Radio România Internațional

Tag: queuing

  • December 18, 2021 UPDATE

    December 18, 2021 UPDATE

    VISIT The PM of Romania Nicolae Ciucă will be on a visit to
    Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, for talks with senior EU and NATO officials. According
    to the Government, on Monday the Romanian PM will have a working dinner with
    the president of the European Council Charles Michael. On Tuesday, Ciucă will
    have meetings with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der
    Leyen and with other EC members. The PM will also have a meeting with the
    secretary general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO headquarters.


    BUDGET The
    government of Romania passed a number of measures on which the 2022 public
    budget is based. An emergency order freezing the salaries of public officials and
    other public sector staff, with 2 exceptions, was endorsed by the Cabinet with
    amendments compared to the version subject to public debate. The bill also
    includes other measures, such as a low VAT rate only for the purchase of a
    family’s first home. The new tax provisions, alongside the new Ceilings Act,
    are the foundation of next year’s state budget, and are designed to reduce
    expenditure and maintain the public deficit below 6.2% of GDP.


    ANTI-CORRUPTION The government approved the 2021-2025 National
    Anti-Corruption Strategy, the justice minister Cătălin Predoiu announced. He pointed
    out that the document is a political commitment to support all institutions
    involved in fighting corruption, and also a first goal met out of the ones
    included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in the judicial sector. Predoiu
    added that the Strategy is correlated with international instruments to which
    Romania is affiliated, such as GRECO and the Cooperation and Verification
    Mechanism. The CVM was introduced in January 2007, upon Romania’s and Bulgaria’s EU accession, to support the 2
    countries in overcoming deficiencies in judicial reform and in fighting
    corruption.


    BORDER As of Monday, December 20, travellers entering Romania are
    no longer required to fill in separate COVID-19 statement, because all the data
    will be included in the digital Passenger Locator Form (PLF). The measure is expected
    to help reduce waiting times at border checkpoints, including at the Henri
    Coanda Airport, near Bucharest. The transport minister Sorin Grindeanu Saturday
    requested the Airport management to take steps to streamline passenger flows
    and to avoid crowding. The request came after hundreds of people waited for a
    long time for the authorities to check their documents. Romanian border
    checkpoints are getting crowded these days, as many Romanians living abroad are
    coming home for Christmas. Queuing is reported at the checkpoints on Romania’s
    western borders, where apart from travel documents the digital Covid
    certificates and PCR tests must also be checked. In order to streamline border
    crossing, at the checkpoint in Giurgiu (south), the number of border police
    will be increased by 20%.


    MINORITIES Romania
    celebrated on December 18 the Day of Ethnic Minorities. President Klaus
    Iohannis said on this occasion that ethnic minorities make an essential
    contribution to social cohesion and that only together can a modern Romania be
    built, with no place for racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Protecting cultural
    heritage, including that of national minorities, is a priority for the Culture
    Ministry, which treasures the culture of minorities as an element contributing to
    the shaping of Romanian culture as we know it today, reads a news release
    issued by the institution.



    COVID-19 733 new COVID-19 cases
    and 64 related fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours in Romania, the
    authorities announced on Saturday. The coordinator of the vaccination campaign,
    Valeriu Gheorghiţă, announced on the other hand that the number of people
    requesting their first doses of anti Sars-CoV-2 vaccine is on the decrease. He detailed
    that the number of people who get their first vaccine doses drops by 15-25%
    from one week to the next. On Saturday only 4,500 first
    doses were administered. Meanwhile, the Omicron variant of the virus has been
    reported in 89 countries, with the number of cases doubling over 1.5-3 days in
    areas with community transmission, the WHO announced on Saturday. WHO first
    labelled Omicron a variant of concern on November 26. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • December 18, 2021

    December 18, 2021

    VISIT The PM of Romania Nicolae Ciucă will be on a visit to
    Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, for talks with senior EU and NATO officials. According
    to the Government, on Monday the Romanian PM will have a working dinner with
    the president of the European Council Charles Michael. On Tuesday, Ciucă will
    have meetings with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der
    Leyen and with other EC members. The PM will also have a meeting with the
    secretary general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO headquarters.


