3 November, 2019

Romanian environmental NGOs hold rallies to warn about illegal logging and violence against forest rangers in Romania./ Parliament to vote on new government proposed by Ludovic Orban.

Newsroom, 03.11.2019, 13:56

Government. On Monday, the Romanian Parliament
will hold a vote on the Liberal government proposed by the prime minister
designate Ludovic Orban. 233 yes votes are needed for the new government to
take office. To secure this outcome, Orban has concluded political agreements
and deals with the Save Romania Union, the Democratic Union of Ethnic
Hungarians in Romania, the People’s Movement Party, the Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats and the group of ethnic minorities. The Social Democratic Party
and the Pro Romania party both said their members would be absent from the
vote. Orban’s cabinet would replace Viorica Dancila’s Social Democratic
government which was brought down following a no-confidence vote. Ludovic Orban
has proposed a government with fewer ministries whose priorities include
picking Romania’s candidate for the position of EU commissioner, the final
budget adjustment this year and the budget for next year.

Forests. Environmental NGOs are today holding rallies in Bucharest and
other cities across Romania such as Cluj Napoca, in the north-west, Iasi, in
the north-east, Brasov, in the centre, and Constanta, in the south-east.
Protesters warn about the scale of illegal logging in Romania and the violence perpetrated
against forest rangers. Illegal logging leads to deforestation, facilitates
disastrous flooding and exposes local communities to extreme climate phenomena.
Environmentalists call for the satellite-based monitoring of Romania’s forests,
the creation of an electronic registry at timber warehouses, the obligatory
installation of a GPS on all wood transportation vehicles and of traffic surveillance
cameras at key locations near timber factories and timber warehouses.

Republic of Moldova. The second round of local elections is taking place
today in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet state with a
majority Romanian-speaking population. The first round was held on the 20th
of October and a second was needed in 384 municipalities. The biggest prize of
these elections is the position of mayor of the capital Chisinau, where the
Socialist candidate Ion Ceban is facing the incumbent interior minister Andrei
Nastase, the winner of last year’s elections whose result was, however,
declared illegal. The Party of Socialists, which is close to the president of
the republic Igor Dodon, has the largest number of candidates in the second
round, namely 180. The Democratic Party, which was in power until June, has 175
candidates, while the ACUM Bloc, currently in power in a coalition with the
Socialists, has 167 candidates. 85 of the candidates in the second round are
independents.

NATO exercise. The Romanian navy’s King
Ferdinand frigate, backed by a Puma Naval helicopter and with a special operations
naval forces unit on board, is taking part in the Sea Guardian NATO exercise
under way in the Mediterranean Sea. The Romanian vessel is carrying out
missions aimed at deterring illegal activities on the NATO and EU southern
flank coordinated by the NATO Allied Maritime Command. It will stop in the
Haifa port in Israel and in Limassol, in Cyprus, for recovery and naval
diplomacy, visits and talks with local civilian and military officials. The
vessel’s first stopover was the Aksaz port in southern Turkey before joining
the frigate Navarinon from Greece and the frigate Verni
from Bulgaria.

Fair. The 24th
edition of the Indagra international fair comes to an end today in Bucharest.
This is the biggest fair for products and equipment related to agriculture,
wine-making and animal breeding in Romania. This year, it has brought together
550 exhibitors from 25 countries. Conference and seminars were held during the
fair on topics such as the innovation-based development of agriculture in
Romania, promoting Romanian products on the domestic and international market
and the access of Romanian producers to European funds. Food and wine tasting
events were also held.

Tourism. More than 10 million people were registered
in tourist facilities in Romania in the first nine months of the year,
according to the latest figures published by the National Institute for
Statistics. This points to a 4.4% increase compared with the same period last
year. 80% of the number of tourists were Romanians. With regard to foreign
tourists, most of them came from Germany, Israel, Italy, the US, Hungary,
France and Britain. The places attracting the largest number of tourists were
Bucharest, the Black Sea port of Constanta, Brasov (in the centre), Cluj (in
the north-west), Mures (in the centre) and Prahova (in the south).

Handball. The Romanian women’s handball vicechampions
CSM Bucharest are today facing the Polish side MKS Perla Lublin away in a 4th
round match as part of the Champions League Group B. The three best-ranked
sides in each group will advance to the next round. In the men’s competition,
the Romanian title holders Dinamo Bucharest will be playing against the Swiss
side Kadetten Schaffhausen in Group D in a home match taking place on the 6th
of November. We recall that SCM Ramnicu Valcea, the Romanian women’s handball
champions, narrowly lost to the Montenegrin side Buducnost
Podgorica 21-20 in a Champions League Group C match on Friday.