January 18, 2022

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Newsroom, 18.01.2022, 13:58

ENERGY On February 1st the government in Bucharest is
expected to endorse new measures aimed at capping electricity and gas prices.
The aforementioned measures will be promoted through an emergency ordinance to
be passed the next week at the latest. Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has
today held talks with energy suppliers who, according to government sources,
have agreed with the newly announced measures for subsidizing and capping
energy prices, pledging to rectify the bills initially issued. The head of the
Executive on Monday announced that following an agreement of the ruling
coalition made up of PNL, PSD and UDMR prices in gas and electricity would be
capped and the consumption limit extended.

COVID-19 Authorities in Romania have today announced 16,760 new Covid
infections, double the number of yesterday as well as 70 related fatalities. Bucharest
has today reached an infection rate of 6.15 cases per thousand and has been in
the red tier since January 12th. With 8 million people vaccinated
Romania still is the last but one in an EU ranking. Bulgaria is the country
with the lowest number of immunized people in the bloc.

TENNIS 14th-seeded tennis player Simona Halep has qualified for
the second round of Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament
after a two-set win 6-4, 6-3 against Magdalena Frech of Poland. A former top
seed, Halep took one hour and 29 minutes to obtain the victory against the
Polish challenger. Five Romanian women players out of six have qualified for
the tournament’s second round. They are Simona Halep, Sorana Cirstea, Irina
Begu, Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian. From the Romanian delegation only
Irina Bara was eliminated in the competition’s first round.

EUMaltese center-right MEP
Roberta Metsola was elected president of the European Parliament on Tuesday. Metsola,
who won 458 votes out of the total 616, had an absolute majority avoiding the
need for a second round of voting. A member of the European People’s Party,
Metsola succeeds Italian Social Democrat David Sassoli who died last week at
the age of 65. Sassoli was a politician and journalist very appreciated in
Italy, a supporter of the EU, who firmly campaigned for human rights observance
around the world, this is how Romanian MEP Eugen Tomac has described him. A
vehement critic of the abuses committed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, in
2021 Sassoli got interdiction to enter Russia in response to the EU sanctions
imposed to some Russian officials. Sassoli was also a supporter of the EU
integration efforts of the ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking republic of Moldova.

(bill)