    BUDGET The
    government of Romania passed a number of measures on which the 2022 public
    budget is based. An emergency order freezing the salaries of public officials and
    other public sector staff, with 2 exceptions, was endorsed by the Cabinet with
    amendments compared to the version subject to public debate. The bill also
    includes other measures, such as a low VAT rate only for the purchase of a
    family’s first home. The new tax provisions, alongside the new Ceilings Act,
    are the foundation of next year’s state budget, and are designed to reduce
    expenditure and maintain the public deficit below 6.2% of GDP.


    ANTI-CORRUPTION The government approved the 2021-2025 National
    Anti-Corruption Strategy, the justice minister Cătălin Predoiu announced. He pointed
    out that the document is a political commitment to support all institutions
    involved in fighting corruption, and also a first goal met out of the ones
    included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in the judicial sector. Predoiu
    added that the Strategy is correlated with international instruments to which
    Romania is affiliated, such as GRECO and the Cooperation and Verification
    Mechanism. The CVM was introduced in January 2007, upon Romania’s and Bulgaria’s EU accession, to support the 2
    countries in overcoming deficiencies in judicial reform and in fighting
    corruption.


    BORDER Romanian border checkpoints are getting crowded these days,
    as many Romanians living abroad are coming home for Christmas. Queuing is
    reported at the checkpoints on Romania’s western borders, as apart from travel
    documents the digital Covid certificates and the PCR tests must be checked. Crowding
    was also reported on the Otopeni International Airport, near Bucharest. Hundreds
    of people waited for a long time for the authorities to check their documents. On
    Monday, an additional digital form will be introduced, to trace travellers. In order
    to streamline border crossing, at the checkpoint in Giurgiu (south), the number
    of border police will be increased by 20%.


    MINORITIES Romania
    celebrates on December 18 the Day of Ethnic Minorities. The president Klaus
    Iohannis said on this occasion that ethnic minorities make an essential
    contribution to social cohesion and that only together can a modern Romania be
    built, with no place for racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Protecting cultural
    heritage, including that of national minorities, is a priority for the Culture
    Ministry, which treasures the culture of minorities as an element contributing
    in the shaping of Romanian culture as we know it today, reads a news release
    issued by the institution. As many as 18 ethnic minorities are officially
    recognised in Romania at present, namely Hungarian, Rroma,
    German, Ukrainian, Russian, Lipovan, Jewish, Turk, Tatar, Armenian, Bulgarian,
    Serbian, Croatian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, Greek, Albanian and Italian.


    COVID 733 new COVID-19 cases and 64 related fatalities were
    reported in the last 24 hours in Romania, the authorities announced on
    Saturday. The coordinator of the vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, announced
    on the other hand that the number of people requesting their first doses of anti
    Sars-CoV-2 vaccine is on the decrease. He detailed that the number of people
    who get their first vaccine doses drops by 15-25% from one week to the next. Valeriu Gheorghiţă also said that Romania
    might receive Pfizer vaccine children doses next month, and the vaccination of
    children aged 5 to 11 may begin in the second half of January. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Crowding in border checkpoints

    Crowding in border checkpoints

    As it happens every year, the Romanians living abroad
    are beginning to come home these days to spend their winter holidays with their
    families. This is the second Christmas and New Year’s that people will
    celebrate under pandemic restrictions.


    The new rules for entering Romania, introduced by the
    authorities on December 10 to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus
    variant, Omicron, are making checkpoints even more crowded than usual. Many Romanians
    are not vaccinated and unaware of the new restrictions.


    Those who come from outside the EU must present a PCR
    test not older than 48 hours. Those who test negative, even if unvaccinated or
    not recovered from the disease, will have to isolate for 10 days, while
    travellers without a test will have to quarantine for 14 days.


