March 20, 2021

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 20.03.2021, 14:06

Covid-19RO. 6,096 new cases of COVID-19 were
registered in Romania in 24 hours, out of more than 37 thousand tests run
nationwide, the Strategic Communication Group announced this afternoon. Also, 112 Covid-19 related fatalities were
reported during the same 24-hour interval. The number of people currently in
intensive care has exceeded 1,300, a national record since the start of the
pandemic. Some 900 thousand people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in
Romania since last year. Bucharest and another eight counties are in the so-called red scenario, where the incidence of
the virus exceeds 3 per one thousand inhabitants. Several localities around the
capital city are now under lockdown. In another move, starting December 27,
2020, over 1.6 million people have been vaccinated in Romania, mostly with
Pfizer- BioNTech and Moderna, but also AstraZeneca. On Monday, the vaccination
campaign entered its third stage, for the general population. For the time
being, the campaign is carried out in localities where the incidence rate
exceeds 4.5 per one thousand inhabitants. The rest of the population can
register on waiting lists on the online platform.

Navy
exercise. Over 2,400 soldiers from eight countries, 18 warships
and 10 aircraft are participating, until March 29, in Sea Shield 21, the
largest and most complex NATO multinational exercise organized by the Romanian
Naval Forces in 2021, in the Black Sea. According to the Romanian Ministry of Defense,
the training activities are led by the Fleet Command and the participating
forces are from Bulgaria, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, the
US and Turkey. The main goal of the multinational exercise is to verify and strengthen
the level of interoperability and cooperation between the Romanian Naval Forces
and other categories of forces in the Romanian Army, various structures subordinated
to the Ministry of Interior and other allied naval forces. It includes all stages
of a NATO naval military operation in response to a geopolitical crisis in the
region and has the role of demonstrating the Romanian Army’s constant
commitment to strengthening the Alliance’s maritime position in a volatile
security environment. After the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by
the Russian Federation, in 2014, the Romanian Naval Forces proposed to NATO
allies to introduce this tactical exercise on the agenda of collective training
programs, to develop the interoperability of forces in all combat environments
(maritime, submarine, land and air).The first edition of
the Multinational Exercise ‘Sea Shield’ took place in 2015, and in the
following years its scenarios were adapted to respond, quickly and efficiently,
to the full spectrum of threats to maritime security and regional stability.

Schengen. Romania
has demonstrated on numerous occasions that it has the capacity to ensure
security at the external borders of the European Union and has fulfilled all
Schengen commitments and criteria since ten years ago, the Minister of
Interior, Lucian Bode said in Rome. He
told his Italian counterpart, Luciana Lamorgese, that Bucharest expects the
Union to recognize, by adopting as soon as possible the Decision on admission
to the Schengen Area, the essential role in Europe’s security architecture.
Initially scheduled for March 2011, Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the
free movement area has been repeatedly postponed due to opposition from some
member countries, which have claimed a lack of judiciary reforms. Regarding the
current situation of migratory flows to the EU, Lucian Bode gave assurances
that the situation at Romania’s borders is under control and constantly
monitored. He also recalled that the largest community of Romanians in the
Diaspora lives in Italy, and their presence in the Peninsula is a vector of the
bilateral strategic partnership.

National plan. Small
and medium-sized entrepreneurs in Romania criticize the proposal for the
allocation of European funds made by the PNL-USR + -UDMR Government through the
National Recovery and Resilience Plan and show that the amounts allocated to
the private environment are dramatically lower. The President of the SME
Council, Florin Jianu, writes in a post on Facebook that the entire amount goes
to financial instruments, that is loans guaranteed by the state, although the
structure of the Romanian economy shows that only three out of ten small and
medium-seized enterprises can get loans from banks. He says that tens of
thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises have been affected by the
health crisis, and that they need to regain competitiveness. Jianu also claims
that the recovery plan completely lacks programs for startup companies, while
the document provides for a program for NGOs. The government discussed in
Friday’s meeting the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is subject to
public debate. Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu announced that, next week,
through a memorandum, the Executive will adopt the mandate through which this
program will be negotiated. The prime minister also said that the NRRP allocates important resources for road and railway infrastructure, highways,
the gas network, the construction of new hospitals, and social measures are
also included. The document must be sent to the European Commission in April,
for Romania to benefit from over 30 billion euros for development by 2026, the
year by which all the projects included in this plan must be completed.

Francophonie. The French
language, culture and institutions were an important source of inspiration in
the process of forming the modern Romanian state, the Romanian Foreign Minister
Bogdan Aurescu states in a message conveyed
on the International Francophonie Day. Romania celebrates on March 20,
along with 87 other countries around the world, the International Francophonie
Day and is the country with the strongest
francophone ties in Central and Eastern Europe , the message also reads. The
minister also says that Romania, with 30 years of membership in the Francophone
movement, actively contributes to the key objectives of the International
Organization of the Francophonie: promoting the French language and cultural
and linguistic diversity, promoting peace, democracy and human rights,
strengthening solidarity between francophone states through economic
cooperation, for sustainable development and support for education and
research. Romania is the zonal center of the Francophonie, hosting the Regional
Offices of the OIF and the Francophone University Agency in Bucharest, as well
as a large number of embassies of French-speaking states. Over one million
Romanian students learn French, and many schools have bilingual programs. In
September 2006, Bucharest hosted the OIF summit.

Handball. The
Romanian women’s handball national team meets, tonight, the Norwegian national
team, in its first match of the pre-Olympic tournament in Podgorica,
Montenegro. Norway has two Olympic titles, three world and eight European
titles and is the defending continental champion. On Sunday, the Romanians will
play against the host team. On Friday, Montenegro defeated Norway 28-23. The
top two contenders at the Podgorica tournament will qualify for the Tokyo
Olympics in the summer. In the men’s category, a week ago, the Romanian
national team was unexpectedly defeated in Bucharest by Kosovo, 25-30, in the
8th group of t4he second preliminary round of next year’s European Championship. Sweden
ranks first in the group, with 6 points from 3 games, followed by Romania, 3
points (4 games), Kosovo, 3 points (4 games) and Montenegro, 2 points (3 games).
Romania’s last matches will take place on April 28, against Sweden, in Sibiu
(center), and on May 2, against Montenegro, in Podgorica. The last
participation of the Romanian men’s national team in a final continental
tournament was in 1996, in Spain, where they finished ninth. (MI)