Radio România Internațional

Tag: rise

  • June 6, 2024

    June 6, 2024

    WAGES The government in Bucharest is today expected to endorse a pay rise aimed at bringing the minimum wages in Romania up to 740 Euros starting July 1st. Over 1.8 million employees are to benefit the new measure. The 200 RON fiscal deduction from the minimum wages will be kept until the end of the year.

    VOTE Polling stations have today opened in the Netherlands, the first country to vote in the elections for the European Parliament due over June 6 and 9. Roughly 370 million people are expected to vote in all the 27 EU member states in the following days. Analysts are forecasting an advance of the far-right and Eurosceptical parties amid the frustrations caused by the rising cost of living, migration and the green policies that are getting more and more unpopular. Like in most EU countries, in Romania the voting for the European Parliament is due on Sunday, concurrently with the local elections. Romania gets 33 MEP mandates.

    TENNIS The Romanian-Ukrainian pair Gabriela Ruse/Marta Kostyuk has qualified without playing in the semis of the doubles contest in Roland Garros as Russians Mirra Andreeva and Vera Zvonareva failed to attend the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Ruse and Kostyuk have won a check of 148 thousand Euros and 780 WTA points. This is the second Grand Slam semifinals for Ruse and Kostyuk after Australian Open last year. In the semifinals Ruse and her partner will be playing the all-Italian pair, Jasmine Paolini/Sara Errani.

    BOOK FAIR Until June 16th Romania will be attending the 83rd edition of the Madrid Book Fair with a national stand and 20 literary events. This has been Romania’s 13th participation in this large-scale event staged by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the National Book Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute in Madrid with support from the Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Embassy in Spain. Among the protagonists of the aforementioned event there are writers Gabriela Adameşteanu, Eugen Barz, Aura Christi, Nichita Danilov, Cristian Fulaş, Miguel Gane, Stejărel Olaru, Radu Paraschivescu, Radmila Popovici, Andreea Răsuceanu and Radio Romania Journalist Corina Sabău.

    FOOTBALL Romania’s football side will be up against the selection of Lichtenstein in Bucharest on Friday night in their last training game before the European Championship in Germany. In another friendly on Tuesday our footballers obtained a goaless draw against the neighbouring Bulgaria. In Group E of Euro 2024, Romania will be playing Ukraine on June 17 in Munich, Belgium on June 22 in Cologne and Solvakia in Frankfurt four days later. Officials of the football federation in Bucharest say they expect the attendance of a large number of Romanian football fans, who are residents in Germany or in other countries in Western Europe. Romania’s last participation in a  European football tournament was in 2016 and in the World Cup in 1998.

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  • Education Employees protest in Iasi

    Education Employees protest in Iasi

    The city of Iasi in northeastern Romania on Thursday saw the first episode in a series of protests put up by trade unionists from the countrys preuniversity education. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets and picketed for an hour the Prefects office to protest the small salaries of both the teaching and non-teaching staffers in Romanias education system.


    According to organizers, that was the first protest in a nationwide series against the current level of salaries in this field of activity, which they described as gruesome. All the categories of employees in this sector from teachers to auxiliary personnel and even managers have been affected by the authorities failure to raise payment in education.


    According to trade unionists the latest series of talks they held with government representatives has led to no significant results and authorities failed to implement the 25% rise, which was supposed to offset the present inflation rate.


    Protesters have also denounced the authorities refusal to pay for the extra-hours worked as well as to grant the bonuses negotiated. Here is trade union leader Laviniu Lăcustă, with more on the aforementioned protest:


    Laviniu Lacusta: “Unfortunately government officials failed to implement the things they promised during the talks we held with them in December, January or February. And if they continue to do so, we are very determined to have an all-out strike in May.”


    In an interview to Radio Romania, Education Minister, Ligia Deca, says that the protesters are disgruntled with the present legislation. She pledges that the authorities are presently working on a new legislation that will include new provisions on the progressive payment starting from the average medium salary, a thing agreed upon with the trade unions.


    Ligia Deca: “The protests announced arent against the new package of laws we are presently working on. They are against the salary scale under the present salary law. This is another discussion. The measure included in the new legislation, namely that the salary scale has the medium wages as a starting point has been welcomed by the trade unions, which have cooperated with Education Ministry experts in this respect. They presented the Labour Ministry with a new payment scheme based on this value so that people may feel motivated to embrace a career in education.”


    But since government pledges can in no way compensate for the employees lack of money, we expect that protest actions like the one in Iasi to be seen all over the country, including in its capital city, Bucharest.


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  • March 10, 2022

    March 10, 2022

    FUEL PRICES
    PM Nicolae Ciucă announced thorough
    inspections in all oil companies in Romania, after panic last night caused
    unprecedented queuing in petrol stations. The PM warned that the required
    measures will be taken to curb any illegal, abusive and economically unjustified
    practices. Mr. Ciucǎ made these statements after an emergency meeting with the
    ministers of energy and economy and the heads of the Competition Council, the
    Consumer Protection Authority and the fiscal authority. The institutions have
    already initiated inspections following an unjustified fuel price rise. The energy
    minister Virgil Popescu also posted a message on social media, stating the
    sanctions against those who break the law will be drastic.


