November 17, 2022

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 17.11.2022, 13:55

Rectification – The Romanian government has scheduled for today the second meeting of this week aimed at correcting the budget for this year. It is about a positive rectification that will also lead to a reduction of the deficit to 5.74% of the Gross Domestic Product, from a previous 5.84%. The Finance Minister, Adrian Câciu, explained that the rectification was made on the principle of allocating additional funds to ensure the functioning of the administrative-territorial units, the normal unfolding of the activity of some of the main authorizing officers or the financing of the expenses with scholarships granted to students. At the same time, they took into consideration the provision of the necessary funds for homes for the elderly or people with serious disabilities and their personal assistants. Funds were also granted for farmers affected by the drought.

Talks – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, is today in Luxembourg, for talks with his counterpart Jean Asselborn about the expansion of sectoral cooperation in which the Grand Duchy can offer expertise and assistance, such as financial and IT services, cyber security, green energy, research and development, agriculture and tourism. According to a press release from the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the two ministers are also addressing topics such as countering the food crisis, the impact of the war in Ukraine on other states in the region, with an emphasis on the Republic of Moldova, and supporting energy security. At the same time, Minister Aurescu presents the stage of Romanias accession process to the Schengen area, thanking his counterpart for Luxembourgs constant support in achieving this goal.

Football – Romanias national football team meets Slovenia today in a friendly match played in Cluj-Napoca (north-west). On Sunday, the Romanian footballers will play, also a friendly match, against the Republic of Moldova, in Chisinau. Romania did not qualify for the World Cup in Qatar and is preparing the preliminaries for Euro 2024. Its opponents in group I are Switzerland, Israel, Kosovo, Belarus and Andorra. The two first-ranking teams will obtain qualification.

Ukraine — The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, insists that the missile that killed two people in Poland on Tuesday was Russian. The representatives of NATO, the United States and Poland stated that the incident was most likely caused by a Ukrainian missile that went astray during the defense against the massive Russian air attack. President Zelensky, on the other hand, claims that he has no reason not to believe the reports of his military commanders, which state the opposite, and has asked that the Ukrainian experts should participate in the international investigation into this issue. The head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, declared, after a meeting of the ambassadors from the allied states, that Russia is, anyway, the main responsible, because it continues the illegal war against Ukraine. Moscow denied any involvement in the explosion in Poland, and the Russian ambassador to the UN accused Kyiv and Warsaw of seeking to cause a direct conflict between Russia and NATO through their statements. The Kremlin said, however, that it saw no reason for escalation after the incident in Poland.

Assessment — A mixed team of experts from the European Commission and some member states, including the Netherlands, will be in Romania this week to assess the state of preparation for Schengen accession. According to the Bucharest Government, the visit is voluntary, similar to the one that took place between October 9-11. On Wednesday, the European Commission requested that Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia be part of the Schengen Area of ​​free movement without delay. The EC points out that Romania has a solid and high-quality border management and is involved in international cooperation in border police matters.

Refugees – The Border Police General Inspectorate informs that on Wednesday, 66,246 people entered Romania through border points throughout the country, of whom 7,976 were Ukrainian citizens, an increase of about 5% compared to the previous day. According to a communique sent to the media on Thursday, starting on February 10, 2022, two weeks before the Russian army invaded their country, 2,847,088 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. Most of them continued their journey to countries in Western Europe, but over 86,500 chose to stay in Romania, according to the Romanian authorities.

Elections — The Republicans have secured the seats needed for a majority in the lower house of the United States Congress, one week after the midterm elections, while the Democrats retain control of the Senate. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Washington, the estimates show that, once the counting of all the votes is completed, the Republicans will have 221 seats in the House of Representatives, compared to the Democrats, who would get 214. A hostile Lower House of the Congress will make difficult the Democrat President Joe Biden’s last two years of mandate. He said he was ready to work with the new majority, if it is going to be for the good of the American people. (LS)