October 14, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 14.10.2022, 20:00

GAS RESERVES – Romania’s gas
reserves exceeded 90% storage capacity on Friday, thus covering the necessary
demand for household users and businesses for the upcoming cold season,
regardless of the weather, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă has announced. The
Romanian official called on the relevant authorities to continue stockpiling
natural gas at a high pace and to carefully watch gas demand. We recall that in
June, the European Parliament passed a resolution requiring Member States to
reach at last 80% gas storage capacity by the end of the year. Gas reserves
were labeled a critical resource, and EU official recommended all states should
secure gas reserves up to 90% of their storage capacity.

NATO – 14 NATO allies,
including Romania, as well as Finland signed a Letter of Intent for the
development of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a common European air and
missile defense system. Spearheaded by Germany, the initiative provides for
installing Arrow 3 anti-ballistic systems developed by Israel and the USA and
American Patriot systems in European states. This multinational and
multifaceted approach offers a flexible and scalable way for nations to
strengthen their deterrence and defense in an efficient and cost-effective
way, NATO deputy Secretary General, Mircea
Geoană, said on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers meeting held in
Brussels.

TRILATERAL MEETING – Officials from
Bulgaria, Greece and Romania on Friday had a trilateral meeting in Sofia,
Bulgaria. Energy infrastructure, support for Ukraine and the European prospect
of the Western Balkans ranked high on the agenda of the meeting, Bulgaria’s
Foreign Minister, Velislava Petrova said. The Greek Alternate Minister for
European Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, highlighted the need to eliminate the
countries’ dependency of Russian energy imports, underscoring the importance of
the recently inaugurated gas pipeline linking Greece to Bulgaria. Minister
Varvitsiotis underscored the need for Greece, Romania and Bulgaria to join
efforts to help Ukraine recover after the war. The Romanian Secretary of State
for European Affairs, Daniela Grigore Gîtman, in turn referred to the need to
boost efforts with a view to admitting countries in the Western Balkans in the
European Union. Secretary Gîtman also argued in favor of the European
integration of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

DEFICIT – Romania’s current
account deficit went up by 6 billion EUR in the first eight months of the year
compared to the similar period of 2021, reaching nearly 17 billion EUR, the
Central Bank reports. The biggest deficit was reported for goods and services.
Romania’s external debt also went up by over 5 billion EUR during the same
interval, now standing at 141.7 billion EUR. Government debt exceeded 125
billion EUR, accounting for 48% of the GDP in August, the same as in July and
the end of 2021.

BOOK FAIR – Romania will be
represented this year at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, to
be held over October 19-23. Romania’s pavilion is organized by the Ministry of
Culture and is due to host public readings, author sessions, book launches,
debates, negotiations between publishers, print shops and authors, the Ministry
of Culture announced on Friday. Much like previous years, authors and
publishers from the Republic of Moldova will also be well represented in the
fair. This year, the ministries of culture of Romania and the Republic of
Moldova are cooperating to ensure the best possible representation of
Romanian-language literature from both countries. The series of Romanian events
will end on October 22 with the presentation of the album Order 7161, created by photographer Mark Schroeder. The volume is
an elaborate documentation effort illustrating the trajectory of German
nationals deported from Romania to Siberia during World War II. The event will
be followed by a public debate on the recent market release of the volume Why Romanians are Different from Germans,
written by Jan Cornelius and Adina Popescu and published in German.

PILGRIMAGE – Thousands of
Orthodox Christians on Friday attended Holy Mass at the Metropolitanate of
Moldavia and Bukovina devoted to the Feast Day of Saint Paraskeva of the
Balkans. Pilgrims from all over the country and abroad formed kilometer-long
queues to get before the reliquary of Saint Paraskeva, who is particularly
honored in Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian and Serbian Orthodox churches. In 1955,
the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church agreed to generalize the cult,
establishing October 14 as the Saint’s Feast Day. Also known as Holy Friday,
Saint Paraskeva is considered to be the patron saint of Moldavia and the poor.
(VP)