April 7, 2023
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 07.04.2023, 13:55
Defense. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, convened the meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense, which will take place on Tuesday, April 11, in Bucharest. The agenda of the Council meeting includes topics related to developments regarding the security situation in the Black Sea Region, in the context of Russias aggression on Ukraine, and external interventions on the democratic process in the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, predominantly Romanian-speaking). Also, the development of the Romanian military aviation will be analyzed. During the Council meeting, other topical issues in the field of national security will be addressed.
NATO. The peoples and politicians of the allied countries “understood the need to invest more in defense” in order to ensure interoperability, said on Friday, the NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană, on a visit to the Multinational Brigade South-East in Craiova (south). Also, Geoana spoke about the support given to Ukraine. “We are helping Ukraine, because the Ukrainians, with our help, are not only defending their country, their sovereignty, but they are also fighting for us. We will continue to help Ukraine to the end”. Under the operational control of the Multinational Division South-East, the Command of the Multinational Brigade South-East has the mission to ensure the command and control of a NATO Collective Defense operation, in order to contribute in this way to the strengthening of the South-East flank of the Alliance, to the security of the territory and the population of the member states.
Budget. The Romanian government is looking for solutions to cover a hole in the budget of 20 billion lei, so that the deficit does not exceed the target of 4.4% of the GDP. The leaders of the ruling coalition claim that there are unjustified expenses in many ministries and state institutions, and the Ministry of Finance must reduce the waste of public funds. Liberal Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă has stressed that salaries or other types of income will not be cut, but he asked the Minister of Finance, Adrian Câciu, to propose concrete measures to reduce expenses in the next nine months. The Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu also spoke about a reform in spending public money, in parallel with measures to reduce tax evasion. Adrian Câciu said that the adjustment of budget expenses will not affect the social and economic packages developed by the coalition, nor the investments. National Bank specialists consider, on the other hand, that against the background of the high values of the current account deficit and the budget deficit, the money from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan represents an extraordinary opportunity for the economy.
Protest. Romanian farmers are today protesting in Bucharest and in 18 counties across the country, dissatisfied with the compensation proposed by the European Commission for the damage caused by the tax-free import of cheap grains from Ukraine. Farmers demand that the European Union abandon the special regime applied to imports from Ukraine, which – in their opinion – seriously disrupts the Romanian market. Bulgarian farmers are also protesting, again, today, including by blocking traffic in the roundabout towards the Ruse-Giurgiu bridge, which connects Bulgaria to Romania. They say that Romanian farmers will join their protest, on the other side of the bridge. Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Romanian citizens transiting or intending to travel to Bulgaria that farmers from that country will organize protests in the customs offices of Ruse – Giurgiu and Kardam – Negru Vodă, including by blocking road access to the customs offices with agricultural equipment, as well as the traffic on adjacent roads.
Health-care. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, says that the medical system in Romania needs sufficient, well-trained staff who can respond professionally and empathetically to the needs of patients. At the same time, in his message on the occasion of the World Health Day, on April 7, the minister states that investments are needed in health – in hospitals, in specialist clinics or in family doctors offices. This year, the motto of the World Health Day is “Health for all!”. In another move, the Minister of Health has stated that the number of respiratory viruses and SARS-COV-2 infections has started to decrease, and Romania has sufficient stocks of medicines for the necessary treatments. According to Alexandru Rafila, there were 6,900 cases of COVID last week, with a rate of infection 10% lower than the previous week. However, the number of deaths is still quite high, 59.
Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu was defeated by the first -seed American Jessica Pegula, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the fourth round of the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, with more than 780 thousand dollars in prize money. She lost the match after 2 hours and a half, although she had won four games in the decisive set. (MI)
