Radio România Internațional

Tag: platform

  • Europe takes coordinated measures to fight drug trafficking

    Europe takes coordinated measures to fight drug trafficking

    Drug trafficking is
    becoming an acute problem not only in Romania, but in Europe as a whole. This
    is why coordinated measures are required, in order to efficiently fight
    trafficking in illegal substances, the use of which destroys lives.


    To this end, a new
    platform was created in Antwerp, Belgium to step up the fight against drug
    trafficking. Attending the launch meeting was, among others, the Romanian interior
    minister, Cătălin Predoiu. He said that, in spite of the extremely complex
    political agenda in Romania this year, fighting drug trafficking remains a
    priority.


    Cătălin Predoiu mentioned
    he would tackle this through specific actions by the Romanian police, the
    border police and the public institutions that coordinate transportation,
    logistics and financial activities in Romania. The interior minister also
    discussed the need for coordinated action in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanţa.


    He warned that every year
    Europe is flooded by large amounts of illegal drugs entering member states through
    their major ports, facilitated by organised crime, corruption, blackmail and racketeering,
    which are essentially threats to the security of the EU member countries.


    Cătălin Predoiu said that
    last year a number of operations were initiated by the Romanian Police, which
    led to the dismantling of organised crime groups, and that such operations will
    continue in 2024 as well.


    The Supreme Defence
    Council comprises a task force that will coordinate the integrated efforts of
    several institutions to fight drug trafficking, the interior minister said. He
    also pointed out that this scourge must be curbed through domestic,
    inter-institutional cooperation and international cooperation between member
    states and at European Commission level.


    Cătălin Predoiu also
    emphasised once again that drugs are a national security threat, a threat
    against Romania’s citizens, and fighting it has become a multi-disciplinary
    science. It combines law enforcement skills with knowledge related to money
    circulation and laundering, with financial, accounting, management and
    logistics skills, the interior minister explained.


    Drug consumption has
    become a serious problem in Romania, and it has been the topic of extensive
    public discussion since a car crash at the seaside last summer, when a young
    man driving under the influence of psychoactive substances killed two people
    and injured several others. Drug consumption, especially among the youth,
    remains an issue, and as recently as on Wednesday prosecutors apprehended a
    number of young people involved in illegal drug trafficking in Bucharest and
    Oradea (west). (AMP)

  • Countryside Museums

    Countryside Museums

    The only Romanian online platform devoted to countryside museums takes users around over 50 museums
    across rural Romania. Each museum tour is an interactive 3D tour, produced with
    high-performance equipment and integrated with Google Street View, Google Maps
    and Google Earth.




    The platform Muzee de la sat is
    aimed at promoting the Romanian village and museums in the countryside using
    state-of-the-art technology so as to engage the young, the project manager
    Ionuț Teoderașcu explains:




    Ionuț Teoderașcu: This project, muzeedelasat.ro, started
    nearly 2 years ago. First we scanned and visited museums in Moldavia, in the
    east of the country, because the project is implemented in stages, by region.
    So we started with Moldavia and then moved to Wallachia and recently, about a
    month ago, we reached Dobrogea. We’re taking it step by step. So far we have
    explored over 10,000 km, Dobrogea included, and more than 70 museums. The
    platform currently includes 53 museums, and we are working on the materials for
    the museums in the 2 counties in Dobrogea, Tulcea and Constanța.




    The only online platform devoted
    to museums in the countryside places great emphasis on the rural and the
    traditional, as Ionuț Teoderașcu adds:




    Ionuț Teoderașcu: In a first section of the website we
    introduce ourselves and present our goal, which is exploring the entire
    territory of Romania and see all the museums in rural communities. Obviously,
    we have an interactive map of Romania, featuring the counties that we have
    covered so far. When users select a county, a tab opens listing the museums in
    that county that can be explored using the virtual tour on our platform. For
    instance, if we choose Iași, we find 2 museums: the Alexandru Ioan Cuza
    Memorial in Ruginoasa and the Cucuteni Museum. The website is translated into
    English as well, which is very important since we target not only Romanian
    nationals, but foreigners as well. We had extensive media coverage, so those
    interested in finding out more about the project may read about the story
    behind it.




    The eligibility criteria included
    safety and functionality. A museum must be hosted in an adequate building and
    opening hours must be complied with, so that tourists who plan to visit it may
    be sure that they can do so. The response from both users and museum curators
    during these 2 years has been positive, according to Ionuț Teoderașcu.


    Ionuț Teoderașcu: Museum curators told us this kind of
    promotion was very helpful, because users checked out the museum on the
    internet and then visited the respective museums in person as well. Many times
    tourists said they saw the virtual tour on our platform and were persuaded to
    come visit the museum. Users are delighted. For those cannot travel there, this
    is a very good way to see something new and to explore these museums from the
    comfort of their home. There are cases of people in poorer health, who are
    unable to travel, so we facilitate this contact between rural culture and urban
    users who explores the world on their tablets, phones or laptops.




