October 27, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 27.10.2021, 20:00

COVID-19 – The epidemiological situation remains
serious in Romania, which on Wednesday reported almost 15,000 cases and 512
deaths, including 4 recorded earlier. 1,861 Covid patients are in intensive
care, including 44 children. Over 150 thousand people got vaccinated in the
last 25 hours, of whom 111 with the first dose. The number of fully jabbed
people has now exceeded 6 million. The coordinator of the mass vaccination
campaign Valeriu Gheorghiţă said that if the current pace is maintained, 70% of
Romania’s population over the age of 12 may receive the vaccine by the end of
the year.

ACQUISITION – The Romanian company Romgaz reached
an agreement with the American giant ExxonMobil for the acquisition of the
latter’s stake in a Black Sea offshore block. The deal is expected to go
through in the first quarter of next year. ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom currently
hold equal shares in the deep-sea Black Sea block where reserves of up to 84
billion cubic metres of natural gas are believed to be found.

GOVERNMENT – The Prime Minister designate Nicolae Ciucă said he
would continue talks with USR and PSD to gain support for his Cabinet. The
Liberal official recalled that his mandate is to obtain support for a minority
government made up of the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. Ciucă said he would submit the governing programme
and the list of ministers on Saturday. We recall the interim cabinet led by Florin Cîțu was ousted following a no-confidence vote
in Parliament.

VISIT – Egypt is one of Romania’s traditional
allies in the Middle East and Africa and an important economic and sectoral
partner, said Romanian president Klaus Iohannis in Cairo, in a joint press
conference together with his counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Romania and Egypt are
celebrating 115 years of diplomatic relations, a period characterised by mutual
trust and respect, Iohannis also said. He emphasised that business people from
Egypt and Romania must be encouraged to start joint projects, both at bilateral
level and on third markets. The two heads of state agreed to identify new ways
to boost cooperation in crucial areas such as defence, energy, agriculture,
transport, IT&C, cyber security, education, research and innovation.

GREEN
CERTIFICATE – The Senate on
Wednesday voted against a bill proposing to make all access to public
institutions conditional on holding the Covid certificate, including for
employees. PSD and AUR voted against the bill. The bill stipulated the same
provisions applied to private businesses where more than 50 employees are
working at the same time. Additionally, all work would be suspended for
employees who do not hold the green certificate, while their salary rights
would be withheld for 30 days, after which point their employment agreements
may be terminated. All employees not holding the certificate would also have to
cover their own RT-PCR tests. The bill will now go to the Chamber of Deputies,
the decision-making body in this case.

ENERGY – The Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday
adopted the draft emergency decree on subsidizing the increase in electricity
and natural gas prices. Over November 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022, the state will
introduce an assistance mechanism helping home users, SMEs, individual medical
practices and other self-employed categories, as well as hospitals, schools,
churches and NGOs cover their energy bills. The bill will be submitted to
president Klaus Iohannis for ratification.

VISAS – The US is considering adding four
countries to its Visa Waiver program, including Romania. We have four
candidates in the pipeline: Israel, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania, said
the Secretary for Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, adding We’re very, very focused on the program. In September, the US added Croatia on
the visa waiver list, which allows its citizens to travel to the US without a
visa for a period of 90 days. 40 countries are currently part of this program.
Recently, Romanian ambassador to the US Andrei Muraru said he was convinced
that Romanians would be able to travel to US visa-free by the end of 2024.

TENNIS – Romanian player Simona Halep defeated
Gabriela Ruse on Wednesday in the first round of the Transylvania Open under
way in Cluj Napoca, western Romania. Halep will next play Varvara Graceva of
Russia. On Tuesday, the British-Romanian-Chinese player Emma Răducanu won in Cluj her first match since
becoming the US Open champion. She defeated Slovenia’s Polona Hercog to reach
the second round, where she will play Ana Bogdan on Thursday. Also on Thursday,
Irina Bara will play Rebecca Peterson of Sweden. (CM & VP)