December 17, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 17.12.2021, 20:28

MOURNING A day of mourning was observed on
Friday in memory of the people killed 32 years ago in Timişoara, the city that
sparked the Romanian anti-communist revolution. Commemoration events included
religious services, laying of flowers and special exhibitions. ON 17th
December 1989 army and security forces opened fire against the people
protesting against Romania’s communist regime in the city of Timişoara in the
west of the country. More than 60 people were killed that evening, and several
hundreds were wounded. 17th December is considered the darkest day
in Timişoara’s contemporary history.

SUMMIT EU leaders who met for the winter summit in Brussels called for a boost
in vaccination levels amid concerns over the Omicron variant. Romania was
represented at the meeting by its president, Klaus Iohannis. EU leaders also
discussed the rise in energy costs and the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the Romanian president’s office, the meeting of the European
Council was followed by the Euro summit in extended format, where EU leaders
adopted a declaration reiterating the EU’s commitment to provide vigorous,
rapid and coordinated response for post-pandemic economic recovery.

TRIAL Prosecutors
have called for maximum penalties for all those indicted in the ‘Colectiv’ file.
They have also referred to the small damages awarded by the court in comparison
to the suffering of those wounded or the relatives of those who died in the
blaze that destroyed the Colectiv night club six years ago. The Colectiv
tragedy can repeat any time and society has been scarred by it, one of the
prosecutors says. We recall that two years ago a court in Bucharest ruled that the
former mayor of district 4 in Bucharest Cristian Popescu together with another
employee of the city hall, the owners of the aforementioned club and a couple
of employees of the fireworks company involved in the incident should serve prison
sentences between 3 and 12 years.

NATO The North Atlantic Alliance
remains vigilant about Russia’s military buildup at the border with Ukraine,
NATO’s deputy secretary general Romanian Mircea Geoana told Radio Romania on
Friday. According to Geoana, NATO doesn’t know Moscow’s final intention, which
might reiterate the situation in 2014, when it occupied the Ukrainian peninsula
of Crimea. The NATO official has made an appeal for Russia’s resuming talks
adding that at present there are no major security risks for the allies in the
eastern flank.

POLL 61% of
Romanians hope 2022 will be better in terms of jobs, with 69% saying 2021 was
harder than the first pandemic year in terms of personal and professional
challenges, according to a survey conducted by BestJobs online recruitment
platform. Six in ten respondents are considering changing their job for higher
pay or are expecting a promotion or pay rise from their current job. 26% of
Romanian employees say 2021 was better than 2020, with 25% saying this
improvement was recorded on a private level, 17% on a professional and 15% on
both. The BestJobs survey was conducted between 20th November and 10th
December using a sample of 1,041 Internet users. BestJobs is one of the biggest
online recruitment platforms in Romania.

(bill)