December 19, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 19.12.2021, 13:55

Travel. Border checkpoints for entering Romania by road are becoming
even busier as the winter holidays are nearing, especially on the western
border. The authorities say the infrastructure is used to the maximum and the
number of staff has been beefed up. The country’s biggest airport near
Bucharest is also getting busier, with new measures to manage passenger flow in
place from Saturday. Passengers can only disembark in groups of 50, at an
interval of 15 minutes. EU citizens holding Covid green certificates are in a
special fast track lane, while the others have to undergo public health checks.
To simplify procedures, a new document becomes mandatory from Monday, the
so-called PLF, passenger locator form, which everyone entering the country must
fill in. The form, which is also used in other European countries, helps to
quickly identify persons who came into contact with someone infected with
Covid.

Covid-19. Romania reported almost 500 new daily Covid cases today, as
well as 53 new deaths, while the pace of vaccination is again slowing down.
According to the coordinator of the mass vaccination campaign, Valeriu
Gheorghiţă, a 15-20% drop in the number of those who receive the first jab is
seen from one week to the next. Over 7.7 million Romanians are fully vaccinated
to date, but Romania has the second lowest vaccination rate in the European
Union.

Restrictions. As the Omicron variant
is spreading fast, governments around Europe are tightening measures, with
borders closing, the introduction of tough curbs on public events and speeding
up of vaccination rates. Producing a negative Covid test result is now
mandatory for everyone entering Italy, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, while
France and some German lands only allow essential travel to and from the UK,
where record infection numbers have been reported over the last few days. Spain
is also expecting Omicron to become dominant by Christmas and access to bars
and restaurants is only permitted to those holding the Covid green certificate.
The Netherlands and Denmark are in full lockdown. World Health Organisation experts
say Omicron infection cases double within three days in areas with community
transmission.

Budget. The 2022 budget and social security bills will be submitted to
Parliament on Monday, to be debated and approved by Christmas, said the finance
minister Adrian Câciu. Prime
minister Nicolae Ciucă said earlier that his government is seeking to maintain the
budget balance and to comply with the commitment made before the European
Commission to keep the budget deficit level at 5.84% of GDP.

Cooperation.
Vocational and teacher training, pupil and teacher mobility, the recognition of
studies and digitalisation were the main subjects discussed by the Romanian and
French education ministers Sorin Cîmpeanu and Jean-Michel Blanquer,
respectively, at a meeting in Paris. The consolidation of French universities
will be one of the priorities of the French presidency of the European Council
and Romania is already part of a number of projects. Around 1 million Romanian
pupils and students are studying French in school as their first or second
foreign language. The Romanian minister focused on the importance of the study
of Romanian in France so that the young Romanians living there should not lose
contact with their mother tongue. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Romanians live in
France.

Enescu. A Paris square not far from the Paris Opera
will be named after the great Romanian composer George Enescu, the city’s
deputy mayor Laurence
Patrice announced on Twitter. Romania’s ambassador to Paris Luca Niculescu
welcome to the move, which forms part of the 140th anniversary this
year of the composer’s birth. Enescu’s life and work is closely linked to
Paris, where he lived for many years and where he also died. (CM)