Radio România Internațional

Tag: scrapping

  • August 1, 2023 UPDATE

    August 1, 2023 UPDATE

    FOODSTUFFS The markup for 14 categories of
    foodstuffs is curbed for a limited period of three months under a
    government order passed in late June. Prices for dairy products, meat,
    vegetable and fruit are therefore expected to go down. Farmers will not have to
    set a cap on prices, government officials say. Failure to observe the new
    legislation will incur fines up to EUR 400,000.


    VEHICLES The local segment of the car
    scrapping programme Rablaˮ started in Romania, in an effort to get
    heavily polluting vehicles out of circulation. Apart from the funds provided by
    the Environment Ministry, local authorities contribute 20% of the vouchers
    granted to citizens who de-register cars older than 15 years. In a first stage
    in April, town halls enrolled in this programme, and between August 1 and 31
    citizens may apply for the funds available in the programme. The number of
    beneficiaries for each administrative unit was set according to its population.
    The programme was originally scheduled for 2022, but it was postponed several
    times.


    3SI Bucharest will host a new summit of the
    Three Seas Initiative (3SI) on September 6, held under the high patronage of
    president Klaus Iohannis. The summit will be followed by a 3SI Business Forum.
    Attending will be Senate Speaker Nicolae Ciucă and Prime Minister Marcel
    Ciolacu. The 3SI brings together 12 EU member states from the Baltic, Black and
    Adriatic Seas – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
    Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Political
    and economic support for Ukraine will rank high on the summit’s agenda.


    FORESTS The surface areas in Romania where forest
    clearing is banned will be increased approx. 10 fold, to nearly half of
    Romania’s forests, the environment minister Mircea Fechet announced at a press
    conference releasing the new draft Forestry Code for public consultation. The
    document will enable the government to take over the task of reforesting land
    that has been cleared and subsequently abandoned by its owners. Concurrently,
    the Criminal Code will also be amended, to include penalties of up to 5 years
    of imprisonment for false statements concerning the transport of wood. Vehicles
    that carry wood illegally will also be seized. An updated Forestry Code is
    necessary given the infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission
    against Romania for failure to meet its environment protection obligations. Critics
    warn however that the bill might have the exact opposite effect to the desired
    one.


    TENNIS Romania currently has 4 athletes among
    the WTA top 100 players. Sorana Cîrstea stays on the 32nd position
    and Irina Begu on 41st. Ana Bogdan has lost 8 places and currently
    ranks 47th. Simona Halep, who was provisionally suspended after
    testing positive for a prohibited substance at the US Open in 2022, dropped 2
    places, to 56. In the doubles ranking, Gabriela Ruse and Monica Niculescu keep
    their positions as 39th and 48th players in the world,
    respectively. (AMP)

  • July 31, 2023

    July 31, 2023

    TAXES Fresh talks are scheduled today in
    the Cabinet on tax-related measures designed to rebalance the state budget.
    The Social Democratic PM Marcel Ciolacu is to have meetings with the finance
    minister Marcel Boloș, and a report is expected from the national tax agency
    with respect to revenue collection. The ruling coalition is considering tax
    increases and the elimination of certain tax facilities, as well as the
    cancelling of 200,000 public sector positions that are currently vacant and a
    reduction of expenditure in ministries. According to the PM, the proposed
    measures will be implemented in 3 stages, beginning on September 1, October 1 and
    January 1, 2024.


    VEHICLES The local segment of the car
    scrapping programme Rablaˮ started today, in an effort by the Romanian
    authorities to get heavily polluting vehicles out of circulation. Apart from
    the funds provided by the Environment Ministry, local authorities contribute
    20% of the vouchers granted to citizens who de-register cars older than 15
    years. In a first stage in April, town halls enrolled in this programme, and as
    of today citizens may apply for the funds available in the programme, no later
    than the end of August. The Environment Ministry earmarked some EUR 50 mln for
    this programme, and estimates around 100,000 polluting cars will be scrapped.


