January 31, 2020

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Newsroom, 31.01.2020, 13:55

BREXIT Tonight at midnight, Brussels’ time, the UK becomes the
first state to leave the European Union since its foundation. Its economy
accounted for 15% of the union’s and London is the world’s financial capital.
The UK was also the EU country with the biggest defence budget. The kingdom joined
the EU in 1973, 16 years after the Rome treaty had been signed and 22 years
after the setting up of the European Community of Coal and Steel by France,
West Germany, Italy and Benelux. Two years ago, the UK decided through a
referendum to leave the EU, a move, which kicked off a complicated process of
negotiations fraught with numerous interior blockages, which led to two rounds
of snap election. The transition period, which starts this Saturday, is going
to end late this year, when the UK hopes to have reached consensus over a
series of aspects in its future relation with the EU. One of the most important
is a trade agreement aimed at preventing a series of taxes and duties that may
occur in the trade relations between the two sides. During his meeting with the
British business community in Romania, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has voiced
his support for tight relations between the EU and the UK in the future.

POVERTY Romania has made headway in reducing poverty among its employed
persons, the EU statistics office Eurostat has announced today. Nevertheless, in
2018 the country was the EU member with the highest risk of poverty among its
employed, 15.3% against a European average of 9.5. At the opposite end, with
the lowest degree of poverty among employed persons, are Finland, the Czech
Republic, Ireland, Belgium and Croatia. The Eurostat data shows an increasing
trend of poverty among the people with jobs all throughout the European Union,
but the sharpest drops have been seen in Greece, Latvia and Romania.

VIRUS No infection with coronavirus has been confirmed in Romania so
far, the ministerial committee for the management and monitoring of the
potential infections with the new virus has announced. Prevention measures have
been put in place in airports and medical units designated for the treatment of
possible infection cases. The National Authority for Consumer Protection in
Romania has given assurances that there is no contamination risk from goods
imported from China since the virus has a lifespan of 24 hours outside the
human body, and it takes around 35 days to transport goods from China to
Romania. The World Health Organisation has declared the new coronavirus a
global emergency as the death toll in China stands at 213.

RUGBY Romania’s national rugby team on Saturday take on the similar
team of Georgia. The fixture counts towards the inaugural leg of the Rugby
Europe Championship 2020, the former European Cup of Nations, with Europe’s
second-tier teams taking part. A 33-strong Romanian delegation has travelled to
Georgia, with the pool of regulars being affected by a couple of rugby players
being absent, because of the flu. For the upcoming competition in Tbilisi, a
new head-coach is at the helm of the Romanian delegation, the English Andy
Robinson, whose debut with the Romanian team is the very game against Georgia.
In a week’s time, Romania travels to Portugal, for a fixture against the
Portuguese national side. The 2020 edition of the Rugby Europe Championship is
an interesting and especially a very balanced one, all the more so as Georgia
and Russia participated in the most recent edition of the World Cup. Also,
Romania and Spain are dead set to secure a place in the upcoming world-level
competition, while the game pitting Belgium against Portugal is simply a
survival of the fittest.

MOTION The
censure motion against the Liberal government in Bucharest tabled by the
opposition PSD will be presented to Parliament on Monday. The Social Democrats’
move was decided after the Executive led by Ludovic Orban had assumed
responsibility for a project on reintroducing the two-round election of mayors,
almost half a year before the event. According to the Social Democrats, the
present government must step down for its decision to amend the election law
right before the event, which runs against European standards and also for
endorsing the new amendments unilaterally without talks and debates over the
project. According to the president of the Chamber of Deputies and PSD interim
leader Marcel Ciolacu, ‘we are currently facing the severest crisis of abuse of
power’. The Liberals, however, argue that the new system of voting will
increase the candidates’ representation and legitimacy. The Social Democrats
say the motion could get endorsed by 233 MPs standing chances to clear the
threshold. Prime Minister Orban says he is ready for any result and that his
objectives are to ensure a stable governance and win the future local and
parliament election.

(translated by bill)