thunder storms have also caused serious damage to
    crops in many regions of Romania. Severe weather has reportedly
    wreaked havoc on cereals, vegetables, vineyards and fruit trees in
    north-western Romania.





    Beekeepers
    have called on the Romanian authorities for financial support to
    compensate for the losses in a country that used to rank fourth in
    Europe in terms of honey production.


    In
    turn farmers have called for investment programmes to encourage local
    producers. In an open letter they have explained the Romanian
    agriculture is facing a very difficult period against the background
    of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic overlapping
    the severest drought in the past 30 years. The have come up with a
    series of immediate measures including financial aid to small farmers
    and the rehabilitation of the country’s irrigation systems.





    Last
    week, Agriculture Minister Adrian Oros voiced his intention to grant
    farmers drought compensations until autumn; the value of these
    compensations is to be set after damage assessments have been
    completed. On Tuesday Oros announced that 1,165,000
    hectares of farmland have been affected by drought in Romania.
    Bloomberg pundits have recently announced that Romania and several
    other countries in eastern Europe have been affected by the severest
    drought in the past century.





    (translated
    by bill)

  • April 27, 2020

    April 27, 2020

    Covid-19 Romania — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday called a new meeting to deal with measures aimed at managing the coronavirus pandemic. Attending are the PM Ludovic Orban, the health, interior and education ministers as well as other officials. The authorities are preparing to re-start the economy, mainly through investments. The PM said the government could grant incentives to private companies that make investments during this period of crisis. 60 days after the first case of Covid-19 was registered in Romania, latest reports show that 11,300 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and 631 have died. The latest data provided by Strategic Communication Group show that over 3 thousand people have recovered from the infection. In the Diaspora, more than 1,500 Romanian citizens have been infected mostly in Italy and Spain and 75 have died.



    Covid-19 world — All over the world, almost 3 million people are infected with the new coronavirus, according to the US University Johns Hopkins. Most cases have been reported in the US, which is followed by countries from Europe: Spain, Italy, France, Germania and Great Britain. Equally affected by the pandemic are Turkey, Iran, China and Russia. The death toll has exceeded 206 thousand, with 54 thousand dead only in the US. Despite the situation, several states are getting ready to relax restrictions: in Italy economic activity is going to be partly resumed while preserving protection measures in public. People movement remains restricted, schools will open only in autumn and Italian churches will stay closed. France is preparing regional relaxation strategies starting with May 11. A system will be implemented by means of mobile phones, to warn people against getting in contact with an infected person.



    Romanian Academy – A study conducted by sociologists with the Life Quality Research Institute within the Romanian Academy shows that Romania is faced with two crises in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a medical and economic crisis respectively, and that the living standards will be affected mainly after the medical crisis ends. The report shows that people will have the same purchasing power that they had before the crisis only in 5 years’ time. Researchers recommend the authorities to abrogate or prorogate the pension law adopted in 2019, among others, to index-link the pension point with the inflation rate, to raise salaries only to compensate for the inflation rate and to reintroduce a unitary national salary grid for the local administration



    Agriculture — All autumn crops, especially those in the north and south of Romania, have been affected by the drought, the agriculture minister Adrian Oros has announced. According to data provided by the line ministry, 3 million hectares of the crops sown in autumn have already been affected. At present, only 10% of the farming land can be irrigated. The agriculture minister Adrian Oros promised that farmers will receive damages to cover for the losses caused by the drought.



    TAROM – The Romanian state-owned airline TAROM has announced it will resume flights as of May 2. The first destination will be Amsterdam and in the next days flights will be operated to such destinations as Athens, Paris and Frankfurt. The Romanian low-cost company Blue Air has also announced resuming flight operation. They reintroduced in the booking system flights from Romania to several cities in Romania and Europe that will be operated as of mid May. The Romanian government approved during Thursday’s meeting granting aid funds to help the two Romanian companies. They had previously asked for 130 million Euros worth of aid to be able to overcome the coronavirus crisis. (tr. L. Simion)