7 February 2020, UPDATE

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 07.02.2020, 20:15

Government. President Klaus Iohannis has appointed the Liberal leader Ludovic Orban
to begin talks with a view to forming a new government and presenting it to
Parliament for a vote of confidence. Iohannis made this decision after
consultations with parliamentary parties and reiterated that the best option
right now is holding early elections. The previous Orban cabinet was ousted on
Wednesday after a no-confidence motion filed by the Social Democrats, the main
party in opposition, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians over a bill
to reintroduce the two-round voting system for the local elections. Under the
Constitution, the prime minister designate has 10 days to submit his or her cabinet
and governing platform to Parliament for a vote of confidence. On Friday, the
Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party both threatened to
complain to the Constitutional Court over various aspects related to the
political situation in Bucharest. The prime minister designate said he would
submit the list of ministers and an updated governing programme to Parliament on
Monday.

EU budget. The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Friday had talks in
Brussels with the president of the European Council Charles Michel about the
future multinannual budget, given that following Brexit, the EU is without one
of its biggest contributors. He said he was ready to negotiate really hard for
Romania to obtain as big a chunk as possible of the EU cohesion and common
agricultural policy funds. The flexibility between different funds would be
very important for us, said president Iohannis, adding that Romania would also
like the green economy transition fund not to form part of the cohesion fund,
but add to it. Charles Michel has had talks this week with a number of heads of
state and government over the EU long-term budget for the 2021-2027 period. The
European Commission and the European Parliament have asked for an increase in
the contribution of the EU member states to cover the gap left by the UK, but a
number of net contributing states would like a diminution of the EU budget
instead. Also on Friday, president Iohannis met the European commissioner for
transport Adina Valean, who was Romania’s pick for this job.

Electric cars. Germany and France have unveiled plans to build a huge
factory to produce batteries for electric cars, as part of Europe’s plans to
rival the US group Tesla and the Chinese companies when it comes to the
production of essential parts for electric cars, Bloomberg reports. The
facility, which is to be built near the German city of Kaiserslautern, is to complement
another factory opening in the French region of Hauts de France. Together, the
two factories will cost around 5 billion euros and will have a combined
production capacity of around 48 gigawatts an hour. In Romania, interim prime
minister Ludovic Orban, on a visit to the Ford factory in Craiova, southern
Romania, said a solid partnership between manufacturers and the government is
needed in order to stimulate the local production of electric cars. The French
car maker Renault also has a production factory in Romania, near Pitesti, in
the south, where the Dacia car is made.

Coronavirus. The death toll
of the coronavirus epidemic reached 637 on Friday, with the number of cases
exceeding 31,000 in China. The Chinese doctor who warned in December last year
against the upcoming epidemic died on Friday due to the virus, triggering a
wave of discontent in China and criticism of the Government. Some 320 cases
have been reported in 27 other countries and regions outside continental China,
two people being killed, in Hong Kong and the Philippines. In Hong Kong, 3,600
passengers and crew members are kept in quarantine for the third day in a row,
after three people onboard had been confirmed to be carriers of the
coronavirus. Another 41 people on board a cruise ship kept in quarantine in
Japan tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, increasing the number of
confirmed cases to 61, while thousands of passengers have been confined to
their cabins while the testing continues. 17 Romanians are on board this ship,
two tourists and 15 crew members, but none was infected.

Flu. Five new deaths caused by the
flu were confirmed on Friday in Romania, raising the toll this season to 23,
the National Centre for the Supervision and Control of Communicable Diseases
has announced. The victims were all suffering from other diseases, as well, and
had not been vaccinated against the flu. The Romanian authorities on Thursday
declared a flu epidemic in Romania for the second year in a row, after flu
cases grew by 99% in the last week, double the level expected, to reach 7,000
cases. Last year, almost 200 people died because of the flu in Romania.

Fed Cup. Romania’s Fed Cup team play Russia in the
World Group on Friday and Saturday in Cluj Napoca, in the north-west. In
Romania’s opening match, Elena Gabriela Ruse, world no. 166, lost in two sets
to
Ekaterina Alexandrova, world no. 28, while also on Friday, Ana Bogdan defeated Veronika
Kudermetova, world. no. 38 in three sets. The winner
of the Romania-Russia match will qualify for the final tournament of the Fed
Cup, which will be hosted by Budapest between the 14th and the 19th of
April.