    Ionuț Teoderașcu, project manager with muzeedelasat.ro,
    has chosen two of the objectives presented to the public with the
    recommendation to visit them. The list is very big and the choice subjective
    but you can get a clear picture of the objectives proposed.




    Ionut Toderascu: I have recently discovered when I have been to Dobrogea, the preserved traditional
    household in Enisala, the Tulcea county, where we can see a traditional
    architecture specific to North Dobrogea, with various tools on the premises. We
    can see how households had been built, for instance, on stone foundations with
    adobe walls. This is a very beautiful household with vivid colours, but also
    interesting, especially for foreign tourists. Here tehy can discover a new
    culture and see how people used to live in the past. This household, for
    instance had two houses: the main house with two rooms, the living room and
    what they used to call the good room or the beautiful room, where events were
    being staged, the dowry stored etc. Not
    everybody was allowed into that room. Another museum can be found in the region
    of Moldavia. It is the Palace of Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Ruginoasa, the county
    of Iasi, and it’s completely different from a traditional peasant household of
    course. This is like the name says, a palace, which was the summer residence of
    Romania’s ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The furniture here is very beautiful and
    interesting. It was purchased by the ruler’s wife, Elena Cuza, from Paris. We
    are speaking about a different period of time here and, of course, another type
    of village museum. Being located in Ruginoasa, it is also a village museum and
    can be explored on our website.




    The iniatiators of this project intend to cover the
    entire Romania and get as many visitors as possible. This large-scale project
    has also a social component:




    Ionut Toderascu: We are also going to the disadvantaged areas of Romania with VR galsses
    and show these museums to children who have probably never been to a museum.
    They are using these headsets and go around the museums by means of the
    joysticks. They are asking us things and are practically exploring the museums
    for themselves. We’d like to reach out
    to these children and show them the cultural value of the village, the museums,
    but at the same time to develop the platform and go further to other counties
    to see other museums, scan them and complete Romania’s interactive map.


    By using this interactive map,
    depending on the area you are visiting,
    you can create your own route so that you may visit as many of these
    museums as you can and get a clear picture of the rural life. (AMP&bill)

  • Earthquake information campaign

    Earthquake information campaign

    Almost half a century ago, on March 4, 1977, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, the worst to hit Romania in the modern era, resulted in the death of 1,570 people, most of them in Bucharest, and caused material damage then estimated at over two billion dollars. About 230,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged and hundreds of economic units went out of business. The earthquake generated an economic and social crisis that, according to historians, the communist dictatorship of the time could not overcome until its collapse in 1989.



    Experts warn that, in the event of an earthquake similar to that of 1977, hundreds of buildings could collapse, at present, only in Bucharest. Annually, over 100 earthquakes with a magnitude over 3 on the Richter scale are registered in Romania. Most of them occur in the Vrancea (southeast) seismic zone, but this month Oltenia (southwest) was also shaken, where two earthquakes over 5 caused panic and damaged blocks of flats and administrative buildings. Scared by the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, the authorities in Bucharest decided to launch a national information campaign on how to react in case of an earthquake.



    The government has already approved a decision by which the “Be Prepared” website should be promoted by every institution and become accessible as soon as possible to citizens. Preparing the population to know how to react during and after a possible earthquake is essential. Equally important is the way in which the directly responsible institutions must act, says the Secretary of State for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat. He announced that 30 television stations will broadcast, for a longer period, a number of videos to inform the population on how to react.



    The Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă asked the authorities to pay more attention to the school infrastructure, so that pupils and students should be protected. ‘We have 70 schools that are being refurbished through a program financed by the World Bank, but we also have 118 schools that have been assessed with seismic risk class 1’ warns the prime minister.



    He asked the Minister of Development, Cseke Atilla, to make a concrete plan for consolidating all buildings with a high seismic risk. Previously, he had announced that contracts had been signed for the consolidation of 240 buildings in areas exposed to seismic risk, with the help of funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Moreover, there are several programs through which the state finances the consolidation of buildings with seismic risk, and 555 million Euros will be allocated through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan alone. Around 300 requests have already been registered on the ministrys platform. (LS)

  • The EU is consuming less natural gas

    The EU is consuming less natural gas

    The natural gas consumption in the European Union decreased by more than 20% in August, September, October and November this year, compared to the average for the same period from 2017 to 2021, shows data published by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). Natural gas consumption has decreased in most Member States, but differently. In 18 countries, gas consumption fell by more than the target of 15%, in some countries even by more than 40%. The most significant decline was registered in Finland (almost 53%), Latvia and Lithuania. Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Estonia reported decreases of over 30%. Six EU members, even if they have reduced their consumption, have not yet reached the 15% target.