    CONCERT The Bucharest National Opera
    orchestra Sunday night performed for the first time at the Musikverein hall in
    Vienna, which hosts the traditional New Year’s concert in the Austrian capital
    city. The concert was a tribute to the Romanian composer Ciprian
    Porumbescu, as the year 2023 was declared the year of Ciprian Porumbescu, to
    mark 170 years since the birth and 140 years since the death of the famous
    composer. The programme consisted exclusively of works by Ciprian Porumbescu:
    New Moon, the first Romanian operetta, the Ballad, the
    Romanian Rhapsody. The soloists, choir and orchestra of the
    National Opera House in Bucharest were conducted by Daniel Jinga, with special
    guests including maestro Gheorghe Zamfir and the soloist Maria Coman.


    TRAINING The training ship Mircea has today
    returned to the military port of Constanţa, after a 28-day training session in
    the Mediterranean. On board were 64 sophomore students with the Mircea cel
    Bătrân Naval Academy, as well as 10 exchange students from partner
    academies in Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey, Latvia, Italy and Spain. The training
    ship had stopovers in the ports of Piraeus in Greece, Taranto in Italy and Izmir
    in Turkey, and completed an over 2,200 mile journey.


    UKRAINE Ukraine has today confirmed that
    Saudi Arabia will host a peace summit aimed, according to Kyiv, at restoring
    peace in line with the Ukrainian formula, EFE reports. According to the head
    of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak, apart from guaranteeing peace
    for Ukraine, the 10-point formula will create mechanisms to counter future conflicts. For
    Kyiv, the formula includes the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.
    According to Western diplomats, the choice of Saudi Arabia to host the talks is
    designed to facilitate the participation of China, which has good relations
    with Moscow and with Riyadh.


    SPORTS PM Marcel Ciolacu congratulated the
    Romanian athletes and coaches who took part in the European Youth Olympic
    Festival hosted this year by Maribor (Slovenia). He said Romania once again
    confirmed its rebirth as a sports powerhouse after it finished the competition
    with 20 medals, shoulder to shoulder with France, which came 3rd in
    the final ranking. Their result reconfirms their hard work, talent and the
    pride of proving to the world that we are a country which, in spite of
    difficulties, remains able to cultivate the spirit required of great champions,ˮ
    Ciolacu said. Romania’s performance at this year’s European Youth Olympic
    Festival was the best after the ones in a Bath (1995) and Paris (2003). (AMP)

  • March 24, 2023

    March 24, 2023

    EDUCATION Romania’s
    government has today approved a bill on the country’s participation in the 2025
    Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The government says
    Romania’s participation is intended to bring the Romanian education in line
    with developments in high-performing education systems in the world, and to
    review one’s own performances in relation to the other participating countries.
    The initiators argue this participation is important given Romania’s EU
    membership and its current observer status and future membership of the Organisation
    for Economic Co-operation and Development. PISA tests indicate the extent to
    which students are prepared to face current society challenges, and measures the
    basic skills of 15 year olds in areas like reading, maths and sciences.


    SCRAPPING In
    Romania, the Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus scrapping programmes were launched on
    Friday. They are designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting the
    use of non-polluting vehicles. The vouchers provided by the government may
    reach EUR 10,000 for the purchase of electric cars worth up to EUR 75,000.


    VISIT While in Chişinău, PM Nicolae Ciucă reiterated Romania’s
    support for neighbouring Republic of Moldova’s European accession efforts. In a
    meeting with his counterpart, Dorin Recean, Ciucă announced the building of new
    bridges across Prut river and the set up of new border checkpoints. In turn, PM
    Recean announced that very soon EUR 25m out of a non-reimbursable EUR 100m assistance
    package provided by Romania will be used for the development of village schools
    and infrastructure.


