February 5, 2021

The latest news and main stories today.

Newsroom, 05.02.2021, 13:55

Inquiry. Romanian prime minister Florin Cîțu
said he asked the government’s control division to verify the management by the
economy ministry of the awarding of one-off Covid grants to small and medium
sized companies. The move comes after a discussion with economy minister
Claudiu Năsui who earlier posted on Facebook that the measure did not achieve
the goal for which it was intended. He said that while the grant was supposed
to help businesses cope with the pandemic, it ended up financing property
purchases. Năsui said more than half of the businesses eligible for this grant
applied for the purchase of real estate. Last summer, the Liberal government
led by Ludovic Orban adopted a funding scheme aimed at helping small and medium
sized businesses affected by the pandemic in the form of investment grants
worth between 50,000 and
200,000 euros.

Travel. Romania has expanded the
list of countries with a high epidemiological risk and, as of 12th
February, will require the presentation of a negative Covid test taken up to 72
hours before entering the country.
Arrivals to Romania will be asked to isolate for 14 days, with the
exception of children under the age of 3, people who have received the Covid
vaccine, including the second dose, and persons who tested positive for Covid in
the last 90 days.

Vaccination. Almost 2,600 new Covid
cases and 73 new deaths were recorded on Friday. The total number of infections
in this country now passes 740,000, while the death toll is nearing 18,750. Romania
will only administer the Covid vaccine produced by AstraZeneca together with
Oxford University to adults between 18 and 55. At the end of last month, the
European Medicines Agency said there was insufficient data on the efficacy of
this vaccine in persons over 55 but that it expects it to protect them, based
on the information provided by the manufacturer. However, a number of European
states decided not to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to the elderly.
Romania is to receive 800,000 doses of this vaccine by the end of the month. In
the meantime, the roll-out of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continues in Romania,
where the Moderna vaccine also began to be administered on Thursday. More than
629,000 people have received the Covid jab in Romania so far.

Schools. The Romanian authorities are
making the final preparations for the reopening of schools next week. Three
scenarios are in place, depending on the local infection rate. With the exception
of two months, teaching has been conducted exclusively online in Romania since
last March, amid discontent from pupils, parents, teachers and non-governmental
organisations in the field.

Navalny. The EU foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell is today having talks in Moscow with Russian foreign minister Sergei
Lavrov about the situation of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The
European Union has asked for his immediate release. France Presse news agency
notes that talks are going to be difficult, after Moscow described western
criticism as interference in its domestic affairs. Radio Romania’s
correspondent in Moscow recalled that president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said
the EU should not made the mistake of linking the future of Russian-European
relations to the Navalny
case. Navalny was arrested and then sentenced to prison on his return from
Germany, where he had received treatment for Novichok poisoning. He is now due
to serve 2 years and 8 months in jail.

Moldova-France. France has promised to help the
Republic of Moldova with its development and democratic process and to solve
the frozen conflict in Transdniester, a Russian-speaking break-away region in
the east of the majority Romanian-speaking republic. Moldova’s president Maia
Sandu met French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday during her two-day official
trip to Paris. She emphasised that her country’s commitment to Europe, which it
undertook in 2014 when it signed its association agreement with the European
Union, is the shortest path to democracy and prosperity.

Tennis. World no. 2 Simona Halep of Romania will
be facing Australia’s Lizette Cabrera in her opening match at the Australian
Open which gets under way on Monday in Melbourne. Two other Romanian players
will face each other in the first round, Patricia Ţig and Sorana Cîrstea, while
Irina Begu will face Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic and Ana Bogdan will be playing Danielle
Collins of the US. Mihaela Buzărnescu, the sixth Romanian player on the main
draw at the Australian Open, will face the Romanian-born Canadian player Bianca
Andreescu. (CM)