    For those who come from the EU, the requirements
    include the digital certificate confirming vaccination, recovery from the
    disease or a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours. The rules apply for
    both Romanian and foreign nationals.


    Border police warn that, because people are not aware
    of these regulations, at the Nădlac 2 checkpoint on Romania’s western border, in
    8 hours as many as 1,400 people were quarantined either for 10 or for 14 days. And
    with the quarantine documents requiring time to fill in, the waiting times at
    the border are even longer.


    In order to avoid crowding, the number of agents and
    of lanes has been increased in most border points. But even so, people are
    waiting for as long as 2 hours to get into Romania.


    And so do lorries and trucks. Customs officers and
    border police say their number has been on the rise since mid-November, when fruit
    and vegetable imports went up, and the processing capacity stayed the same.


    According to border police, these days at the southern
    border, with Bulgaria, truck drivers have been waiting for as long as 2 hours, on
    the western border, in Borş 2, waiting times are around one hour, and in the
    north-east, at the Ukrainian border, the longest waiting time is 2 hours, at
    the Siret checkpoint. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • April 14, 2017 UPDATE

    April 14, 2017 UPDATE

    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Romanian authorities are to initiate the extradition procedure for former Deputy Sebastian Ghita, apprehended in Belgrade almost 4 months since he disappeared. When he was caught he presented false ID, allegedly issued by an EU state. Sebastian Ghita went missing on December 21, 2016 and was subject to a national warrant after breaching the terms of the restrictions imposed on him pending trial. On January 10, the court issued a European arrest warrant against him and he was also placed on the Interpol wanted list. Ghita is tried in two corruption cases and prosecuted in two others.



    EASTER PREPARATIONS – Over 50,000 police, gendarmes, border police, fire-fighters and other Interior Ministry employees will ensure public safety and order these days. Special attention will be paid to crowded areas, tourist resorts and churches. According to the Ministry, an average 1,500 road traffic police will be present every day on public roads, in order to prevent serious accidents and to ensure smooth traffic. Nearly 5,200 fire fighters will be on duty daily, while 1,300 emergency intervention teams and ambulances will be on stand-by to provide first aid. The General Aviation Inspectorate also has available 7 helicopters.



    BORDER CHECKS – Romanian check points are getting crowded, because of a new European regulation tightening border checks, which took effect last week, and because of increased traffic ahead of the Easter holidays, the General Border Police Inspectorate reports. The most crowded is the Siret checkpoint on the Ukrainian border in the north-east, where waiting times reach 10 hours for trucks to get out of the country and 2 to enter Romania. Queues are also reported at checkpoints in the east, on the Moldovan border, in the south, on the Bulgarian border, and in the west, on the Hungarian border. The authorities expect further queuing, because Hungary has introduced traffic restrictions for trucks during the Easter holidays.



    ILLEGAL MIGRATION – 38 Iraqi and Pakistani citizens have been caught in the past 24 hours trying to enter Romania illegally from Serbia. The Border Police announced in a news release that several groups of people, including underage children, were found traveling from Serbia to six border localities in the counties of Caras-Severin, in the south-west, and Timis, in the west. According to the news release, all of them are being probed into for illegal border crossing, and the investigations are conducted jointly with the Serb authorities.



    R. OF MOLDOVA – The Republic of Moldova will be an observer in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev announced on Friday at the summit of the organisation, held in Bishkek. Atambayev said all the members of the EAEU, namely Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, had agreed in principle with the request of the Moldovan President Igor Dodon. He added that this did not mean the Republic of Moldova was necessarily to become a member of the organisation. Igor Dodon believes his countrys EU Association Agreement does not prevent the signature of other agreements that would benefit the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Moldovas pro-Western Government headed by PM Pavel Filip supports the countrys EU accession, whereas the President of the Republic, the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon, wants the agreements signed with Brussels cancelled and his country to steer towards the Eurasian Union.



