July 7, 2021

A roundup of domestic and international news

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Newsroom, 07.07.2021, 13:55

COVID-19 ROMANIA – The vaccination rate at national level
amongst teenagers over 12 years of age accounts for some 28%, the head of the
vaccination campaign in Romania, Valeriu Gheorghiţă has said. Since the start
of the vaccination campaign in December last year, nearly 4.8 million people
have taken the COVID-19 jab, of whom 4.6 million have completed the full
vaccination scheme. 56 people are still in intensive care. On the other hand,
60 new cases of COVID infection were reported on Wednesday in addition to 2
related fatalities.

CONSULTATIONS
– President Klaus Iohannis continues in Bucharest the series of consultations
over the project Educated Romania, launched in 2016, with a view to reach
political consensus across parties and secure the support of civil society in
order to implement it. Today, the head of state is discussing with social
dialogue partners in the field of education and with representatives of NGOs
involved in the project. A report will be published following this week’s
consultations and is due to be adopted by the Government in a memorandum. The
reforms will be funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, from
the state and European budgets.

MEETING -
Coalition leaders are today meeting in Bucharest to discuss the timetable in
Parliament for disbanding the Special Section for Investigating Crime in
Justice (SIIJ). Justice Minister Stelian Ion will be presenting the positive
opinion of the Venice Commission. Senate Speaker Anca Dragu on Monday evening
said that, after this week’s meeting, the ruling coalition will have a clear
timetable for disbanding the special section in an extraordinary session of the
Senate. In turn, Chamber of Deputies Speaker, Liberal leader Ludovic Orban,
said on Tuesday evening that talks within the coalition will be focusing on the
legislative framework for disbanding the Special Section. The Venice Commission
has greenlit the move and recommends the elimination of all articles in the
legislation that create super immunity for magistrates.

EXPLOSION – A
powerful explosion occurred last night at the Azomureş Chemical Plant in Târgu
Mureş. A 50-year-old man was injured. According to the company, the incident
was triggered after an ammoniac production installation was turned on. The
Mureş Inspectorate for Emergency Situations has sent a RO-Alert emergency
message to the local population. Azomureş representatives say the authorities
are monitoring the situation, and the installation that caused the incident was
fully shut down. We recall that another blast occurred on Friday at the
Petromidia Refinery in Navodari, which killed one man and injured another five
people.

FOOTBALL -
Romanian football champions, CFR Cluj, on Tuesday defeated Borac Banja of
Bosnia 3-1 on home turf in the first leg of the Champions League first
preliminary round. The return leg will be played in Bosnia on July 13. At EURO
2020, Italy last night defeated Spain in London after extra time and the
penalty shootout, and is the first team to qualify to the final. Today England
will play Denmark in the second semi-final. We recall Bucharest hosted three
matches in the group phase and one match in the round of 16 at the EURO 2020.
(VP)