    Moreover, natural gas consumption increased in Malta and Slovakia. The objective is a 15% reduction of gas consumption between August 2022 and March 2023, compared to the similar average of the last five consecutive years, in order to stop the dependence of the EU bloc on fossil fuels from Russia and to stop feeding with money Kremlins war industry. Between January and July 2022, natural gas consumption in the European Union varied between 1,938 petajoules (PJ) in January, a colder month, and 785 PJ in July, indicating an overall monthly decline even before the 15% reduction target was set. August was the month with the lowest consumption: 708 PJ, compared to the 823 PJ average for the period 2017-2021.



    On the other hand, the European energy ministers reached an agreement on Monday on capping the price of natural gas, after several weeks of discussions on a package of emergency measures that have created divisions among member states, in an attempt to respond to the energy crisis. According to documents accessed by Reuters, it was agreed that the capping will be triggered when the quotes at the gas hub in Amsterdam reach 180 Euros per Megawatt-hour (MWh) for three days. The same document shows that the capping could be triggered starting from February 15, 2023 and, initially, it will not apply to ‘over the counter’ type transactions (outside the market).



    The European Commission on Tuesday held a round table involving the participation of high-level industry representatives to support activity within the EU Energy Platform towards joint gas procurement, which is scheduled to start in 2023. Attending were representatives of 33 companies from the member states and the contracting parties to the Energy Community. The objective of the Platform is to contribute to the coordination of gas purchases, while using the EU’s negotiating and political power to ensure the supply of energy from reliable partners at sustainable prices for the EU citizens and businesses. (LS)

  • The National Museum of Romanian Literature, revamped for the 21st century

    The National Museum of Romanian Literature, revamped for the 21st century

    The
    National Museum of Romanian Literature in 2021 has been the recipient of the
    European Prize. As part of the on-line awarding ceremony for the European
    Museum Academy Awards, the DASA Award went to two of the most relevant and
    significant projects the Museum has carried in the last seven years: the main
    exhibition in the Nicolae Cretulescu Street and the Anton Pann Memorial House exhibition.
    We recall Anton Pann was a Romanian poet of the early 19th century.
    Pann was also a composer of religious music, a folklore collector, a man of letters
    and a regular contributor to various publications of his time. Here is the judging
    panel’s motivation for the award: The permanent exhibition is impressive thanks
    to its low-key yet minutely organized layout, rounding off the historical
    building which is home to the exhibition. In its educational programs, the National
    Museum of Romanian Literature has been audacious and utterly uncompromising,
    acting as a vehicle for today’s social problems. At the core of its activity
    lies interactive literature.


    Indeed, in the organization of the museum’s main
    exhibition, the curators and the museographers have first and foremost pursued
    the interaction with the public, according to the literary genres (poetry on
    the ground floor, prose, essays, literary history and criticism on the upper
    floor, while the loft is home to playwrighting). The
    museum has a heritage comprising more than 300,000 manuscripts, patrimony items and
    old books which include incunabula that are more than 500 years old. Among such
    items, there are manuscripts of works by Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Paul
    Valéry, Giovanni Papini, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Mihai Eminescu. The National
    Museum of Romanian Literature in recent years has been increasingly present on
    the literary scene in Bucharest. Specifically, the museum has staged a wide
    range of events, from academic symposia to jazz and poetry marathons. Accordingly,
    the Museum’s team has developed public reading sessions, conferences, theme
    exhibitions, creative workshops, events attended by a target audience.     Also,
    the museum has staged internationally-recognized events, such as the Bucharest
    International Poetry Festival.


    In 2021, the Museum was home to the 11th
    edition of the Bucharest International Poetry Festival. As part of the event, public
    poetry reading sessions were being offered to the audiences by Romania authors.
    Joining them, through podcasts and video recordings were poets from England, Argentina,
    Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Peru,
    Republic of Moldova, Spain and the United States of America. Editor and writer
    Ioan Cristescu has been the Director of the National Museum of Romanian Literature
    since 2014. He told us that, among other things, his intention was to turn the
    museum into a living space. Ioan Cristescu:


    There is one thing literary history has taught us, namely a writer’s
    presence in society should be a highly significant one. Writers are prominent members
    of a community, yet they are no longer perceived like that by society, unfortunately.
    And it is not about writers and the readers’ response to their work, it’s about
    artists, broadly speaking, today artists are almost totally unknown even though
    their work enjoys European, maybe world recognition. Unfortunately, we are no longer interested in getting acquainted
    with the contemporary values. So it is for that particular reason that we sought
    to open the museum for all generations and towards all forms of artistic
    expression, with a view to creating a place, an environment where artists can manifest
    themselves. And the fact that we succeeded to mount a creative museum, that only
    enhanced our institution’s museum identity. The National Museum of
    Romanian Literature is a museum where you can do a
    lot more than merely looking at the exhibits, it is a living space. We have sought to
    find our own identity through opening the museum to everybody and we did that because
    people wanted a place like this, a place where they could express themselves.
    It is a place where you’re sure to always find something new, where each and every
    guest can put to good use their talent and erudition, qualities that seem to be
    missing in our society, more and more. What we have been meaning to achieve and,
    at that, I hope we have succeeded, is to contribute, through our activities, to
    the lay public’s getting closer to writing, to reading, we want to encourage
    reading, we want to contribute to the education of those who visit us.


