July 17, 2024

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.07.2024, 13:55

Inflation. The annual inflation rate in the European Union stood at 2.6% in June, down from 2.7% in May, and Romania, which for five months was the country with the highest inflation in the EU, was overtaken by Belgium last month, according to the data published today by Eurostat. In June, the EU member states with the lowest annual inflation rates were Finland (0.5%), Italy (0.9%) and Lithuania (1%). At the opposite pole, the EU member countries with the highest inflation rates were Belgium (5.4%), Romania (5.3%), Spain and Hungary (both with 3.6%). In the case of Romania, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) has previously informed that the annual inflation rate dropped, in June 2024, to 4.94%, from 5.12% in May. The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has revised upward, to 4.9%, from 4.7% previously, the inflation forecast for the end of this year.

Remittance. Romanians working abroad sent 6.5 billion euros to the country in 2023, equivalent to 2% of Romania’s Gross Domestic Product, according to data provided by the National Bank of Romania. The amount is only 1.2% lower than the value of foreign direct investments attracted by Romania last year, the Central Bank says. The amount, which sets a new record, is more than twice that recorded in 2014. In the last decade, Romanians who went to work abroad have sent over 46.5 billion euros to the country, by only 14.2 percent below the level of foreign direct investment in the same interval. Great Britain remained, for the second consecutive year, in first place in the ranking of remittance sending countries, with almost a quarter of the total, namely 1.5 billion euros. Germany came second, with 1.4 billion euros, followed by Italy, with 800 million euros, and Spain, with 400 million euros. More than 5.7 million Romanians officially had their residence or domicile outside the country in 2021, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of them were in Italy, over 1.1 million, in Spain, over a million, in Great Britain, almost 950,000, in Germany, over 800,000, and in the United States of America, about 465,000.

Senate. The Romanian Senate, gathered in an extraordinary session today, was informed about the draft law on the approval of the Emergency Ordinance that allows the return of licenses to drivers who do not receive in due time the results of blood tests. The ordinance was published in the Official Journal, but, according to the constitutional provisions regarding legislative delegation, it cannot enter into force until after its submission for debate, in an emergency procedure, to the competent parliamentary chamber. The normative act has already been distributed to the specialized committees of the Senate to be analyzed. According to the emergency ordinance, if a driver is detected positive with a rapid drug test and their license is withheld, they will have the right to drive again if they do not receive, within three days, the results of the tests carried out in the laboratory. The emergency ordinance was recently adopted by the Government, which stated that it responded to civil society’s observations related to the errors given by rapid drug tests.

Canonization. The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania has taken note, with sadness, of the decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church of July 12 to include for the approval of canonization clerics who expressed anti-Semitic views or spoke favorably about the toxic legionary trend (extreme right) in the 30s and 40s. The Institute refers to the biographies of three clerics approved for canonization, Ilarion Felea, Ilie Lăcătusu and Dumitru Stăniloae, who the institute claims had connections with the Legionary Movement. In a press release, the representatives of the “Elie Wiesel” Institute recall that, according to Patriarch Daniel, the canonized saints must be role models and wonders if the canonization of some people who, during their life, shared, by word or deed, the values of fascism are consonant with Christian ethics. The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has recently decided on the canonization of 16 Romanian saints.

Court. The Bucharest Court of Appeal has annulled the decision of the Bucharest Tribunal of July 5 by which the brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, having dual citizenship, British and American, received permission to leave the territory of Romania. Thus, the Court accepted the appeal filed by the prosecutors, and the decision is final. The two are being tried in Romania, under judicial control, for human trafficking and rape, in a case prosecuted by DIICOT. Andrew and Tristan Tate and two young accomplices were sent to court last June, accused of forming an organized criminal group, with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women whom they forced to create materials with pornographic content. From these activities, the defendants would have obtained important sums of money.

Weather. Romanian meteorologists has issued today new Code Yellow, Code Amber and Code Red warnings for severe heat, affecting most regions. A Code Red of intense heat will remain in force for almost the entire country today, with maximum temperatures of up to 42 degrees. On Thursday, the northwest, center, east and in the area of the Southern Carpathians, will be under Code Yellow, with maximum temperatures reaching 35 degrees, and the temperature-humidity index will exceed 80 units. The nights will be tropical, with minimum temperatures of 20 degrees. Also, an amber code will remain in place for areas in the southwest, south and east. Here, the heat wave will persist, and the highs will range beween 35 – 38 degrees.

Football. Romania’s football champion, FCSB, has qualified for the second preliminary round of the Champions League, after defeating the San Marino team Virtus AC with a score of 4-0, on Tuesday evening, in Bucharest, in the second leg of the first preliminary round. In the second preliminary round, FCSB will meet Maccabi Tel Aviv. The first match will take place at home on July 23 or 24, and the second leg will be held away from home, on July 30 or 31. The other Romanian teams taking part in the European competitions are Corvinul Hunedoara (centre-west, holder of the Cup), CFR Cluj (north-west) and Universitatea Craiova (south-west).

Olympic Games. This evening, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will receive the athletes who will represent Romania at the Olympic Games in Paris. The Games will be hosted by the French capital between July 26 and August 11. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 26.