    REFUGEES PM Nicolae Ciucă is
    having talks today with the EU commissioner for crisis management Janez
    Lenarčič, who took part on Wednesday in the opening of the European hub for
    humanitarian aid for Ukraine, in Suceava (northern Romania). The EU official
    said he was encouraged by the solidarity shown by the EU and its member states,
    including Romania. A new call-centre has also been opened today in Romania for
    the Ukrainian refugees, with Ukrainian-speaking personnel, among others. Some
    320,000 Ukrainian nationals have entered Romania over the past 2 weeks, and
    nearly 235,000 of them have already left the country.


    COVID-19 Roughly 4,200 new SARS-CoV-2 cases and 62
    related deaths were reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, the Strategic
    Communication Group announced on Wednesday. After almost 2 years in a state of
    alert, Romania lifted all COVID-19 related restrictions on March 9th.
    The authorities announced that those citizens whose ID expired over the past 2
    years have to renew their documents within 3 months. As many as 387,000 people
    must get new identity documents by June 7th.


    SUMMIT EU leaders convene today and tomorrow in Versailles, France, for a
    summit focusing on Europe’s energy independence, on strengthening the bloc’s defence
    and on the EU accession request signed recently by Ukraine. A new plan will be
    discussed, most likely to be funded through a new joint loan, in order to
    address the consequences of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. As regards the
    energy crisis, the European Commission has recently presented the RePowerEU initiative,
    designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for over 40%
    of the Union’s natural gas consumption. As for Ukraine, a strengthened
    partnership is being considered, by tightening Kyiv’s ties with the European
    single market and connecting Ukraine with the European energy network.


    PRESIDENCY Romania will be represented in the Versailles summit
    by president Klaus Iohannis. Ahead of the meeting, he took part
    on Monday in a video call with the president of the European Council Charles Michel, and the prime-ministers of the
    Netherlands, Greece, Croatia and Estonia. President Iohannis emphasised the
    importance of firmly maintaining the unity and coordination within the EU and between
    the Union and the US, NATO and other strategic partners, in responding to
    Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Mr.
    Iohannis also presented the measures taken by Romania to support Ukraine, including
    the set-up of a hub collecting and coordinating international aid to Ukraine
    and Moldova. The president of Romania also emphasised Romania’s support for the
    EU accession requests signed by Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia.


    UKRAINE Today’s negotiations
    between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro
    Kuleba, mediated by Turkey, failed to lead to any progress towards a ceasefire.
    Promises were made to carry on humanitarian efforts to evacuate civilians,
    without any firm commitment on Russia’s part in this respect. Kuleba added that
    a decision was made to carry on talks in this format. In turn, Lavrov continued
    to accuse Ukraine of seeking to use biological and chemical weapons and of
    being manipulated by the West. Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded once again
    this morning in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as the 3rd week of war
    began. According to the Ukrainian army, Russian forces are advancing in an
    attempt to surround the city, and have carried on attacks in other parts of the
    country as well. President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of war crimes.
    Moscow agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire to enable civilians to leave 6 of the most
    affected areas, but the Ukrainian authorities say steady Russian bombing
    prevented some locals from leaving. On the other hand, Ukraine claims it
    killed, wounded or captured over 12,000 Russian soldiers, and destroyed over 330
    tanks, over 1,110 armoured vehicles and some 130 aircraft. Russia claims to
    have destroyed nearly 3,000 military infrastructure elements in Ukraine. (A.M.P.)

  • Government aid to help cover electricity bills

    Government aid to help cover electricity bills

    The price of electricity and natural gas in Romania followed the upward trend in Europe, and the government is currently looking for solutions to extend the aid schemes in the energy sector.



    Last week 2 such schemes were approved, targeting energy producers and the local administration or inter-community development associations that put up or upgrade energy facilities.



    A memorandum was also endorsed, extending the aid schemes for large energy consumers. According to the government spokesman Dan Cărbunaru, over EUR 82 million will be channelled to those investors that tap into renewable energy sources. The energy ministry was tasked to hold consultations with the European Commission regarding the extension of the state aid programme to support large energy consumers.



    Dan Cărbunaru: “Everybody is affected, not only the smaller households, but big consumers as well. Obviously, we are talking about large amounts of money and the procedure requires the approval of the European Commission. The government was tasked with initiating talks as soon as possible, so that major consumers in Romania may continue to benefit from state aid in due time.”



    Dan Cărbunaru also says that these measures are intended to preserve both the competitiveness of Romanian companies compared to other competitors in the EU and outside it, and to keep the around 200,000 jobs in these sectors.



