Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romania-Moldova cooperation

  • January 18, 2022 UPDATE

    January 18, 2022 UPDATE


    COVID-19 – The authorities on Tuesday announced 16,760 new COVID-19 infections, double the number reported on Monday, in addition to 70 related fatalities. Bucharest has reached an infection rate of 6.15 cases per thousand and is now in the so-called red zone with a high incidence rate. With 8 million people vaccinated so far, Romania ranks second at EU level after Bulgaria in terms of the lowest percentage of people vaccinated against COVID-19.




    ENERGY – On February 1, the government in Bucharest is expected to endorse new measures aimed at capping electricity and gas prices. The aforementioned measures will be promoted through an emergency decree to be passed next week at the latest. Romanias Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă on Tuesday held talks with energy suppliers who, according to government sources, have agreed to newly announced measures for subsidizing and capping energy prices, pledging to write off and reissue the bills that have been wrongfully reported so far. The Prime Minister on Monday announced that following an agreement of the ruling coalition made up of PNL, PSD and UDMR, prices for gas and electricity would be capped and the consumption limit extended.




    MOLDOVA – A Romanian-Moldovan joint government session will be held on February 12, 2022 in Chișinău, Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița has announced. In December last year, Prime Minister Gavrilița paid an official visit to Romania, meeting her Romanian counterpart, Nicolae Ciucă. The Republic of Moldova and Romania are consolidating their robust bilateral cooperation, the Romanian official said at the time, recalling that Romania is Moldovas top trade partner and insisting on the need for this country to improve its business sector so as to attract more Romanian investors. The interconnection of the two countries road infrastructure and reducing tariffs are high on the Romanian Governments agenda. According to Natalia Gavrilița, the absolute priority for Moldova is the interconnection of the two countries energy grids by 2024, which would consolidate the independence and security of the Republic of Moldova.




    EU – Maltese center-right MEP Roberta Metsola was elected president of the European Parliament on Tuesday. Metsola, who won 458 votes out of the total of 616, had an absolute majority, avoiding the need for a second round of voting. A member of the European Peoples Party, Metsola succeeds Italian Social Democrat David Sassoli who died last week at the age of 65. Sassoli was a highly appreciated Italian politician and journalist, a supporter of the EU, who firmly campaigned for human rights observance around the world, Romanian MEP Eugen Tomac says. A vocal critic of the abuses committed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, in 2021 Sassoli was barred from entering Russia in response to the EU sanctions imposed to some Russian officials. Sassoli was also a supporter of the EU integration efforts of the Republic of Moldova.




    NATO – NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, and Germanys Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Tuesday ruled out a military response to a potential Russian aggression against Ukraine. It will mean high political costs for Russia should there be such an intervention and should the principle of sovereignty of states and the integrity of borders be violated, Chancellor Scholz argued. In turn, Jens Stoltenberg said NATO has also made it clear that Russia will pay a high political and financial cot should it choose the path of “violence”. The NATO official went on to say that, right now, there are certain NATO member states that have expressed their readiness to supply weapons to Ukraine, arguing however that the views on this matter vary across the NATO bloc. Although it has rallied a sizable military force on the Ukrainian border, Russia has denied allegations over its planned invasion. Last week, talks between Moscow and Washington over the future European security framework yielded no result, the Americans having dismissed Russias requests as unacceptable. Moscow has called on NATO to rule out any eastward enlargement, particularly in the case of Ukraine, to cease all cooperation with ex-Soviet countries and to cancel all maneuvers and troop deployments in Eastern Europe.




    TENNIS – Tennis player Simona Halep has qualified to the second round at the Australian Open, after a straight-set win, 6-4, 6-3, against Magdalena Fręch of Poland. A former world no. 1, Halep took one hour and 29 minutes to defeat the Polish challenger. Five Romanian tennis players have so far advanced to the second round: Simona Halep, Sorana Cîrstea, Irina Begu, Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian. The sixth Romanian player in the main draw, Irina Bara, was knocked out in the competitions opening round. (DB & VP)


  • November 15, 2018 UPDATE

    November 15, 2018 UPDATE

    NEGOTIATIONS – Negotiations between the
    Bucharest metro trade unions and the management are due to continue, following
    a warning strike on Thursday morning. The metro employees threaten to go on a
    general strike beginning on the 19th of November. They demand a 42%
    salary increase, but were only offered an 18% increase by the management.
    According to the transport minister Lucian Sova, the salaries of metro
    employees have grown every year in the last four years, the last time by 21%
    last year. 700,000 people use the Bucharest metro every day.




    PRESIDENCY – Romania is ready to take over and successfully carry
    out its term as holder of the EU Council presidency in the first part of next
    year, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila has again given assurances. The events
    timetable has been finalized and all working mechanisms have been created. We
    have the capacity to show our European partners that Romania is a balanced and
    responsible member state, determined to contribute to the future of the
    European Union, regardless of the purely political considerations at one time
    or another, the Romanian prime minister also said. Tuesday’s vote in the
    European Parliament is one such example and I assure you that it will not make us
    stray from our objectives, said Dancila. She added that she was disappointed
    with the conclusions of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism report,
    given that Romania has proved to be a loyal and fair partner of the European
    Union. We recall that European Parliament’s resolution and the aforementioned
    report are critical of the changes to the justice laws made by the ruling
    coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals
    and Democrats.