    PROTESTS France’s
    PM Élisabeth Borne condemned the violence accompanying Thursday’s protests
    against the pension reform, which increases retirement age from 62 to 64. Violent
    clashes have been reported in several cities. According to trade unions, attending
    the protests in nearly 300 localities were 3.5 million people, but the interior
    ministry argues there were only 1.2 million. Most protests were peaceful, but in
    Paris and some other cities incidents were reported. Some 150 police officers
    and gendarmes were injured and hundreds of violent people were arrested. Unionists
    are determined to try all legal means to cancel the law endorsed on Monday and
    to carry on protests. This weekend, each union will organise actions in their
    towns and regions, and a new call for strike and nation-wide protests is
    announced for Tuesday, March 28, Radio Romania’s correspondend in Paris reports.


    FOOTBALL Romania’s national football team plays against Andorra away
    from home on Saturday, in the first round of the EURO 2024 qualifiers. The final
    tournament will be hosted by Germany. Also on Saturday in
    Group I, which includes Romania, Belarus takes on Switzerland and Israel faces
    Kosovo. On March 28, the national team faces Belarus in Bucharest. The top 2
    teams in each of the 10 preliminary groups qualify into the final tournament,
    with the last 3 participants to be decided in March 2024, after the Nations
    League play-offs. (AMP)

  • May 13, 2022

    May 13, 2022


    AUTOMOBILES Starting today until the end of the month the second stage of a car-scrapping programme takes place in Romania, with the government providing substantial bonuses to people who buy new automobiles. The total budget is around EUR 60 million. The programme also covers the purchase of new electric or hybrid vehicles. The scrapping bonus is EUR 1,200 for petrol-powered car purchases and EUR 10,000 for EV purchases. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Romania is a European leader in promoting EV sales. In the first quarter of this year more than 2,000 electric cars were sold, accounting for a 400% increase since the corresponding period of 2021.



    INFLATION The Romanian Central Bank has updated its inflation forecast to 12.5% for end-2022 and to 6.7% for end-2023, governor Mugur Isarescu announced on Thursday. In February, the central bank estimated inflation would stand at 9.6% at the end of 2022 and at 3.2% at the end of 2023. According to the national bank, in the context of adverse developments related to the war in Ukraine, substantial reconfigurations of previous economic scenarios cannot be ruled out.



    CORRUPTION The former mayor of Bucharest Sorin Oprescu Friday received a final 10-year and 8-month prison sentence for bribe-taking, forming an organised crime group and abuse of office. Sorin Oprescu was caught taking EUR 25,000 and arrested on the night of September 6, 2015, during his second term in office as mayor of Bucharest. According to anti-corruption prosecutors, the group created by Oprescu had implemented a system at the City Hall through which businesses seeking contracts with public institutions had to pay a share of their profits in bribes.



    NATO The USA supports the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden, in spite of Moscows threat to retaliate over a new enlargement of the Alliance. NATO officials reminded Russia that this is a defensive alliance and that the decision of previously neutral countries to seek protection within the organisation has been prompted exclusively by Moscows aggression on Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry said Finlands accession would severely affect bilateral relations and the stability and security of Northern Europe, forcing Russia to take counter-measures to offset possible threats to its national security. The Russian fleet in the Baltic Sea initiated manoeuvres to survey NATOs forces in the region on Thursday, the exact day when Finland announced its decision to join NATO. The accession may be announced officially in the Allies summit in Madrid this summer.



    UKRAINE The US accuses the Russian army of having forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainians to Russia since the start of the war, often using “filtration camps”. Kyiv speaks about 1.2 million people deported so far. Meanwhile, Ukraines deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday night that negotiations over the evacuation of troops from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol are ongoing, with Turkey brokering the talks. The first to be pulled out will be the severely wounded. The Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal plant reported that nearly 600 wounded soldiers are in the steel works, but their number goes up every day as a result of steady attacks. Russian forces continue to shell the east of Ukraine, but according to the British defence ministry they have so far failed to make significant progress.



