February 25, 2021

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 25.02.2021, 13:55

Covid-19
RO. The Covid-19 vaccination campaign continues in Romania. 1.5 million doses
have been used so far to vaccinate some 850 thousand people, mostly with Pfizer/BioNTech.
The Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have also been administered across the
country. The vaccination of education employees, through school inspectorates,
began on Wednesday in Bucharest and most counties. The whole procedure will
take until March 10 for the first dose of vaccine, and authorities estimate
that 60,000 people will be immunized during this period. So far, more than
42,000 teachers have already been vaccinated. On the other hand, almost 4,000
new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been reported today,
following about 37,000 tests run nationwide. In total, since the beginning of
the pandemic in Romania, over 790,000 cases have been registered, and about 90%
of the patients have been cured. The total number of deaths has exceeded 20
thousand.

Pandemic. EU leaders
are to decide today on the issuance of vaccination certificates for EU
citizens, following the insistent request of southern European countries, which
depend heavily on tourism and are desperately trying to save the summer season
of 2021. Restrictions imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus infection have
caused deep recessions in 2020 in the European Union, hitting in particular the
south of the continent. As vaccination campaigns step up, some governments,
such as those of Greece and Spain, are pushing for the adoption of vaccination
certificates at EU level so that EU citizens can travel again. However,
countries such as France and Germany are much more reluctant, saying that such
a decision would create a de facto obligation to vaccinate and would be
discriminatory against those who cannot or do not want to be vaccinated. In the
world, according to worldometers, at least 113 million people have been
infected with the new coronavirus so far. 2.5 million people have died and more
than 88 million have been declared cured since the beginning of the pandemic a
year ago.

European Council. Today and tomorrow,
Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is attending an extraordinary meeting of
the European Council. The members have
gathered via video conference to discuss the current situation of the Covid-19
pandemic, preparedness for health threats, security and defense, and relations
with the Southern Neighborhood. According to a draft conclusion document
obtained by Radio Romania, non-essential travel within the EU and from outside
must still be restricted, but in a proportionate and non-discriminatory manner,
taking into account the specificities of each community inside or outside the
EU. Also, the movement of goods and
services in the single market should not be affected, the Council members
belive. On Tuesday, Klaus Iohannis had a video conference with the President of
the European Council Charles Michel and other European leaders, in preparation
for the summit.

Budgets. The
state and social security draft budgets have reached Romania’s Parliament. They
will be analyzed and endorsed by the joint specialize committees and follow the
entire formal cycle so as to have the bills ready by Monday, March 1st.
The governing coalition has decided that the MPs representing the three parties
will not file amendments and will endorse the bills as they were submitted by
the Executive. From the opposition, the Social Democratic Party criticizes this
year’s austerity budget and has prepared lots of amendments. However, there is
little chance for amendments to be accepted that will substantially change the
two bills, because Parliament has already voted on the Law regarding the ceilings
that set the financial constrains for the two budgets. This year, the deficit
cannot exceed 7.16% of the GDP, and personnel costs will have to stay below
9.8%. The plenary vote on the two draft budgets is scheduled for next Tuesday.

HoReCa. The principle of
‘first come, first served’ has been removed from the Government Emergency
Ordinance on support measures for HoReCa companies, the Minister of Economy,
Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Claudiu Năsui, has said today. He has stressed that, following the removal
of this principle, all eligible applicants, regardless of when they applied,
will receive funding. The Minister of Economy has also stated that this aid
scheme is based on a budget of one billion lei (approx. 200 million euros) and
benefits the HoReCa sector in the form of grants in the amount of 20% of the
calculation base, without exceeding 800,000 euro per enterprise. HoReCa
entrepreneurs have repeatedly called for the situation of restaurants to stop being
decided depending on the COVID incidence rate. They recalled that the industry
is on the verge of bankruptcy. (M.I.)