    The
    National Museum of Romanian Literature also sought to maintain the connection
    with the public during the pandemic, so they created a platform, Cultura in
    direct, Live Culture, in English. The Director of the National Museum of
    Romanian Literature, Ioan Cristescu:


    We built this video platform, Live Culture, by means of which we dovetailed
    the site of the museum and our activities. Our intention was to go online,
    gradually, but also to move to television transmission. As you can see, most of
    the debates in our society are not debates focusing on the problems we think are
    important, or on cultural issues. We have been witnessing, oftentimes,
    political debates, but we, the people of the National Museum of Romanian Literature,
    are not interested in politics. What we’re interested in are debates of ideas,
    the literary and interdisciplinary debates, as the writer and their literature
    are also the outcome of what is going on in contemporary society, that is why
    we have been trying to make the connection, to find connections between literature
    and other disciplines.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • The latest on vaccination and lockdown

    The latest on vaccination and lockdown

    Citizens willingness to get vaccinated remains at a steady 50% in Romania, according to sociological surveys, the head of the national SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Coordination Committee Valeriu Gheorghiţă announced on Tueday. According to him, at present over 1.2 million people have appointments both for the first dose and for the booster, most of them for the Pfizer vaccine. So far in Romania nearly 2.4 million people have received the vaccine, and over half of them have got both doses.



    Valeriu Gheorghiţă also mentioned that at present over 1,000 vaccination centres are operational, with a total maximum capacity of 115,000 doses per day. Most of them, i.e. over two-thirds, are Pfizer centres, and the remaining give AstraZeneca and Moderna shots.



    The Romanian official also announced that as of the next few days people who wish to get the vaccine without a previous appointment will be able to come directly to the AstraZeneca centres with available spots.



    With the number of patients in intensive care and the number of COVID-19-related deaths on the rise across the country, authorities once again call on people to get the vaccine and to observe protection measures.



    Meanwhile, an order issued by the health ministry introduces new criteria for local lockdowns. Apart from the COVID infection rate, other aspects will also be taken into account, such as the testing level and the ICU and hospital vacancies.



    According to the state secretary with the health ministry Andreea Moldovan, the new criteria are more objective, but the decision to introduce a lockdown “depends on more factors. The new order introduces a system that assigns towns and villages a specific score, based on these factors, with higher scores indicating a more severe situation in terms of the disease.



    The system separates between cities of over 100,000 inhabitants and smaller localities. For the former, the criteria include the combined 14-day infection rate and its trend, the number of tests run over the past 7 days and the proportion of positive tests in the total, the number of cases in outbreaks and the number of hospital beds still available. In smaller localities, the number of tests and the test positivity rate will not be taken into account, but the other criteria stand.



    As a general rule, local lockdown will be lifted when the infection rate drops below 3 per thousand, the document also reads. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • The Week in Review 17-23 January, 2021

    The Week in Review 17-23 January, 2021


    National anti-Covid vaccination programme continues


    Romanias coronavirus vaccination programme reached its second phase last week. After a first stage, targeting healthcare personnel, last Friday a second phase was initiated, focusing on the elderly and chronic patients regardless of age. Workers in key sectors will also receive vaccines at this point. The Government subsequently added to these categories sea and river navigation personnel, diplomatic mission staff, athletes taking part in international competitions as well as the homeless and the disabled.



    Under a new rule, 75% of the appointments available will be earmarked for chronic patients and the elderly, and only 25% for staff in key sectors.



    Across the country, there are about 300 immunisation centres, giving some 30,000 vaccine doses a day, but the number is set to increase as the country receives more doses from Pfizer or Moderna. According to PM Florin Cîțu, Romania has 2.4 million vaccine doses set aside until the end of March.



    But not everything is running smoothly, hence the discontent among people and opposition MPs. Since its launch, the governmental platform designed for online appointments has run into technical problems, which is why those who tried to book a place were unable to enrol individually, and had to resort to their family physicians or their employers. Similar solutions were used by people who do not own a computer, who lack basic computer skills and have no one to help them. Moreover, some chronic patients are not included in the records of the National Health Insurance Agency, and have had difficulties proving their status.



