June 19, 2022

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 19.06.2022, 13:42

Three Seas Initiative. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, will participate, on Monday, in the 7th Three Seas Initiative Summit, and in the 4th edition of the Business Forum of the Initiative, both organized in Riga, Latvia. The leaders of the participating states will analyze how they should position themselves in the current situation of European security generated by the war in Ukraine. They will also discuss the contribution that the Three Seas Initiative can bring, through the implementation of strategic interconnection projects, in the three core areas of the Initiative: transport, energy and digital. According to the Romanian Presidential Administration, President Klaus Iohannis will reiterate Romania’s support for Ukraine both bilaterally and multilaterally. At the same time, Klaus Iohannis will highlight the importance of the Initiative providing similar support to the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, as states that, like Ukraine, have a vocation to become members of the European Union. The Three Seas Initiative is a presidential political platform that brings together the 12 member states of the European Union between the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.

Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky has visited the troops fighting the invading Russian army in the
south. He’s met with military personnel defending the Black Sea region of Mykolaiv
and Odessa near the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. The president
also went to the former Mykolaiv regional administration headquarters, which
was destroyed by Russian bombing, which also killed 37 people there. A port and
industrial city with almost half a million inhabitants before the war, Mykolaiv
remained under Ukrainian control, but is close to the Kherson region, which is
almost entirely occupied by the Russians. The city is an important target for
Moscow, because it is on the way to Odessa, the largest port in Ukraine,
located only 130 kilometers south of the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, mostly
Romanian-speaking) and before the blockade imposed by the Russian military
fleet , the main outlet for Ukrainian grain exports. Russia has turned
the Black Sea into a war zone by blocking shipments of grain and fertilizers
from Ukraine, and has limited its own exports, said European Foreign
Minister Josep Borrell, who accused Moscow of blackmail. In eastern
Ukraine, in the Donbas coal basin, heavy fighting continues for the towns of
Severodonetsk and Lysiciansk. Kyiv officials say they fear that their country
could be attacked again and again from the north, on the territory of Belarus, one
of Russia’s most docile allies.

Refugees. Nearly 11,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered neighboring
Romania in the past 24 hours, up 19% from the previous day. According to the
Border Police, almost 6,700 refugees crossed the border with Ukraine, and about
1,100 Ukrainian citizens the border with the Republic of Moldova. In both cases
figures are on the rise. Since the invasion of their country by the Russian
army on February 24, more than 1,200,000 Ukrainians have entered Romania.

ANAF. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) has
announced that checks on individuals who cannot justify their assets will start
on July 1st. Those taxpayers
are targeted, for whom there are very big differences, of at least 50 thousand
lei (the equivalent of 10 thousand euros) between the revenues estimated by the
controllers of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and those declared
by the respective persons – said ANAF President Lucian Hey. He stated that the
institution he runs has found such differences between the estimated revenues
and those declared in the case of over 560 thousand people and stressed that
the number of control teams in this field will increase from 22, as they are
today, to almost 100.

Election. The French are called to the polls on Sunday for the
second round of legislative elections, the outcome of which depends on the
reforms promised by centrist President Emmanuel Macron, re-elected in April for
a new five-year term. In the first round, on June 12, the Coalition Together !,
dominated by the presidential party, and the cartel of the radical left, Nupes,
obtained almost identical scores, 25.75% and 25.66% of the vote, respectively.
Nothing indicates, analysts note, that after the decisive ballot, the centrists
could obtain an absolute majority, i.e. 289 of the 577 seats in the National
Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The alliance of the left, led by the
septuagenarian Marxist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, third in the first round of the
presidential election, hopes, in turn, to win the majority and impose on Macron
a so-called cohabitation with a government that would be rather hostile. The
far right, led by Marine Le Pen, defeated by Macron in the decisive round of
the presidential election, could win at least 15 seats and thus reach the
threshold set to form a parliamentary group, for the first time in more than
three decades. Polling institutes predict that last Sunday’s record absenteeism
rate of 52.49% could be surpassed in the second round. Especially young people,
potential left-wing voters, seem disinterested in the political game: 75% of
those aged 18 to 24 and 65% of those aged 25-34 did not come to the polls last
Sunday.

Swimming. Romanian swimmers Robert Glinţ and David Popovici have qualified
for the semifinals of the 100 m backstroke and 200 m freestyle events,
respectively, at the World Aquatics Championship in Budapest, in neighboring
Hungary. Robert Glinţ competed in the sixth series in the 100 m backstroke and
was timed with 53 sec 86/100, the 13th
in the series. In his first participation in a World Championship for seniors
in the Olympic pool, David Popovici managed the best time in the series in the
200 m freestyle, 1 min 45 sec 18/100. The semifinals are due today. (MI)