October 11, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 11.10.2021, 23:05

TALKS Romanian president Klaus Iohannis
on Monday decided to designate USR leader Dacian Ciolos for the position of
Prime Minister. The announcement came at the end of the talks he held with
representatives of the political parties and groups in Romania’s Parliament.
Iohannis said that during the talks he reiterated the importance of a couple of
issues that must be solved no matter who is ruling the country, namely the
pandemic and the situation of energy prices. The PNL-UDMR government headed by
Liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu was sacked last week through a censure
motion. The cabinet found itself in minority after the USR had left the ruling
coalition. The Liberals and the Social Democrats came with no proposals for the
position of Prime Minister. And the latter have even voiced hope that the idea
of staging early election will be backed by a majority, a position also shared
by AUR who wants an independent Prime Minister. The USR wants to rebuild the
coalition with PNL and UDMR but without Florin Citu as head of the Executive.
The USR has proposed its president, Dacian Ciolos, and has come up with a
programme of measures and reforms.

VACCINE Romania’s interim Prime
Minister Florin Citu on Monday announced his intention not to attend the
upcoming round of talks on the country’s vaccine rollout in the Chamber of
Deputies. Citu was invited to Parliament on Monday to present a report on the
issue. The invitation was made by the USR who headed the Health Ministry until
the alliance left the coalition government. The USR has blamed Citu for a
failed vaccine rollout, which he wanted to control personally. With one third
of its eligible population immunized, Romania occupies the last but one
position in the EU in terms of vaccination.

COVID-19 On Monday Romania reported
9,148 COVID infections, more than one third of them in the country’s capital
city, Bucharest. 209 Covid-related deaths have also been reported as well as
around 17 thousand patients who are being treated in hospitals. The highest
infection rate, 14 per thousand, has been reported in Bucharest and its
surroundings. The county of Timis, in western Romania, comes next with an
infection rate over 10 per thousand. The large number of infections has given
an impetus to the country’s vaccine rollout and authorities have called on
international organisations for assistance in their attempt to keep the
pandemic at bay.

TRAVEL Between October 12th
and 26th,60 thousand
young people with ages between 19 and 20 from Europe, Romania included, can apply
for permits to travel for free on the EU railway networks through an initiative
known as DiscoverEU. Those selected can travel around the member states between
March 2022 and February 2023 for 30 days at the most. Because of the
unpredictable pandemic, all of these young travelers are going to benefit from
flexible reservations by means of a mobile travel permit, which is adjustable
until departure. Every member state has been allotted a certain number of free
travel permits and the selected ones can travel alone or with a group of up to
five eligible persons.

(bill)