    There are also counties having already run out of vaccine doses. Romanias representative at the WHO, dr. Alexandru Rafila, a Social-Democratic Deputy, believes the flawed booking app and the inclusion in the second stage of categories that have not been properly prioritised may prevent the adequate vaccination of citizens.



    Meanwhile, EU leaders decided in an online meeting this Thursday not to close the Unions internal borders, but to introduce new travel restrictions in order to contain the spread of the virus and of its newer variants.




    Trade unions, disgruntled


    A number of social or professional categories once again took to the streets this week, to protest the current right-of-centre governments handling of the pandemic that has severely impacted Romanias economy. Picketing the offices of the presidency, the government, various ministries, prefecture offices or even political parties, Romanians voiced their discontent.



    Cartel Alfa—one of the countrys largest trade unions—initiated protests on January 14, which are scheduled to last until February 28. Their main demands include decent wages, fair pension benefits, high-quality public services, fair taxation, compliance with the law and a restart to collective bargaining.



    According to deputy PM Dan Barna, some of the demands can be solved in the forthcoming period. He explained that there are also demands that must be seen in the context of an economy hit by a crisis and of a budget that must meet the 7% of GDP deficit target.



    The Social Democrats in opposition side with the unionists unhappy with salary decisions, and argue that it is quite feasible to increase wages and pensions, while at the same time staying within the deficit ceiling targeted by the Cîţu Cabinet. On January 27, the Social Democrats are to present an alternative budget bill.



    Meanwhile, the draft state budget has been analysed by PM Florin Cîţu, deputy PM Dan Barna, finance minister Alexandru Nazare and the Minister for European Funds Cristian Ghinea, who were once again invited to talks with president Klaus Iohannis. The budget bill may reach Parliament early next month.




    Romania congratulates the new US president


    President Klaus Iohannis congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of the US on Wednesday. ‘I am confident that together we will continue to develop and strengthen our Strategic Partnership, to the benefit of our peoples, and to work in the true spirit of trans-Atlantic values,’ Klaus Iohannis posted on Twitter.



    At the inauguration of the 46th president of the US, Romania was represented by Ambassador George Cristian Maior. In a news release, the Romanian Embassy in Washington expresses confidence that during the new presidents term in office, both parties will reaffirm their commitment to strengthening and developing the Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century between Romania and the US, signed a decade ago. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Romanian solutions to digitise education

    Romanian solutions to digitise education

    Of the challenges entailed by the current pandemic containment measures, one of the most complex concerns the education sector. Many schools, high schools and universities in Romania are currently working exclusively online, even in the capital city Bucharest, which has an infection rate of 3.91 per thousand.



    But online learning is by no means easy, especially in the many rural or poor regions where students and teachers lack access to elementary digital technology and where the internet connection is difficult. Also, questions like “what, how and how much can we teach?, and “how do we test and assess? are ever more frequent as the education sector strives to adapt to the current circumstances.



    Education entrepreneurs are already coming up with digital solutions for these questions. But it all has to start from an answer to the question “what should we adapt?, believes Dragoș Iliescu, a professor and psychopedagogy expert:



    Dragoș Iliescu: “I can safely say that nobody knows exactly what should be adapted. We definitely cannot adapt content, in the sense that we cannot leave out or add content. And Im afraid this is the trend I can see with some of the decision-makers in the system: ‘This is a difficult year. Why not leave out some of the curriculum?. But eliminating parts of the curricula is not an option or a solution during this period. But while the content of the curricula should not be tampered with, we can adapt the content of classes. There is virtually nothing that cannot be taught online, using digital technology. For virtually any lesson in any subject we can imagine a new, different, innovative method of teaching. And if you can teach it, you can definitely test it as well, in the same manner. But one of our problems is there is not enough flexibility on the part of all stakeholders—not only teachers—in taking this leap and adapting content to online teaching. The other problem is that there are not enough resources. Some of these adjustments are rather hard to make, or reasonably hard, beyond the skills of most teachers.



    Although at first sight online assessment is easier than online teaching, things are not that simple, Dragoș Iliescu explains:



    Dragoș Iliescu: “This is not an easy task either, because the switch to the digital mode solves some problems and creates others. For instance, it solves a scaling problem: you create a test and in theory that test can be given to any child in any part of the country. But it creates security problems, for example. To what extent can you use a test that any child can copy in a print screen and pass on to his mates? There are technologies and approaches that solve this problem, which is not as new as we may think. Other countries found solutions long ago. But in order to solve this problem we need more resources and more investments. This is not something that teachers can do, it can only be done by a larger system. The idea that ‘this is a difficult year, wed better skip term tests is crazy. As long as you used to give term tests and they used to be part of the feedback you would give your students, giving them up now is not ok. The solution is not to eliminate something that you need, but to find alternatives to keep doing it even in these strange and unfortunate circumstances.