    MUSEUMS The Night of Museums will be celebrated with over 200 cultural events on Saturday night in 87 towns and cities in Romania. More than 60 cultural sites and unconventional spaces will stay open in Bucharest in the largest such event since the pandemic. The Bucharest City Hall will be opened to visitors, with events showcasing the history and architecture of the palace hosting it. Some of the most popular tourist sites in Romania, such as Bran Castle, Peleş Castle and Făgăraş Citadel, have also prepared surprises for their guests. The European Night of Museums is an event that takes place across Europe.



    EUROVISION Romanias representative in the Eurovision song contest, WRS, Thursday night qualified into this years final of the European competition, with a song called “Llámame”. Romania had failed to qualify to the finals in the previous 3 editions of the competition. On Tuesday the band Zdob si Zdub and Advahov Brothers, representing the Republic of Moldova, also moved up into the finals hosted by the Italian city of Turin this Saturday night. (AMP)


  • February 8, 2022

    February 8, 2022

    COVID-19 36,269 new SARS-CoV-2 infections were
    reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 193 related fatalities,
    the Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. Since the start of the
    pandemic 2 years ago, more than 2 million Romanians have had the disease and
    over 60,000 died. Meanwhile, since the start of the vaccine roll-out in
    December 2020, over 8 million people have received a full vaccination cycle,
    and 2.4 million have also got the booster dose.


    MOLDOVA
    The number of supporters of
    the R. of Moldova’s union with Romania is growing, according to an opinion poll
    quoted by Radio Chişinău on Tuesday. Over 34%
    of the respondents in Moldova would vote in favour of the union, says the poll
    commissioned by IDIS Viitorul in Chișinău and the Institute of Political
    Sciences and International Relations with the Romanian Academy. This is a
    record-high number of union supporters, over 10 times higher than in 2010. According
    to the same poll, which focused on citizens’ perception of the relations
    between Moldova and Romania, over 62% of the people with dual citizenship would
    vote for the union. However, in the case of new tensions similar to the one in
    Ukraine, more people would back a military alliance with Russia (22.5%) than
    with Romania (12.5%).




    POLITICS The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday that a criminal
    investigation was initiated with respect to an incident in Parliament, where
    the Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu was assaulted by the co-president
    of the nationalist opposition party AUR, George Simion. Popescu had previously filed
    a criminal complaint against Simion. While attending a Chamber of Deputies
    meeting on Monday, the Liberal minister Virgil Popescu was insulted and
    assaulted by Simion. The meeting was suspended, and subsequently resumed with only
    the opposition MPs from AUR and USR in attendance.


    POLLUTION Romanian authorities have today launched 2 programmes, RABLA Clasic and
    RABLA Plus 2022, with a combined budget of around 240 million euros. Under the
    2 programmes, the Government provides subsidies for scrapping old and heavily
    polluting motor vehicles. The same rules apply as in previous years, but
    novelties have also been introduced. One of them is the option of using 2
    vouchers obtained through scrapping used vehicles for the purchase of a hybrid
    or electric vehicle.


    UKRAINE The president of France Emmanuel Macron discussed with the Russian
    leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday about the need for dialogue in the
    context of the Ukraine standoff. At the end of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron said
    all parties should behave responsibly in this crisis. He pleaded for
    maintaining the current system of agreements concerning European security, and
    suggested that a system of concrete security guarantees be put together for all
    stakeholders. In turn, Putin said a number of ideas and proposals put forth by
    the French president may pave the way for the de-escalation of the current
    crisis over Ukraine. Vladimir Putin also added that Russia and France have
    shared concerns regarding security in Europe. Today the French president meets
    his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in the first official
    visit of a French president to that country in 24 years. Macron has repeatedly
    discussed the need to deescalate tensions and to find diplomatic solutions to
    the situation in the east of Europe, and emphasised that finding a political
    way out of the standoff was his priority. Meanwhile in Washington, following
    talks at the White House with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US president
    Joe Biden said diplomacy remains the best way to settle the Ukraine crisis. He warned
    however that the US and NATO will be prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine. (tr. A.M.P.)

