May 21, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 21.05.2020, 19:51

COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – The number
of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Romania has exceeded 17.500. Of these 1.156
have died and over 10.500 have recovered. Over 3.000 Romanians living abroad
have tested positive for COVID-19, mostly in Italy, Spain and Germany. Of
these, 105 have died. The authorities
and experts recommend the wearing of masks. Failure to wear masks would
increase the infection rate to 70%. In another development, the president of
the Committee for Clinical and Epidemiological Management with the Health
Ministry, Adriana Pistol, estimates that the number of infections in Romania
could reach 20,000 by autumn.

REPATRIATIONS
– The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest on Thursday announced that over May 21-24
seven flights will be set up to European states to bring home Romanian
nationals with temporary stay permits who have been affected by the measures
adopted by other states to prevent the pandemic from spreading. 5 flights will
head to Spain, one to France and one to Great Britain. Also on Thursday the
Ministry announced 156 Romanian nationals and two foreign citizens with stay
permits for Romania have been returned to the country. According to the Romanian
Foreign Ministry, the action was carried out with a special flight operated by
the national airliner TAROM to Rome. The same flight also transported some 132
Italian citizens from Bucharest to Rome. The Foreign Ministry has renewed its
previous recommendations to verify all information on its webpage and the
websites of Romania’s diplomatic missions and consular offices abroad.

FINE – Romanian President
Klaus Iohannis has been fined by the National Council for Combating
Discrimination with the equivalent of 1 thousand euros for discrimination and
violation of the right to dignity on grounds of ethnicity / nationality, for
some of his recent statements. The leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic
Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, has said that the Council’s decision is
fair while the interim leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu,
has said Iohannis should apologize publicly for his statements about the
Hungarians. Marcel Ciolacu himself was targeted by the President’s message, which
accused the Social Democrats of
fighting in their secret offices in Parliament to give Transylvania to the
Hungarians. The Presidency has announced Klaus Iohannis will appeal the Council’s
decision in Court, as he considers it to be a political move.

BILATERAL
RELATIONS – Romania is an excellent destination for business people, and
the Romanian Government is open to encouraging investment, Prime Minister
Ludovic Orban said on Thursday during a videoconference held with his Polish
counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. The two officials reviewed the status and
development prospects of bilateral relations, including in the economic and
trade fields, amidst economic recovery measures introduced at European and
national levels after the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban
recently announced that the Government is planning on setting up a new
investment fund, based on the successful model of the Polish Development Fund.
The new fund will be financed from the state budget, the EU budget,
state-issued bonds and the capital of financial institutions and investment
agencies. The Fund is run by the Surveillance Council made up of independent
members.

BORDER POLICE -
Chief Inspector Liviu Bute will take over the Border Police General
Inspectorate, after Ioan Buda stepped down on Thursday for personal reasons. In
recent days the Hungarian border has been overcrowded after the state of
emergency was lifted in Romania, with wait times reaching 12 hours. As of
Thursday, 10 border crossing points on the Hungarian border are operational.
The longest wait times are reported at Nadlac, where checks are being performed
to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading. According to the Border
Police, wait times are not significantly long for entry into the country in any
of the border crossing points.

(Translated by V. Palcu & E. Enache)