    One proof that assessment can go on is the BRIO.RO testing platform, initiated by Dragoș Iliescu. On this platform, tests are designed to combine learning and assessment, because in addition to a final score, children are also given a detailed assessment of their skills in a particular area.



    Dragoș Iliescu.: “During a test you actually learn. Possibly nothing else helps you learn as profoundly. Testing is, in and by itself, a learning activity. It structures information, encourages meta-cognition, its the best way of consolidating knowledge and connecting it to other practical activities. In addition, it gives you feedback on the learning process: it points out what you know and what you dont.



    A UK resident for several years, Paul Balogh has developed various digital education resources, from electronic textbooks to digital teaching platforms like Hypersay. He works with prestigious academic institutions in the UK and teachers in Romania.



    Paul Balogh: “Romanias response was not great, the Education Ministry gave little to no help to teachers. But at individual level, a lot of teachers did great, and solved their problems by their own means. They learned how to use the online platforms for conferences and teaching. What these people did is outstanding, I think, and I cant see why this topic is not discussed more in the public arena. On the other hand, in other countries the ministries worked more coherently with the schools. They designed various solutions in due time and they applied them. The support from the ministry makes a difference.



    So individual teachers proved more adaptable than many public institutions, Paul Balogh says, and he concludes:



    Paul Balogh: “In Romania we still have individual relations with teachers. There are teachers in private and public schools who want to use our platform, but their support from schools, especially in terms of budget, is almost inexistent. Very often teachers have to pay from their own pockets for such software, which is not normal. At institutional level we have no cooperation agreement with either the ministry or any school or university. But there are a number of enthusiastic teachers who use our platform on a daily basis, in order to teach better online. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

  • July 30, 2020

    July 30, 2020

    COVID-19 President Klaus Iohannis has a new meeting today with the interior minister Marcel Vela and with the head of the Department for Emergencies Raed Arafat, to assess the situation and the causes of the steady growth in the number of COVID-19 cases. New containment measures were included by the Government on Wednesday night in an executive order concerning the state of alert. Authorities have decided that in counties or localities with large numbers of COVID-19 cases, the opening hours of outdoor bars and restaurants may be restricted. Also, in crowded areas where social distancing cannot be ensured, protection masks may become compulsory even outdoors. As of Thursday, face masks are compulsory in crowded outdoor areas in several counties in Romania where the number of coronavirus infections has risen sharply in recent weeks. The measure is adopted by an increasing number of counties, after more than a week with over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. On Thursday a new record-high number of new cases was reported, 1,356, with the total so far in Romania nearing 50,000, and the death toll standing at 2,304. Nearly 26,600 patients have recovered.



    CHILDREN The labour minister Violeta Alexandru presented in the Cabinet meeting a bill providing for the gradual doubling of child benefits, to roughly 60 euros per month for children aged 2 to 18 and to 120 euros per month for children up to 2 years of age and for children with disabilities. The minister explained the increase will be gradual, up until 2022. In a first stage, in September, child benefits will be raised by 20%. The Government intends to pass the bill in Fridays Cabinet meeting. Parliament voted to double child benefits, at the proposal of the Social Democratic Party in opposition, but the implementation of the measure was postponed because the coronavirus crisis has put pressure on the state budget.



    YOUTH 56% of Romanian youth lost their confidence and motivation, according to a survey, Insights PulseZ, designed to identify the response and behaviour of young people during the 2-month state of emergency introduced in March over the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the survey revealed, the sudden suspension of day to day activities disrupted youngsters emotional balance. More than half of them were affected by the lack of face-to-face meetings, and nearly 35% admitted to having experienced tiredness and mood swings. The survey also shows that 44% of Romanian youth spent over 8 hours a day online. 33% of them attended online classes, and an equal number watched series and films.



    ELECTION Over 2,000 Romanian citizens living abroad have registered on an electronic platform, votstrainatate.ro, to vote in this years parliamentary elections. Over 1,390 of them chose to vote by mail, and nearly 620 registered to vote in polling stations. The Permanent Electoral Authority in Bucharest urges Romanian nationals living abroad to choose voting by mail as a safe and comfortable means to cast their ballots, without queuing, traveling, costs or risks, particularly in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Information on the registration procedure is available at votstrainatate.ro, and questions can be sent by email at contact@votstrainatate.ro. The Permanent Electoral Authority says citizens may enrol as voters abroad no later than 15 days prior to the election date.



