December 23, 2021

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Newsroom, 23.12.2021, 13:55

REVOLUTION Romania’s Parliament convened this morning in a solemn
meeting devoted to the 32 years since the anti-communist revolution of December
1989. Originating in Timișoara (west), on 16th December, the uprising spread
across the country, culminating with dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu fleeing the
capital city on 22nd December amid the protests of hundreds of thousands of
Romanians. Captured by the Army, Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were subject to a
summary trial and executed in the southern town of Târgovişte. Romania was the
only country behind the Iron Curtain where the change of regime was accompanied
by bloodshed. Over 1,000 people were killed and some 3,000 wounded.

BUDGET Romanian MPs are due to vote today on the draft state budget and
social security budget laws for 2022. The government
passed the bills on Monday and promised the budget ensures stability and
predictability. The Liberal leader and ex-PM Florin Cîţu criticised the fact
that 6.7% of GDP was earmarked for investments, instead of 7% as agreed within
the ruling coalition. The Social Democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu argued
however that the budget execution is more important than the exact breakdown of
expenditure. The leader of USR party in opposition, Dacian Cioloş, says the
draft budget relies on over-estimated revenues and said although public
education is a priority for President Iohannis, not enough funding has been
earmarked for the sector.

COVID-19 775 new SARS-CoV-2 infection cases were reported in the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 81 related
fatalities, 44 of them from a previous date. Since the start of the pandemic
Romania has had around 1.8 million COVID-19 cases,
and more than 58,000 patients died. Amid
anti-vaccine sentiments fuelled by some media, politicians and opinion leaders,
the country has the 2nd lowest immunisation rate in the EU, after Bulgaria.

EU
FUNDING The government
of Romania passed an emergency order allowing for the accessing of a roughly
15-billion euro loan granted by the European Commission under the Recovery and
Resilience Mechanism. The loan agreement between the European Commission and
Romania was signed in Bucharest on 26th November and in Brussels on 15th
December. Under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Romania benefits
from some 29 billion euro, of which approx. 14 billion in non-reimbursable
funds and some 15 billion in loans. The loan will be available until the end of
2026.

BASKETBALL The national men’s basketball champions, Universitatea-Banca
Transilvania Cluj-Napoca, qualified into the second stage of the Champions
League group matches, after defeating the Turkish side Daruşşafaka in a suspensefull
match away from home, 103-101. The Romanian team is thus the leader of Group G,
with 5 wins and one defeat. Group leaders go straight into the second stage of
the competition, scheduled for January-March 2022. (tr. A.M. Popescu)