  • May 14, 2021 UPDATE

    May 14, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 Roughly 3.8 million people have been vaccinated in Romania and two thirds of them have got the booster dose. In the last 24 hours a record-high number of 110,000 people have received a COVID-19 jab. All the Romanian territory is now in the so-called green zone as the epidemic has been contained in most of the regions. According to the Strategic Communication Group, in the past 24 hours 835 new SARS-CoV-2 cases have been reported, out of over 34,000 tests conducted nation wide. 105 people died, bringing the death toll up to 29,413. In Bucharest the infection rate dropped to 1.21 per thousand, and the number of vaccinated people is over 1 million. The vaccine roll-out continues, without the need for prior appointment, in all the centers across the country, including 10 drive-throughs in major cities. The coordinator of the vaccination campaign Valeriu Gheorghiţă said on Friday that the goal of 7 million people vaccinated by August 1 is “realistic, but it depends not only on a good organisation but also on citizens willingness to get the vaccine. This has to do with the information provided to them, and in this respect Gheorghiţǎ appealed to opinion leaders to get involved in the vaccination campaign.



    RECOVERY In its National Recovery and Resilience plan (PNRR) Romania has included a number of reforms in several key areas and its pledges have been well received in Brussels, PM Florin Citu says. According to the head of the Bucharest executive, the plan is credible and doable and the cabinet members must work hard in the forthcoming period to complete the projects that are to be funded. During the visit he has recently paid to Brussels, the Romanian Prime Minister has assured the EU officials of Romania’s commitment to implementing the reforms comprised in the governing programme, in the fiscal-budgetary strategy, as well as in the convergence programme. Romania has pledged to present its PNRR by the end of May, with a one month delay against the original EU timeframe. Half of the EU members have so far presented their national plans for funding.



    RELAXATION PM Florin Cîţu Friday promised governmental support for the hospitality industry, an economic sector severely affected by the pandemic. He said a strategy will be implemented to promote Romanian tourism both domestically and abroad. The head of government said things will gradually return to normal, with a first stage scheduled to start on May 15, and the second one on June 1. The new measures include, among other things, the scrapping of mandatory face covering while outdoors, as of Saturday, except for crowded areas, and the lifting of the night curfew. Shops will also resume their normal opening hours. Meanwhile, the National Committee for Emergency Situations Friday approved 4 pilot events in the cultural field, with 3 opera shows and 1 theatre play welcoming viewers up to 70% of the halls seating capacity.



    POLL 45% of the Romanians intend to change their job after the pandemic, shows a recent poll conducted by an online recruiting platform. The main reason of the respondents is a higher pay. 11% want to go through a retraining programme whereas 9% are ready to leave the country. The categories standing the most chances to find a job are IT experts and qualified workers.



    MILITARY The national defence minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă had a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with gen. major David H. Tabor, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). The two officials reviewed the security developments at the Black Sea, the Afghanistan pull-out calendar and bilateral cooperation avenues in terms of special operations forces. The expertise of our American partners in special operations will certainly improve the way in which our troops will adjust their strategic transformation process, so as to be prepared for any challenge, minister Ciucă said. He added that Romania acknowledged and appreciated the constant support of the US for the deterrence efforts regarding the Russian Federations aggressive actions and for ensuring stability at the Black Sea.



    PROGRAMME Eagerly awaited by many Romanians, a scrapping programme for home appliances started on Friday, with tens of thousands of people enrolling on the dedicated online platform. The programme will have 3 stages, starting with the more energy-consuming home appliances, fridges and washing machines. The total budget is over 15 million euro, and should include 200,000 beneficiaries, who will get vouchers ranging from 40 to 100 euros for scrapping their old appliances. (tr. A.M. Popescu)