    UNTOLD The 6th edition of the largest electronic music festival in Romania, Untold, begins today and will be held online for 4 days, amid restrictions and social distancing rules triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The organisers have announced exceptional guests and surprises. In February, Untold announced its first participants this year, including David Guetta, Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Pussycat Dolls, Iggy Azalea and The Script also confirmed their participation, while Paul Kalkbrenner, Charlotte de Witte and Richie Hawtin make up the techno section of the festival. Over 80,000 fans have enrolled to take part in this online edition of the festival. (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Preparations for voting abroad

    Preparations for voting abroad

    The presidential election is drawing close, and the Romanians living abroad only have a few days left to announce how they intend to vote. Extended on Thursday by the Government, under an emergency order, the new deadline is September 15. By filling in an online form on www.votstrainatate.ro, prospective voters can choose between postal voting and voting in person at a polling station set up abroad.



    Those who choose postal voting must submit a scanned copy of their identity document and of the residence permit issued by the host country. For polling station voting, applicants must fill in an online form specifying their name, personal identification code, the locality and country where they intend to vote, and attach a scan or photo of their ID.



    A polling station can be set up abroad if at least 100 people from the same locality or area request it. After they have registered on this platform, the respective Romanian citizens will be removed from the permanent voter lists in Romania and included in the permanent voter list abroad.



    The head of the Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania, Constantin Mituleţu-Buicǎ, promised that the data collected from the Romanian citizens living abroad will not be used by the tax authorities, a concern that has allegedly prompted many Romanians to prefer voting in polling stations and that consequently makes the election process more difficult:



    Constantin Mituleţu-Buicǎ: “The data gathered during the previous election, the one for the European Parliament, indicate that nearly 400,000 Romanians voted abroad. We have not disclosed and will not disclose personal data to the authorities, except for the purpose of the election process or if required in administrative or criminal investigations, but never will we provide such data to the fiscal authorities for taxation purposes or for identifying where certain citizens live and have voted.



    The first round of the presidential election is due on November 10, and the runoff is scheduled on November 24. The Romanians who live abroad will be able to vote by post during a 3-day period. Romanian diplomatic missions may already request the Foreign Ministry the setup of polling stations abroad, a process due to conclude on October 19.



    Although there are millions of Romanian nationals who live outside the country, by Friday morning only 73,000 people had registered for postal voting and for voting at a polling station abroad, which makes commentators expect unnerving queues in this election as well.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • August 17, 2019

    August 17, 2019

    VISIT The head of the Romanian state, Klaus Iohannis, will be on an official visit to Washington D.C. on August 19 and 20, at the invitation of the US president, Donald J. Trump. The 2 leaders will have a meeting on August 20, to discuss ways to strengthen and further develop the strong and dynamic strategic partnership between Romania and the US, in all its components. The Romanian president will emphasise on this occasion that his country will remain a reliable ally and strategic partner of the USA, one of the priorities of Romanias foreign policy being to consolidate the trans-Atlantic relation and Euro-Atlantic security. Klaus Iohannis said he also intended to talk to Donald J. Trump about the American troops in Romania and about the countrys capacity to host more US troops. The issue of US visa requirements for Romanian citizens will also be approached. Meanwhile, according to the White House, the US president looks forward to celebrating the 30th year since the fall of communism and the 15th year of Romanias NATO membership with president Iohannis. Klaus Iohannis and Donald Trump previously met at the White House in 2017, when they discussed the prospects for deepening and broadening the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US.



    UNIVERSITY The 17th edition of the Izvoru Mureşului Summer University comes to a close today in Harghita County, central Romania. This years theme was “Romania and the Romanians abroad, one year since the Great Union Centennial. The topics approached include means to preserve the identity of Romanian communities in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova in the context of regional geopolitical developments and the Romanian national interest, the policies of parliamentary parties and public institutions with respect to the Romanians abroad and the Romanians in multi-ethnic communities in the country. Attending the works were students from Romania and from the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and the diaspora, academics from the main universities in Romania and abroad, civil society and mass media representatives.



    VOTE Nearly 9,000 Romanians living abroad had registered to vote by mail on the www.votstrainatate.ro portal 20 days since its release. According to the Permananet Electoral Authority, this is more than the total number of registrations for mail voting for the 2016 parliamentary elections. The website www.votstrainatate.ro has been created to ensure better records on the Romanians living abroad and to help keep them better informed on the voting process ahead of this Novembers presidential election. The Ministry for the Romanians Abroad also launched an information campaign in this respect and announced that over 5.5 million Romanians have left the country. In the recent elections for the EP, tens of thousands of Romanians queued for hours in polling stations abroad, and many of them eventually failed to cast their ballots.



    PIPELINE The BRUA pipeline, designed to carry natural gas from the Caspian and the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, will only be completed in December 2020, one year behind schedule, according to the financial report for the first half of this year made public by the Romanian company Transgaz. The reasons for the delay include problems in the bidding process, the need to amend the legislative framework, the discovery of archaeological sites, adverse weather conditions for extensive periods of time as well as delays in the negotiations with some of the land owners or users, the company explains. Last month, the Romanian Economy Ministry announced having finalised almost half of the pipeline, and around 80-90% of the 3 compressor stations. Stage I of the BRUA project requires total investments of nearly 500 million euro, of which the EU has offered a 179-million grant. The Government of Romania holds about 60% of the stock of Transgaz, with the remaining shares traded in the stock market.



