May 5, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 05.05.2021, 13:55

Pandemic. More than 85,000 people received the
Covid vaccine in the last 24 hours in Romania, according to official reports. Almost 2.1
million people nationwide have been given both doses since the start of the
mass vaccination campaign. The authorities have diversified the means by which Romanians
can get the vaccine if they wish to do so and
thus be able to reach the 5 million-people target set for 1st June. Vaccines are administered in non-stop vaccination centres, drive-through clinics, at the
workplace, at GP practices and in non-Covid hospitals and, from Friday, no
appointment will be necessary. 1,564 new
coronavirus cases and 142 new related fatalities were recorded today in Romania,
with total infections passing 1 million and the death toll at more than 28,600.

Economy. In its
weekly meeting today, the government is again assessing the country’s National
Recovery and Resilience Plan. Prime minister Florin Cîţu and his cabinet will
continue to assess the plan to harmonise it with the latest recommendations of
the European Commission. The plan contains projects worth 29 billion euros. The
prime minister said recently that the plan will absorb all European funds made available
to Romania.

Anti-corruption.
GRECO, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body concludes in a report
published today that Romania’s level of compliance with its anti-corruption
recommendations in respect of parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors is still
globally unsatisfactory. The report says that Romania only fully implemented
five of GRECO’s 18 recommendations following an evaluation from 2015 and an
ad-hoc evaluation procedure launched in 2017 on aspects related to judicial
reform. The report does welcome the further consolidation of the supervisory
role of the Superior Council of Magistracy and the judicial inspectorate and
the carrying out of awareness-raising
initiatives to strengthen judicial integrity and providing more uniform
and swift disciplinary procedures in the judicial system.

Defence. Some 15,000 military, including 10,000
Romanian and 5,000 from 17 allied and partner nations, are taking part in the
most complex training operation held since the start of the pandemic, namely a
series of exercises known as Dacia 21 Livex, led by the Joint Forces Command of
the Romanian Defence Staff. The participating countries include France,
Germany, Italy, the UK, the Republic of Moldova, Spain, the US, Turkey and
Hungary. The drills are aimed at consolidating national and allied defence and deterrence
posture.

Tennis. The Romanian-German pair Horia Tecău and Kevin Krawietz on Tuesday reached the
third round of the Madrid tennis tournament as they defeated the Finnish-French
pair Henri Kontinen and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Tecău and Krawietz will next
play fourth seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Filip Polasek of Slovakia. Tecău
has two doubles titles in Madrid, from 2016 and 2019, when he paired with Jean-Julien
Rojer of the Netherlands.

Volleyball. Romania
will play Albania in Nitra, in Slovakia, in their first match as part of the
qualifying campaign for the 2021 Men’s European Volleyball Championship.
Romania are in Group E together with Slovakia, Switzerland and Albania.
Qualifying matches were initially due last summer, but they were first
postponed and then grouped into two distinct tournaments. Romania will next play
Slovakia on Friday and Switzerland on Saturday. The second qualifying round
will be held next weekend in Ploieşti, Romania. The winners of the seven
preliminary groups will qualify for the European Championships, as well as five
of the second best-placed teams. The championship will be hosted by four
countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland and will take
place between 1st and 9th September. (CM)