Radio România Internațional

Tag: vehicle

  • 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)

  • Government caps third-party motor insurance prices

    Government caps third-party motor insurance prices


    The Romanian finance ministry made public a draft resolution capping and freezing the price of third-party liability insurance policies for 6 months. This is the temporary solution identified by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), after withdrawing the license of Euroins, an insurer that held one-third of the countrys relevant market.



    The decision was made in order to protect car owners from skyrocketing prices, in an attempt to avoid a crisis similar to the one witnessed 2 years ago, when another company, City Insurance, also a market leader at the time, ended up in the same situation.



    The finance minister Adrian Câciu: “There will be a government resolution in this respect and I expect it to be passed next week at the latest. This resolution aims at protecting consumers temporarily, enabling the ASF to come up with an action plan so that at the end of this intervention the market may function to the benefit of consumers.”



    The resolution on freezing the price of compulsory vehicle insurance policies will take effect 5 days after its publication in the Official Journal. Specifically, insurance companies will be bound to keep policy prices at the level reported for March 1, 2022, provided that level is below the current one, in which case the lower price will apply.



    The explanatory memorandum to the draft government resolution includes data illustrating the disrupting impact of the previous incident on the market. In 2022, prices for individual consumers went up by an average one-third compared to the previous year. But if we compare the average figures for February 2023 with the first half of 2021, i.e. before City Insurance lost its license, prices went up 98%.



    The head of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, warns however that during the 6 months when the capping applies, measures must be taken to ensure the third-party liability insurance market functions properly. In his opinion, there are well-known flaws in the relevant legislation, which need addressing, but tackling them requires courage.



    One of these is that the insurer has to cover the costs of repair works regardless of the prices charged by automobile repair shops. Another is that current regulations fail to set reference levels for the elements on which policy prices are based.



    Bogdan Chiriţoiu also said that the Competition Council has issued the largest number of fines against insurance companies, most recently in December, and that all the companies selling third-party liability insurance policies have been fined a combined EUR 20 mln. (AMP)


  • Romania’s automotive market, in the limelight

    Romania’s automotive market, in the limelight


    Romanias automotive market saw the biggest growth in Europe this February, compared to last year. The number of vehicle registrations nation-wide went up 44.5%, to over 12,000 units, whereas in the entire EU over 800,000 vehicles were registered in February this year, according to data made public on Tuesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, which represents Europes top 16 carmakers.



    A significant increase of registrations was reported for the French group Renault, particularly thanks to the Romanian brand Dacia, whose European market share has reached 5%, as against 3.6% last February. Taken over by Renault in 1999 and relaunched in 2004 with the Logan make, Dacia has grown steadily into a player with a reputation in the European market.



    In Romania, a notable boost for sales comes from the Government, which has been earmarking funds for years under a scrapping programme called “Rabla”, which is highly popular among vehicle owners. This year, the Environment Ministry will channel some EUR 300 mln into the various components of the programme, in a move to get at least 100,000 vehicles older than 15 years off the roads.



    The relevant minister, Tánczos Barna, announced on Friday that the “Rabla Clasic” and “Rabla Plus” programmes would be re-launched, with increased budgets. Apart from an increase of the voucher granted upon scrapping a car to some EUR 1,400 and of that for 2 cars scrapped to nearly EUR 2,000, buyers may also receive several bonuses, up to a total of over EUR 3,000.



    Under the “Rabla Plus” programme, which concerns the purchase of electric or Plug-in Hybrid cars, the bonuses offered by the government go even higher, up to as much as EUR 10,000.



    Apart from these two components, in a months time a third one will be launched, called “Rabla Local” and implemented jointly with local authorities.



    Minister Tánczos Barna: “On April 21 we launch the Rabla Local programme. Before that, local authorities will be enrolling in the programme. So I urge all administrative units, all the town halls interested in joining the programme to step up the approval process in their local councils, as soon as the guidelines have been published in the Official Journal, so that they may enrol in due time and that we may start the programme on April 21.”



    The budget for “Rabla Local” is close to EUR 50 mln, adding to which will be 20% provided by the local authorities involved. (AMP)


  • August 21, 2022 UPDATE

    August 21, 2022 UPDATE

    WEATHER The weather will be rather cool in Romania’s
    south-western regions, with a cloudy sky and showers. In the rest of the
    regions it will be hotter than usual with a higher heat and discomfort index
    mainly in the country’s south-east. Heavy rainfalls are expected particularly
    in the southern Carpathians and their surroundings as well as thunderstorms and
    hail. The highs of the day are ranging between 23 and 33 degrees centigrade.
    Yellow and orange alerts for unstable weather have been issued until Monday
    night for several counties in the center, south, west and north-west of the
    country.








    COVID-19 Over 2,000 new Covid-19 infections have been
    reported in the past 24 hours in Romania out of 99 hundred tests conducted,
    sources with the Health Ministry have announced. 7 related fatalities have also
    been reported while 34 hundred people are presently being treated in hospitals.
    Face covering is no longer mandatory in schools and no special protection measures
    are to be taken, the prefect of Bucharest Toni Grebla has announced. Health
    Minister Alexandru Rafila had earlier recommended the use of masks in schools
    adding though that the only protection measure is the proper ventilation of the
    classrooms.








    MEDALS Romanian athlete Catalin Chirila won bronze
    in the 500 meter race at the Canoe Sprint European Championships in Munich. A
    world vice-champion in Halifax, Canada, Chirila also reaped gold in the 1000 meter
    single canoe race in Munich. Another two athletes from Romania, Constantin
    Popovici and Catalin Preda walked away with gold and silver from the high diving
    event of the European Aquatics Championships held in Rome. Popovici made
    history as the first European champion in this event with 455.70 points. Preda,
    who took the lead after the first three rounds, eventually ended second with
    436.20 points. Italian Alessandro De Rose came third in the aforementioned
    event. Constantin’s namesake David claimed two European titles and a world
    record in the pool and has been designated the best athlete in the men’s events
    at the present edition of the Aquatics in Rome.






    SALES Hybrid and
    electric car sales almost doubled in Romania in the first 7 months of the year
    as compared to the same period of 2021. According to the Association of Car
    Producers and Importers (APIA) out of the 15 thousand green vehicles sold in
    the period between January and July this year, 47% were in the full hybrid
    category, nearly 40% were electric vehicles while the rest plug-in hybrid
    electric vehicles.






    VOLLEYBALL Romania’s national men’s volleyball side
    have qualified for the European Championships due next year after a 3-0 win
    against Albania in their last away game in the preliminary group G. Romania
    ranks first in the group with 5 wins and 15 points followed by Switzerland with
    12 points, Bosnia-Herzegovina 4 points and Albania with two. The seven winning
    sides of the preliminaries as well as the best five runner-ups are qualified
    for the final tournament. Romania won a European title in 1963, two silver
    medals in 1955 and 1958 and two bronze in 1971 and 1977. At the 2019 edition of
    the European Championship our side ranked 21st.








    DIPLOMACY According to the spokeswoman for the
    Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, Russia will have a proper response
    to Bucharest’s decision to declare persona non grata an employee of its embassy
    in Romania. Zakharova says that Romania has declared the Russian employee
    persona non grata ‘without any reason and under exaggerated pretexts’. The
    Romanian Foreign Ministry says that a decision to expel the Russian employee
    has been made because the person was involved in activities incompatible with
    the Vienna Convention of 1961 concerning diplomatic relations, a generic
    definition for espionage allegations.




    (bill)