    MILITARY The National Defence Ministry will organise at the Mihail Kogălniceanu 57 Air Base, in the south east, a ceremony to mark the dispatch of the ‘Carpathian Pumas’ unit on a mission in Mali. The Romanian troops will take part in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. The around 120 members of the Romanian unit, accompanied by 4 IAR-330 Puma L-RM helicopters, will be in charge of medical evacuation, transportation of troops and materials, passenger transport, air patrol and monitoring activities beginning mid-October. At present Romania has 1,033 troops involved in missions abroad.



    SONGS All Romanians are invited to vote for one month to choose the 6 songs representing Romania in the first EU Songbook. So far 65,000 people in 26 countries have voted for their favourites, says the organiser of the event, the European Union Songbook organisation, on its website. The EU Songbook is a non-profit organisation without political or financial connections with Brussels. The first edition of the Songbook will be published on Europe Day, May 9, 2020.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Problems in public healthcare

    Problems in public healthcare

    Officials from the National Health Insurance Agency (CNAS) and the experts in charge with the maintenance of the integrated health card management system have met to discuss the problems experienced by the platform over the past few weeks, when the system has crashed repeatedly.



    Since July 10th, most healthcare services, including the dispensing of medicines and medical devices, have been registered offline. As a result, many family physicians have been unable to get the services they provided validated in the system, which they are required to do within 72 hours. Many doctors have to come in during the night to validate the documents, hoping that at night time the system is less busy and less likely to break down. It is also during the night that they try, and with any luck manage to, file their compulsory monthly reports to the Health Insurance Agency.



    The digital platform designed to link healthcare providers (i.e. family physicians) to patients and the insurer (CNAS) is “in full collapse, physicians warn, because many vital components of the system have been left without maintenance.



    In an attempt to find a solution, the Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea announced that emergency procurement procedures would be initiated, to purchase maintenance services. The system was restarted on Monday, but it only worked for several hours. This time around, users found that the database was down and could not be accessed. Sorina Pintea accused the CNAS of failing to initiate the procurement procedure in time:



    Sorina Pintea: “What I find the most disturbing is that components of the digital platform of the National Health Insurance Agency were left without maintenance, although they are vital to the operation of the system. The law is very clear in this respect. There was no database maintenance. So at the moment we cannot even check whether someone is insured or not. When a healthcare service is reported, if we dont have this component up and running, the service cannot be validated and therefore its cost cannot be disbursed. And this is precisely why we had this system in the first place.



    Sorina Pintea added that as soon as an inspection is conducted at the National Health Insurance Agency and a report is finalized, the document will be sent to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, because the law has certainly been breached. In recent years, physicians and patients have requested repeatedly that these problems be solved, and yet nothing happened. The implementation of the integrated health card management system is a project for which the Romanian state paid 21 million euros.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Projects for the Romanians Abroad

    Projects for the Romanians Abroad

    Romanians working abroad will be able to access an online platform providing them with information on their rights. Funded with EU structural funds and co-implemented by the National School for Political and Administrative Studies, alongside other universities and public institutions from nine European states, the platform will become functional by the end of the year and will provide information in 11 languages.



    The coordinator of the project with the National School for Political and Administrative Studies, Sonia Dragomir, speaks about the problems facing posted workers.



    Sonia Dragomir: “There are problems such as salary rights and payment procedures, precarious work conditions, the fact that they get no occupational health and safety instructions. Then there are linguistic barriers — they usually don’t speak the language of the country they work in, and they scarcely benefit from a counselor to facilitate communication with their employers. In most cases, NGOs and trade unions come to their aid”.



    Some 35% of Romania’s active population has sought employment abroad in the last ten years, state advisor and Coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development, Laszlo Borbely, has said. Putting a stop to this exodus of workforce is one of the 17 objectives stipulated in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development. Laszlo Borbely says that each ministry should have a task force on sustainable development.



    Laszlo Borbely: “These 17 objectives cover everything a society has: social problems, economic problems, all sorts of problems. It may sound complicated, as there are 17 objectives and 169 targets, with 244 indicators defined by the UN, but there are very useful things we can accomplish for communities, big and small”.



    The latest study on the Romanian Diaspora, commissioned by RePatriot and conducted by Open-i Research, shows that 57% of Romanians living abroad want to return home, while 56% of them want to invest in Romania, with corruption being the main barrier. On the other hand, 43% of Romanians in the Diaspora estimate things will improve in the future, as against only 26% who think that things will get worse, the study also shows.