November 1, 2022

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 01.11.2022, 13:55

Visit.
The president of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu is today making an official
visit to Bucharest for talks with Romanian president Klaus Iohannis and prime
minister Nicolae Ciucă. The trip comes as Moldova is struggling to ensure its electricity
and natural gas supplies as a result of the war in Ukraine. Romania supports the
neighbouring state in this respect and also announced it would continue to help
Moldova with the management of Ukrainian refugees. During her trip to
Bucharest, Maia Sandu will also have talks with the members of the Moldovan Business
People and attend an international conference entitled Women MPs in Romania
and the promotion of gender equality as a national commitment organised by the
interim senate speaker Alina Gorghiu.

Energy.
At 55%, Romania has one of the five highest increases in the price of
electricity and natural gas in the European Union in the first half of the
year. According to Eurostat, some EU states even saw prices drop, like The
Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland and Hungary, where the price is regulated by the
state. In the first half of the year, Europeans paid on average over 25 euros
per 100 KWh from 22 euros in the first half of 2021. Natural gas was also more
expensive across the EU, from 6.5 to 8.6 euros for 100 KWh. The increasingly
high energy bills have pushed the inflation upwards in the eurozone to a record
level of 10.7%, according to provisional estimates published by Eurostat. This is
the first time that the increase in prices reaches double-digits in the
eurozone. The previous record of 9.9% was reached last month. In its attempts
to keep the inflation rate in check, the European Central Bank last week
decided to raise its monetary policy interest rates by a further 0.75%, with
yet more increases expected in the coming months.

Gas.
Romania’s gas storage level nears 97%, said energy minister Virgil Popescu. He again promised there won’t be problems with
the gas supply this winter. The minimum mandatory storage filling level in the
European Union is 80%, and was reached as early as mid September. Gas storage
facilities across the Union are almost full.

Anniversary.
Radio Romania turns 94 today. 1st November 1928 saw the first
broadcast of the Society of Radiotelephonic Broadcasting, as the public radio
service was named in official documents when it was first established. Later becoming
a public autonomous service of national interest and with regional
independence, the station hosted, from as early as the 1920s, the first radio
play, the first children’s programme, the first live broadcast from the
Romanian Opera House and the first sports broadcast. In
recognition of its role in the history of Romania, Parliament in 2019 established
1st of November as National Radio Day in Romania.

Plagiarism. The Save Romania Union in opposition is calling for the resignation of the Liberal interior minister
Lucian Bode, after the ethics commission of the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj
Napoca published the results of an assessment of his doctoral thesis. The commission
found that the paper contains quotation errors and plagiarised sections accounting
for 3% of the thesis. The report says it is not clear the plagiarism is
intentional, but rather the result of ignorance of quotation rules. The Save
Romania Union says these findings demonstrate plagiarism, which the minister rejects
and says he will correct the errors made in seven of the paper’s 220 pages. (CM)