June 12, 2021 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 12.06.2021, 19:36

G7
Leaders of the world’s seven most developed countries are expected to endorse a
proposal by US president Joe Biden for a global minimum corporate tax of at
least 15%, the White House has announced. The Global Minimum Tax plan, also
known as GMT, would effectively put an end to the practice of global
corporations seeking out low-tax jurisdiction to move their headquarters to,
even though their customers, operations and executives are located elsewhere. A
decision on the GMT is going to be officially made during the G 7 summit, which
kicked off in Cornwall, the UK, on Friday. The summit of G7 countries whose
economies account for 40% of the global economy has an ambitious agenda.
Leaders from the United States, France, the UK, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy
plus the EU leaders are trying to find solutions to global issues, such as
vaccine supplies for the entire planet, solutions to the present economic
crisis as well as ways to fight the global warming. Britain announced a
donation of over 100 million vaccine doses to the poor countries while the USA
is going to donate 500 million doses to 100 developing countries.

COVID-19 The number of Covid-19 infections in Romania is still low with
127 new cases reported on Saturday. 5 new Covid-related fatalities have been
reported in the past 24 hours and 236 patients are in intensive care. The
vaccine rollout continues at a lower pace though with only 39 thousand doses
administered in the past 24 hours. Since the vaccine rollout kicked off in
Romania in December last year, over 4 million people have been fully
vaccinated.

RELAXATION New relaxation measures were imposed in Romania on Friday night
when the state of alert across the country had been extended for another month.
So, indoor private events can be attended by 200 people in regions with an
infection rate below 3 per thousand only if the participants are all
vaccinated, tested negative for the virus or already had the disease. Outdoor
events may have an attendance up to the maximum capacity of the facility
hosting the event. In Bucharest mask mandates are still in place around schools
as well as indoor or crowded outdoor facilities.

PNRR The European Commission has started assessing the recovery plans
it has received from the member countries willing to access funds from the
European recovery plan. The Commission has made a series of observations and
called for additional information after it received the recovery and resilience
plan made by Romania. The European Commission has two months to assess the
national recovery plans, one of the main conditions being that the applicants
earmark at least 37% to ecological transition and 20 % to the digital sector.
Education, healthcare, transport and infrastructure as well as digitization and
public administration reforms are the main domains the National Plan of
Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) focuses on and where Romania pledges to invest
all the roughly 30 million Euros it is going to attract. All investment must be completed by 2026.

LOAN
The World Bank will give Romania a 150 million Euros loan to improve the
quality of its medical system. The money is to be used for improving the
country’s telemedicine services and the screening network for cervical cancer,
to build burns units and fit them with the equipment they need. The new loan
agreement was signed in Bucharest and is completing an initial funding stage
for a project currently underway in Romania.

WEATHER According to meteorologists, the weather
will be unsettled in Romania until Tuesday with rain showers, strong winds and
thunderstorms mainly in the country’s north. Flood warnings have been issued
for 15 counties in Romania and temperatures are expected to range between 20
and 28 degrees Celsius.

FOOTBALL Wales versus Switzerland ended
in a one-all draw in Baku, Azerbaijan, in Group A of the European Football Championship
2020. Italy tops the group with 3 points after a 3-0 win against Turkey on
Friday. In a first for the Romanian capital, Bucharest will be hosting four
games: Austria versus North Macedonia on June 13th, Ukraine versus
North Macedonia on June 17th and Ukraine versus Austria on June 21st,
all of them in group C. Romania will also be hosting a match in the round of 16
on 28th June. Also in a first for Romania, the country will have two
teams of referees at the aforementioned competition.

(bill)