    US AIR STRIKE – The IS groups propaganda agency, Amaq, Friday denied the jihadist group having suffered losses after Thursdays American bombing in Afghanistan, in which Afghan authorities say at least 36 jihadists died, AFP reports. Washington used the largest non-nuclear bomb ever launched by the US, to target grottoes and tunnels in the east of that country, where terrorists were believed to be hiding. This was the second air strike by the Pentagon in a week, after bombing the Shairat Airport in Syria. The US Army has another 19 such bombs in its arsenal, which are worth over 300 million USD.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • April 13, 2017

    April 13, 2017

    EU FUNDS – Romania currently has available for investments in the transport sector over 6.8 billion euro, of which 5.1 billion from EU funds, said the European Commissioner for regional policy Corina Cretu. According to a news release issued by the Representation of Romania to the EU, Creţu discussed in Brussels yesterday with the Romanian Transport Minister Răzvan Cuc, and emphasised the need to spend up the funds provided by the EU. Corina Creţu also mentioned the benefits entailed by the programmes in this sector, which allowed for the transport network in Romania to be extended and improved. In turn, Minister Răzvan Cuc presented the commitment of Romanian authorities to finalising the current investments and start new projects.




    EXPORTS – Romanian exports to Syria were 80% lower in 2016 than in 2011, when civil war broke out in that country. In 5 years, Romania has lost at least 500 million euros in exports, the daily Ziarul Financiar reports. Syria mostly imported livestock from Romania, sheep and goats, as well as dairy, eggs and fish. The daily also mentions that Romania has stayed uninvolved in the conflict in Syria, and in 2012 the then President Traian Băsescu would not close the Romanian diplomatic mission in Damascus, arguing that the country hosted a large Romanian community. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, 10,000-12,000 Romanians live in Syria, mostly women married to Syrian citizens. The Embassy of Romania also provides consular assistance to citizens from other countries, like Canada, France and Australia.




    BORDER SECURITY – Romanian check points are getting crowded, because of a new European regulation tightening border checks, which took effect last week, and because of increased traffic ahead of the Easter holidays, the General Border Police Inspectorate reports. Waiting times for the trucks entering Romania at the Siret checkpoint in the north-east reach 10 hours. Problems are also reported at Giurgiu in the south and Petea in the north-west, where waiting times are around 90 and 60 minutes, respectively, while in Albiţa, in the north-east and Ostrov, in the south-east, those who want to cross the border have to wait for at least 30 minutes. The longest automobile queues are reported in Giurgiu and Petea. Border police say they are trying to strike a balance between citizen security and smooth traffic.




    DECENTRALISATION – The Government of Romania endorsed yesterday a Decentralisation Strategy, aimed at bringing all public services closer to the citizens. The sectors targeted by the process are agriculture, education, healthcare, culture, environment, youth, sports and tourism. Until November, the relevant ministries will conduct impact analyses and will draw up sector-specific regulations for each field subject to decentralisation.




    FINANCE – The Parliament of Romania will initiate the procedures to dismiss the management of the Financial Oversight Authority. The announcement, made by Liviu Dragnea, the president of the ruling Social Democratic Party, comes following a scandal involving the alleged nationalisation of private pension funds. Liviu Dragnea claims the head of the Financial Oversight Authority Mişu Negriţoiu started the rumours regarding the nationalisation, and denies that such a scenario is being considered. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry is working on changes in the Fiscal Code to the effect of introducing a tax on household incomes. Suggestions include the introduction of the concept of household as an entity for tax purposes, a 10% flat tax rate as of January 2018 and tax deductions. At present, the income tax in Romania is calculated on an individual basis and the flat tax rate is 16% per month.




    HOLY THURSDAY – Christians around the world, including in mostly Orthodox Romania, commemorate Holy Thursday today, when the Last Supper was followed by the arrest and trial of Christ. Tonight, Orthodox Christians attend the Matins of the 12 Gospels, when they listen to 12 biblical texts about the last moments in the life of Jesus. On Saturday night Christians will celebrate Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. This year, the Orthodox and Catholic Christians celebrate Easter on the same day.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)