September 23, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 23.09.2020, 19:48

CONFERENCE – Romania’s President Klaus
Iohannis on Wednesday told a press conference that, if basic regulations are observed,
the risk of infection with the new coronavirus will be reduced to a minimum in
voting stations. The president told voters that Sunday’s election is central to
how local municipalities would change over the next four years. Klaus Iohannis
recalled that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the election process this year. Candidates in the local election are vying for
one of the 41 positions of presidents of county councils, 3.200 mayor seats,
1.300 county councilmen and 40.000 local councilmen positions. Originally
slated for June, the local election was postponed due to the coronavirus
pandemic, while the mandates of local officials were extended by another six
months.

CORONAVIRUS
ROMANIA
– Romania has reported 1,767 new coronavirus infections and 47 new deaths in
the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,550. 498 people are in intensive
care. A total of 116,415 cases have been recorded in Romania since the start of
the outbreak. Almost 94,000 people have recovered. Because of infections among
pupils, teachers and auxiliary staff, 300 schools around the country have moved
to remote teaching exclusively. According to the education ministry, 4,400
schools use a combination of online and conventional teaching. Among the
Romanian nationals living abroad, infections reached 6,612, while the death
toll has remained at 126. The highest numbers of cases among Romanians abroad
are in Germany, Italy and Spain.

CORONAVIRUS
WORLD
– 31.7 million coronavirus infections and 975,000 deaths have been confirmed
globally, according to worldometers.info. The United States is the worst hit
country in the world, with more than 7 million infections and over 200,000
deaths. The UK, which has the highest death toll in Europe at 42,000, is seeing
a second wave of the pandemic, with fresh restrictions being announced on
Tuesday. In France, infections rose by 10,000 in a single day.

BUDGET – The minority
Liberal government in Bucharest says it will use every available means to block
the application of an amended budget adjustment law pushed for by the Social
Democratic opposition and which provides for a 40% rise in pensions as of
September 1st and an increase in teachers’ salaries beginning this year. The
finance minister Florin Cîţu says this law would cause a deficit of some 5
billion euros. The Social Democratic Party says, however, that the necessary
money can be found by taking measures such as creating new jobs and recovering
state-owned debts.

STATISTICS – In 2018, EU member
states allocated almost 51 billion euros of government spending to leisure and
sports. Bulgaria and Romania spend the least amounts of money in this respect,
with only 11 and 30 euros, respectively, per inhabitant, while the European
average is 113 euros. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office,
Luxemburg, Sweden, Finland, France, The Netherlands and Denmark spend the
highest amounts in this field.

MIGRATION – The European
Commission on Wednesday proposed an overhaul of its approach to migration,
removing mandatory quotas for refugees but introducing a new mechanism for
constant solidarity among Member States, to be activated whenever a Member
State is facing pressure or emergency situations. Member States will be
able to choose between receiving asylum-seekers, contributing to building
refugee camps or funding the repatriation of people who’ve been waivered their
asylum rights. The new pact basically replaces the Dublin rule for asylum
seekers, whereby the EU country an asylum seeker first enters is responsible
for their claim. The change in policy had been requested by Greece and Italy,
countries taking in a much larger share of migrants. Once the Commission
sanctions the new mechanism, it will also have to decide on the number of
migrants Member States will have to take on from the country facing pressure.
Each Member State will have to make a contribution, proportionate to their
economic power and population. Member States will receive €10,000 for each
adult migrant taken in. Attempts at relocating asylum-seekers within the EU
have been met with opposition from Visegrad nations – Hungary, Poland, the
Czech Republic and Slovakia.

TENNIS – Two Romanian
tennis players on Wednesday advanced to the second qualifying round at Roland
Garros, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Elena Ruse (178 WTA)
defeated Victoria Kan of Russia (221 WTA), 7-5, 6-0, and in the next round she
will be playing Francesca Di Lorenzo (134 WTA) of the United States. Irina Bara
(163 WTA) won 6-2, 6-2 against Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia (242 WTA), and in the
next round she will take on Harriet Dart of Great Britain (150 WTA). Also
today, Gabriela Talabă (240 WTA) lost 7-6, 1-6, 6-2 to Clara Tauson of Denmark
(196 WTA). On Tuesday another three Romanians qualified to the second
preliminary round. Monica Niculescu (141 WTA) defeated Chihiro Muramatsu of
Japan, 6-2, 7-5. Jaqueline Cristian (166 WTA) knocked out Jana Cepelova of
Slovakia, 6-3, 7-6, while Laura Ioana Paar (199 WTA) won 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 against
Margot Yerolymos of France. Five Romanian tennis players have made it to the
main draw at Roland Garros so far: Simona Halep, world no. 2 and seeded 1st,
Patricia Ţig, Irina Begu, Sorana Cîrstea and Ana Bogdan.

(Translated by
C. Mateescu &. V. Palcu)