February 15, 2022 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 15.02.2022, 19:53
Covid-19 Ro. Romania is considering lifting the anti-Covid restrictions according to certain criteria, such as the drop in the number of new cases of infection, and in the number of patients in intensive care, the health minister Alexandru Rafila has announced. He has also said, however, that there is no timetable yet for relaxation. On Tuesday, almost 22,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported, out of 91,500 tests run in 24 hours, as well as 204 related deaths, 9 of which from previous reporting timeframes. 1,155 Covid-19 patients are currently in intensive care.
Summit. On Wednesday, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will attend in Paris an informal working dinner on security in Sahel at the invitation of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and on Thursday and Friday he will attend the 6th European Union – African Union Summit held in Brussels, the Presidential Administration has announced. During the Summit, Klaus Iohannis will highlight Romanias constant efforts to achieve common EU-AU objectives, focused on peace, security and good governance, private sector support and economic integration, sustainable economic development through education, culture and training, funding for economic and sustainable growth, climate change and the energy transition, health systems and vaccine production, the source said. In addition to attending the EU-AU Summit, the Romanian head of state will also have a meeting with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
NATO. The Romanian Minister of Defense, Vasile Dincu, will participate, on Wednesday and Thursday, in the meeting of the NATO defense ministers, at the Alliances Headquarters in Brussels. According to the Ministry of National Defense, the meeting is an important milestone in preparation for decisions that will be adopted by the leaders of the allied states at the Madrid Summit due on June 29 and 30. Debates will focus on the security situation generated by Russias aggressive behavior in the vicinity of NATOs eastern flank and the implications for Euro-Atlantic security, as well as the issues underlying the continuation of the process of adapting the Alliances deterrence and defense posture to the new security conditions, reads a communiqué issued by the Ministry of National Defense. On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Dincu will participate in the signing ceremony of Romanias letter of accession to the NATO Air Battle Decisive Ammunition (ABDM) project, developed by the NATO Defense Investment Division (IS-DI).
Ukraine. The Russian troops deployed for several weeks near the border with Ukraine have started returning to their garrisons, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday, amid Western fears of an imminent military operation. The announcement is the first sign from Moscow in this crisis with the West, which has lasted since the end of 2021, FP reports. Since December, Russia has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers at the Ukrainian border, raising fears in Kiev over an imminent invasion of that country. Moscow has always denied any intention to start a war, but has asked for security guarantees, such as the promise that Ukraine will never join NATO, which the West has refused to provide. The announcement of the Russian troops withdrawal from the Ukrainian border is a good sign, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday, at a joint news conference with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The German chancellor is convinced that diplomatic efforts to avoid a conflict “are far from exhausted”. In turn, Vladimir Putin has given assurances that Russia does not want war and wants to “keep on working” with the West on European security and to defuse the Ukraine-related crisis. The Kremlin leader confirmed the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, but also accused the West of not coming with a constructive response to Russias demands for European security and of trying to strengthen its security to Russias detriment.
Anticorruption. Romanias National Anticorruption Directorate believes that bill on the dismantling of the Section for Investigating Criminal Offences within the Judiciary (SIIJ), adopted by the government, is not a progress in ensuring the efficiency of the fight against high-level corruption, but on the contrary, would lead to the dissipation of prosecution resources and powers and the perpetuation of the situation in which the prosecutors dealing with cases of corruption involving magistrates cannot specialize. In a statement, the Directorate says that this one structure would be replaced by 16 different structures within the Public Ministry. According to DNA, the method of selecting the prosecutors who will be appointed to investigate the cases is, in turn, likely to compromise the prospect of conducting professional and efficient investigations.
Tennis. On Tuesday, the Romanian tennis player Elena-Gabriela Ruse (59WTA) managed to defeat a 10 ten opponent, the Spanish Paula Badosa (5WTA), in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Dubai, the Arab Emirates, with some 770,000 in prize money. She will next take on the best ranking Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep (23 WTA), which defeated on Monday the American Alison Riske. Also on Tuesday, another Romanian, Irina Begu (54WTA) was defeated by the Ukrainian Daiana Iastremska in the first round of the tournament. (MI)