    BREXIT – The foreign ministry in Bucharest
    welcomes the fact that Brussels’ and London’s negotiators have arrived at a
    final version of the text of UK’s EU withdrawal agreement. This marks an
    important moment in the negotiation process and paves the way for defining a
    close and strong future relationship between the EU and London, which is
    Romania’s strategic objective, given the bilateral strategic partnership and
    the close security cooperation, which is important to maintain in the context
    of the developments in the eastern neighborhood, where Romania and Great
    Britain share a common objective, reads a press release from the Romanian
    foreign ministry. The withdrawal agreement will guarantee the protection of the
    rights of all Romanian citizens who settle in Great Britain before 31st December
    2020. They will be able to continue to work, live and study in Britain after
    obtaining a settled status, the ministry also says.




    SIF – The Government on Thursday passed an emergency decree setting
    up the Sovereign Investment Fund. The Fund is aimed at developing and helping
    build profitable businesses in priority fields for the Romanian state, either
    standalone or jointly with external investors or other investment funds.
    Stipulated in the 2017-2020 governing platform and drawing on experience of
    states such as France, Norway, Poland or Italy, the Sovereign Fund will
    comprise profitable Romanian state-owned companies with a joint capital of some 2 billion euros.




    SURVEY – Over 60% of Romanians have contracted loans while 37% of
    them have monthly expenses tantamount to their revenue, reads a survey on
    Romanians’ financial habits released on Thursday. As regards loans, 83% of
    Romanians trust the banking system, saying they would take out a loan from a
    bank if they needed money. Additionally, 70% of Romanians who took out loans to
    finance a previous debt say their situation will improve in the future. 45% of
    Romanians have no family savings and the little they put on the side is
    destined for emergency situations.




    EXERCISE – Some 1,800 Romanian and foreign military backed by 250
    pieces of technical equipment are taking part in the Scorpions Fury multinational exercise under way at the shooting
    range in Cincu, central Romania until the 16th of November. The aim
    is to evaluate the capacity of the Headquarters Multinational
    Brigade South East in Craiova, in the south, to ensure the command and control
    of a NATO collective defense operation. The military carry out both
    computer-assisted command exercises and field training and tactical combat
    shooting exercises. Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian, Italian and Portuguese as well
    as Romanian military are taking part.




    MEETING – Romania’s Interior Minister Carmen Dan on Thursday met in Budapest
    with Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister for National Security Sandor Pinter. The
    agenda for talks focused on bilateral and regional cooperation and the upcoming
    agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, ahead of Romania’s
    taking over the EU Council presidency in the first half of 2019. Minister Dan
    presented the priorities of Romania’s term in office ahead of the council
    meeting, with complex topics outside internal security, border crossing
    management and civil protection. Attending were also the heads of the Romanian
    Police and the Romanian Border Police.





    COMMITTEE – Members of the Romanian-Moldovan inter-Government
    committee for economic cooperation on Thursday signed a cooperation protocol in
    several fields. The document was signed by Moldovan Minister of Economy and
    Infrastructure, Chiril Gaburici, and Romania’s Minister for the Business
    Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship, Stefan Radu Oprea. Moldova will
    cooperate with Romania in the field of economy, SMEs, and connecting certain
    towns and villages in Moldova to Romania’s drinking water grid. Additional
    cross-border projects were discussed, such as the Romanian Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and
    Extrication (SMURD) and the bridge over the river Prut. Moldova’s energy issues
    were also tackled during the meeting. Minister Oprea reiterated Romania’s
    support for Moldova’s European accession. The next inter-government committee
    meeting is slated for June 2019 in Bucharest.




    RADIRO – Starting November 18
    Bucharest plays host to one of the most important music events of the year: the
    International Radio Orchestras Festival – RaDiRo. The festival marks 90 years
    since the public radio was founded and 100 years since the Great Union. The
    Radio Concert Hall and the Auditorium Hall of the Fine Arts Museum will host 8
    symphonic concerts and 4 jazz concerts. This year’s guests include pianist
    Mihai Ritivoiu and cellist Andrei Ionita, alongside the famous vocalist Aura
    Urziceanu. Europe’s oldest radio
    orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra from Germany, will return to
    Romania this year along with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra of Great Britain,
    Svizzera italiana – Lugano of Switzerland and RTE National Symphony Orchestra
    from Ireland. All concerts are broadcast live on Radio Romania and the Romanian
    Television Corporation, as well as members of the European Radio Broadcasting
    Union.




    MEDAL – Romanian Stefania Claudia Priceputu on Thursday scooped
    bronze in the 50-kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships
    underway in Bucharest. In the bronze final the Romanian defeated Lisa Ersel of
    Germany. Romania so far has won another two medals: Mihai Radu Mihut won bronze
    in the 63-kg Greek-Roman event, while Nicu Ojog won the silver medal in the
    82-kg category. Also worth mentioning is that Romania will win either silver or
    gold after Alexandra Anghel has qualified in the 72-kg category final, where
    she will take on Turkey’s Buse Tosun. A total of 30 athletes represent Romania
    in this year’s edition.


    (Translated by C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)