July 9, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 09.07.2020, 20:37

COVID-19
On Thursday Romania
registered the highest number of daily Covid infections since the beginning of
the pandemic, 614, bringing the total number of infections up to 30,800. 17 new
Covid-associated fatalities have been reported, which brings the death toll up
to 1834. The number of patients in intensive care has increased to 240 coming
closer to the number registered during the emergency situation. Given this
situation, experts and authorities have increased their messages to population
as the increased number of infections is the result of lack of compliance with
the prevention norms. President Iohannis has made an appeal for cooperation
between all the state’s fundamental institutions so that they may properly deal
with the situation. According to the president, there is no time now for
political disputes or vanities and he pleaded for unity and for Parliament’s immediate
endorsement of the legal framework to regulate quarantine and isolation.
Iohannis has announced that he has notified Parliament on the actions and
initiatives he had during the emergency situation instated for two months in
Romania as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. A month later
Romania shifted to the state of alert. Over 51 hundred Romanians have been
confirmed infected outside the country and 122 have died.

TRANSPORT The
Romanian authorities believe that a series of provisions of the revised norms
in the Mobility package 1 passed by the European Parliament on Wednesday are discriminatory
against the Romanian transporters. According to the Foreign Ministry and the
Ministry of Transports in Bucharest, the two institutions have repeatedly signaled during talks
at EU level the fact that some provisions have negative implications and will
bear on the functioning of the local market, road transportation all throughout
the union as well as on the process of fighting climate change. Under these
provisions trucks must return to their country of origin every eight
months, even if they are empty. Romania and the countries at the EU borders
have pointed out that the revised EU norms are discriminatory against transport
companies in these countries as compared to their counterparts in central and Western
Europe. According to the EU transport Commissioner Adina Valean, the Romanian
authorities have a right to notify the European Court of Justice on the
provisions affecting the European Climate Pact and competition on the single
market. Proposed by the European Commission in May 2017 this aforementioned revised
provisions have sparked off divergences between the countries in the West,
including Germany and France and those in the east including Romania, Bulgaria,
Hungary and Poland.

BILL A bill on self-isolation and quarantine
drafted by the Government is on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies as of Thursday.
The Government passed the bill on Monday, after the Constitutional Court
dismissed previous bills on compulsory isolation and quarantine as
unconstitutional, on grounds that they are lacking in clarity and
predictability, and do not guarantee that certain fundamental rights and
freedoms are complied with. The Constitutional Court also found that
introducing quarantine under a government order is a violation of fundamental
rights. The Social Democrats in opposition announced they would substantially
alter the text of the bill, because it comes against citizen rights and
freedoms. On the other hand, the Government accuses the Social Democratic Party
of irresponsibility over postponing debates on this bill, which according to
the Cabinet enhances the efficiency of COVID-19 containment measures while at
the same time complying with the Constitutional Court ruling. The Senate will
cast the decisive vote on this bill early next week.

EU The German Chancellor Angela Merkel
presented the European Parliament with the programme of the rotating presidency
of the Council of the EU, which Berlin will be holding for the next 6 months.
The German official once again called for solidarity and unity among member
states, so that they may emerge stronger from the coronavirus crisis. Merkel
described this health crisis as the biggest challenge for the EU and explained
that the future multi-annual budget as well as the post COVID-19 recovery fund
must not only help in the short run, but also lead to a long-term reform of the
Union. In turn, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen
warned politicians and institutions not to disregard the multi-annual budget in
favour of the economic recovery instrument, dubbed Next Generation EU. Member
states must overcome divergences over a number of issues, such as the funds
earmarked for the recovery plan, its duration, the loan-to-grant ratio or the
criteria for fund allotment to member countries.