    Dan Cărbunaru: “These state aid schemes were implemented in Romania in 2019-2021. They were effective, given that these companies in energy-intensive sectors contribute an annual 6% of Romanias GDP. An important element to take into account are the jobs that a company benefitting from such state aid has to keep in place.”



    In the forthcoming period, the government is to finalise new support measures for household consumers to cope with the surge in energy prices. Apart from the measures taken so far, the government plans to continue to shield the economy and households from the effects of the energy crisis after April 1 as well.



    Dan Cărbunaru: “These support packages being prepared by the government are almost ready. I can confirm that the PM requested all stakeholders to find a solution which is as quick, as comprehensive and as easy to implement and to explain as possible.”



    Within 2 weeks the government will have ready a set of measures concerning electricity bills, the finance minister Adrian Câciu said in his turn. (A.M.P.)

  • Children, a Covid-19 transmission vector

    Children, a Covid-19 transmission vector

    Romania saw record-high numbers of COVID-19
    infections last week, with over 34,000 cases on Wednesday and more than 168,000
    for the entire week. The number of related deaths remains lower than during the
    autumn wave.




    However, there are concerns related to the
    transmission of the virus among children, as classes are held on-site across
    the country until 75% of the hospital beds set aside for COVID patients are
    occupied in any given county.




    On Sunday, 3,800 children tested positive for
    the coronavirus, and the total number for last week reached nearly 36,000. Kids
    have become a COVID transmission vector, and the number of cases rises
    exponentially from one day to the next, says the president of the Family
    Doctors Association in Ialomiţa, Andreea Radu:




    Andreea Radu: Children are known to spread the virus
    very easily, because they learn and play in large groups. Although the Omicron variant
    seems to cause milder forms of the disease, especially compared to the Delta, you
    never know in what category you fall, whether you will indeed have a mild form
    or not.




    Some hospitals in the country open paediatric COVID
    units to handle the severe cases among children. The manager of the Slobozia County
    Emergency Hospital Liviu Patrichi warns that the number of such cases is
    growing:


    Liviu Patrichi: The problem we are facing now
    compared to the other waves of the pandemic is the large number of mild and
    medium cases among children. We have opened a COVID paediatric unit, which is
    running at the capacity specified in the resilience plan. We have 9 dedicated
    beds for paediatric cases.




    The health minister Alexandru Rafila said his professional
    advice for the parents who want to have their children vaccinated against COVID
    is to get properly informed in advance. He added the immunisation of kids aged 5
    to 11 runs smoothly and the good organisation gives confidence to parents.




    The upward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases
    will last for another few days, Alexandru Rafila also said. In hospitals, the
    number of COVID patients is on the rise, and the complications and severe cases
    that reach ICUs are mainly caused by the Delta variant, which still accounts
    for around 20% of the new infections.




    Mr. Rafila also estimates that in about 2 weeks’
    time, the already prevailing Omicron variant will have completely replaced
    Delta in Romania as well, which will slow down the inflow of patients in hospitals.
    According to him, this will be the last wave likely to have a serious impact on
    public health, and starting this spring we might resume public and private
    events with large numbers of participants, which have been subject to the most
    severe restrictions over the past 2 years. (A.M.P.)

  • Inflation reaches 5-year peak

    Inflation reaches 5-year peak

    In Romania, the year-on-year inflation rate went up to 5% in March 2018, its highest level in the past five years, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Thursday. According to INS, the increase is the result of a rise in the prices of non-food products by almost 7%, of food products by 4% and of services by around 3%. In the case of food, the price of citrus fruit went up the most, followed by fresh fruit and vegetable prices. Also in March, Romanians paid more for fuel and natural gas. A higher annual inflation rate than the current one was reported back in 2013 when consumer prices jumped 5.3%. In February 2018 the National Bank of Romania revised the inflation forecast for the end of the year from 3.2% to 3.5%.



    Eurostat has also confirmed that in February this year Romania reported the highest annual inflation rate in the EU, namely 3.8%. The annual inflation rate in Romania has increased significantly since the start of 2018. In January, it went up to 4.32% from 3.32% a month before, while in February it stood at 4.72%. The Central Bank explained in February, when it made public its Report on inflation, that the main cause for this is related to the effects of the reduction and elimination of several indirect taxes and non-tax fees during the corresponding period of last year, as well as of the recent rise in the prices for electricity, natural gas, thermal energy and fuel.



    Ionel Danca, the spokesman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), in the opposition, said Thursday, after the INS report was published, that such a high annual inflation rate means a significant increase in prices which impacts Romanians purchasing power. He added that the ruling alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats managed to counteract Romanias economic growth in one year alone. He also said that the government must be stopped through a censure motion tabled by the National Liberal Party.



    In another development, the Government of Romania on Thursday passed an emergency order turning the National Commission for Prognosis into the National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis. According to the Government, the Commission will draw up economic development and social programmes, and surveys and forecasts on macroeconomic balance. Moreover, it will assess the economic and social impact of state aid schemes and of the public investment projects conducted through public-private partnerships.


    (translated by: Elena Enache)