September 28, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 28.09.2020, 19:50

ELECTION
– President Klaus Iohannis on Monday said Sunday’s results in the local
election mark a victory for Romanian democracy, but also an unprecedented
victory reported by right-wing parties. The President said the voter turnout
was good, considering the health crisis the country is facing, and this proves
society is acting responsibly. Romanians have voted for a new direction, for
common sense and respect towards citizens, as well as for democracy, President
Iohannis said. The President congratulated the National Liberal Party and the
Save Romania Union – PLUS alliance for their good results in Sunday’s ballot,
and asked them to continue cooperating with a view to shaping up a new majority
in Parliament after the legislative election slated for December. According to
partial results, the independent candidate Nicuşor Dan, backed by the
National Liberal Party in power and the Save Romania Union – PLUS alliance won
42.78% of the vote, to the detriment of his opponent, Social-Democrat Gabriela
Firea, the current Mayor General of Bucharest, who won 37.95% of the vote.
Candidates supported by the National Liberal Party and Save Romania Union-PLUS have
reported victories in 3 of the 6 districts in the capital city, while left-wing
candidates have won the mayor seats in the other three. Over 46% of Romanians
voted in Sunday’s ballot to elect 41 presidents of county councils, over 1,300
county councilmen, 40,000 local councilmen and over 3,200 mayors. Nationwide,
the Social-Democratic Party has reportedly won 20 county councils, the Liberals
17 and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4.

COVID-19
– 1,271 new coronavirus infections were reported on Monday in Romania, taking
the total number of cases to almost 124,000. 99,344 people have recovered. 30
new deaths were also reported on Monday, with the death toll now standing at
4,748. Globally, the pandemic has caused more than 1 million deaths and over
33.3 million infections, according to worldometers.info. Some 25 million people
have recovered. The worst hit regions in terms of number of deaths are Latin
America and the Caribbean, Europe, the United States and Canada. In the US
alone, infections have passed 7.3 million and the death toll is nearing
210,000. India also topped 6 million cases on Monday. According to World Health
Organization officials, coronavirus fatalities could double to 2 million before
a successful vaccine is widely used, and this figure could be even higher
without coordinated measures to contain the pandemic.

FUNDING
– The European Commission has approved modifying the Competitiveness
Operational Programme for Romania, by redirecting funding worth €550 million
from the Cohesion Fund in order to offset the economic fallout of the
coronacrisis. According to a Commission release, some 120,000 SMEs and other
digitization and e-education initiatives will be able to access the funds. The
Commission recalls Romania has already attracted some €350 million worth of EU
funds in the healthcare sector to help doctors in the first line of defense
against COVID-19. Thanks to the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, a
total of €900 million from the Cohesion Fund is being earmarked to efforts at
combating the coroanvirus and its effects in Romania.

EPPO -
Romanian Laura Codruța Kovesi was sworn
in on Monday as the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office at the
Court of Justice of the European Union. Joining her in the swearing-in ceremony
were another 22 prosecutors representing the 22 EPPO member states. In a joint
agreement signed on October 16, 2019, the European Parliament and the Council
of the European Union designated Laura Codruța Kovesi as the first head of the
EPPO. Under a resolution passed on July 27, 2020, the Council of the European
Union appointed the first European prosecutors. EPPO is an independent body of
the European Union charged with investigating, prosecuting and taking to court
crimes that infringe on the EU’s financial interests, such as corruption, or
cross-border VAT fraud that result in a prejudice exceeding €10 million. To
this end, the EPPO is conducting investigations and prosecutions working with
the relevant courts of law in member states. The EPPO will be headquartered in
Luxembourg.

DEFICIT – Romania’s budget deficit went up to 5.18% of the GDP after the first
eight months of the year, from 2.1% in the similar period of last year, the
Ministry of Finance reports. Over half of the deficit reflects the costs of
measures introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. According to official
estimates, the budget deficit will reach 8.6% this year, 5% of which directly accounting
for the economic fallout of COVID-19.

TENNIS – 4 Romanian tennis players will
be competing in Tuesday’s first round at Roland Garros. Ana Bogdan will take on
Timea Babos of Hungary, Monica Niculescu will play Danielle Collins of the
United States, Sorana Cîrstea will
go up against Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, while Irina Bara will play Donna
Vekic of Croatia. On Wednesday, Simona Halep, the top seed at Roland Garros,
will play another Romanian player, Irina Begu. In the last encounter at the
semi-finals in Prague, Halep defeated Begu. Eight Romanian players will compete
in the women’s doubles: Raluca Olaru, Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu,
Andreea Mitu, Irina Bara, Ana Bogdan, Patricia Ţig and Sorana Cîrstea. In the
men’s doubles, Romanian Horia Tecău and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands,
last year’s quarterfinalists, are seeded 12 and will play Cristian Garin of
Chile and Pedro Martinez of Spain.

(Translated by C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)