October 18, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 18.10.2021, 20:00

GOVERNMENT The Standing Bureaus of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies decided that
the proposed members of PM designate Dacian Cioloş’ cabinet will be interviewed
on Tuesday by the relevant parliamentary committees. The vote on the
governmental team as a whole was scheduled for Wednesday. The Romanian prime minister
designate and leader of Save Romania Union (USR), Dacian Cioloş, Monday
submitted to Parliament the governing programme and the proposed membership of
his one-party cabinet, as validated on Sunday by USR. The new Cabinet includes
USR ministers from the former cabinet, as well as new names. Dacian Cioloş
chose the option of a minority, one-party government, after negotiations with
the former partners, the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Union
of Ethnic Hungarians (UDMR), failed to lead to the restoration of the
right-wing coalition. The programme includes decisions related to rebalancing
energy prices, handling the COVID pandemic and other specific issues, such as
the dismantling of the Special Section for the Investigation of Crimes in the
Judiciary and scrapping special pensions. The Cioloş Government needs 234 votes
in Parliament, and the USR has 80 MPs. The former Liberal government led by
Florin Cîţu was dismissed by a motion of no confidence filed by the
Social-Democratic opposition and supported by USR and the nationalist party AUR.

COVID-19 The Romanian interim Interior Minister, Lucian Bode, has announced that
26 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been transferred to Hungary. One of
them unfortunately died in the meantime. The Romanian official added that the
situation these days is rather critical. Meanwhile, 32 medical staff from the
neighbouring Republic of Moldova came to Romania on Monday and will treat
COVID-19 patients for 12 days, in a mobile hospital in the village of Leţcani,
Iaşi County. Authorities in Bucharest announced on Monday more than 10,000 new
SARS-CoV-2 infections and 261 deaths. More than 1,700 patients are currently in
intensive care. Regarding vaccination, in Romania, the number of people that
went through a full vaccination plan stands at roughly 5.7 million.

VACCINE It could take Romania more than 7 months to get 40% of its
population vaccinated against COVID, and 31 months to reach a 70% rate, at the
current vaccination pace, the World Health Organisation estimates. WHO
representatives talked with Romanian authorities on Monday to identify the
cause of the failure of the country’s vaccination programme. Romanian officials
informed the WHO experts of the steep rise in the number of severe cases and
COVID-19 related deaths, and added that 92% of the fatalities were reported
among the unvaccinated. Meanwhile, the WHO said the proportion of fully
vaccinated people is significant in Romania, indicating that once they start
the immunisation, Romanians go through with the required number of doses. The
WHO announced it would work with Bucharest to identify training and know-how
exchange opportunities with respect to vaccine safety and the development of a
communication strategy.

EU MEETINGS The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, participated on Monday in a
videoconference with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and
other European leaders, in preparation for the European Council meeting due on
October 21 – 22, the Presidential Administration has announced. The Romanian head of state emphasised the need to quickly identify
efficient short-term solutions, as the ongoing energy crisis will have
substantial effects on all EU member countries, with a deep social and economic
impact. Klaus Iohannisalso
stressed the importance of diversifying energy supply sources and of reducing
reliance on third countries for energy supplies. The main topics on the agenda
of this week’s European Council meeting are the epidemiological and vaccine
situation, the EU digital agenda, the increase in energy prices, migration, the
European trade policy and the Union’s foreign relations.

PANDEMIC Over one billion anti-COVID vaccines produced in
the EU have been exported to over 150 countries since December 2020, the
president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday. EU exports mainly went to
major economies like Japan, Turkey and the UK. Some of the vaccines were
exported or donated to poorer countries, and according to Ursula von der Leyen
the EU plans to increase donations in the coming months and to send at least
500 million doses to vulnerable countries. Meanwhile, the European Centre for
Disease Prevention warns of the high risk of death among the unvaccinated
population as we move forward in the autumn and winter, urging countries to
speed up efforts to convince those who have not been immunised.
Although at EU level the full vaccination rate is 74% of the adult population,
the gaps between states are still large, ranging between 22% and 91%, with the
lowest rates of vaccinated population reported for Bulgaria and Romania, and
the highest in Portugal and Ireland. Worldwide, so far, at least 241 million
cases of new coronavirus infection have been reported and more than 4.9 million
people have died, according to wordlmeters.info. (tr. A.M. Popescu)