December 10, 2020

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 10.12.2020, 14:01

TALKS The ruling Liberals in Romania
have today kicked off talks to forge a Parliament majority after the
legislative election on December 6th. This majority is supposed to
back the future executive in Bucharest and Ludovic Orban, head of the National
Liberal Party has announced the talks will be held with the USR-PLUS Alliance,
with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, UDMR, and the group
of the national minorities other than the Hungarian one. The talks will be held
by a team headed by Ludovic Orban and the Prime Minister proposed by the
Liberals Florin Citu. On the other hand the Social-Democrats (PSD) insist that
president Iohannis appoint a Prime Minister from the PSD, as they went first in
the legislative election on Sunday. They believe that professor Alexandru
Rafila, Romania’s WHO representative is the best solution to the present
medical crisis.

SUMMIT EU leaders have today convened in Brussels
for two day talks over the Covid-19 pandemic and the coordinated efforts to
fight it. Also high on the agenda are climate change, security and foreign
relations. The heads of state and government of the EU countries are expected
to assess the situation and held talks about the measures to fight the disease,
including vaccines and tests but also the gradual lifting of restrictions. At the
present Brussels summit, Romania is expected to stand for the reduction of
greenhouse gases by at least 55% by the year 2030 and president Iohannis to be
pleading for the creation of a flexible framework to allow all member states,
irrespective of their development to effectively meet the objectives in the
field of climate change. The European Council is expected to also tackle the
situation in eastern Mediterranean and the head of the Romanian state is to
stand for a dialogue between Turkey and the EU, mentioning the fact that this
state remains a major partner.

ECONOMY Romania’s trade balance deficit
rose by 827 million Euros, in the first ten months of the year as compared to
the same period last year up to 15 billion Euros, according to data the
National Institute for statistics released today. Between January 1st
and October 31st, exports stood at 51 billion Euros while imports
accounted for 66 billion Euros. According to the same sources, exports went
down by 12% and imports by 8.7% compared to the same period last year.

SPORT Romania’s football champions CFR Cluj
today take on Young Boys, in Bern, Switzerland in a match counting towards the
last leg of Europa League’s groups. The Romanians are hankering for a win
because only a victory allows them to play in the European spring competitions
for a second year in a row. With five points out of five matches, CFR rank 3rd
in group A, which is headed by Italian side AS Rome. Also today, the Romanian
women’s national handball side will be up against Croatia, in their first game
in Group 2 of the European Championship underway in Denmark. Romania will also
play the en titre champions, the Netherlands on December 14th and
Hungary, a day later. Group 2 also includes Norway and Germany. The first two
sides in the group’s ranking will qualify for the semifinals.

PANDEMIC The total
number of Covid-19 infections has exceeded 69 million worldwide. 1.5 million
people died and 48 million have been cured, worldometers.info says. The USA remains
the world’s most affected country with 15.8 million infections and roughly 300
thousand fatalities. The USA has constantly exceeded the daily threshold of
2,000 fatalities for two weeks now and Americans are waiting for a nationwide
vaccine distribution. A vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech could be authorized
in the following days while the Moderna vaccine next week. Severe side effects
in allergic persons have been reported in the case of the Pfizer vaccine.
Britain is the first country in the world to have distributed a completely
clinically-tested vaccine.

COVID-19 Over 7,000 new Covid infections were reported in
Romania on Thursday, most of them in capital Bucharest, followed by Constanta,
in the south-east, which also registered the highest infection rate of 7 cases
per thousand. 1288 people are being treated in IC units. 80% out of the total 540
thousand cases reported since the beginning of the pandemic, have been cured,
while roughly 13 thousand people have died. Romania so far boasts roughly 1,000
vaccination centers and this number could be increased to ease the access of
all those interested. Most likely Romania will get the Pfizer vaccine and 13
million people could get immunized in the first six months of the year.

(bill)