September 7, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 07.09.2020, 19:46

COVID-19
– Some 900 new cases of SARS CoV-2 have been reported in the last 24 hours in
Romania, taking the total number of infections to some 96.000. The official
death toll has exceeded 3.900. 465 patients are currently in intensive care.
6.600 Romanians living abroad have tested positive for COVID-19, mostly in
Germany, Italy and Spain. Of these 126 have died.

CAMPAIGN
– The campaign for the local election due on September 27 continues in Romania
with the observance of measures aimed at preventing the pandemic from
spreading. According to the Interior Ministry, face masks are compulsory, while
all people attending election events and meetings will undergo triage and will
have to sanitize their hands. Access rules and individual health safety
measures will be publicly displayed. Participants will also have to observe the
minimum 1-meter distance. A maximum of 50 people are admitted for indoor
activities for a maximum duration of 2 hours. In the case of outdoor events,
the participation is limited to a hundred people. Candidates 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. 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.

ELECTION
– The Permanent Election Authority on Monday announced some 3.032 Romanians
living abroad have enrolled for postal voting, while 1.059 voters have registered
for casting votes in the polls. The Authority recalls that eligible voters can
register for physical or postal voting over April 1 – September 21. The
president of the Permanent Election Authority, Constantin-Florin Mituleţu-Buică
has recommended all citizens in the diaspora opt for postal voting, the safest
way to cast their vote remotely, at zero costs and risks, all the more so in
the given crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

DIPLOMACY
– ‘Increasing Romania’s role inside the EU and NATO and also consolidating and
expanding the Strategic Partnership with the United States remain the key lines
in Romania’s foreign policy’, is the message conveyed by the country’s
president, Klaus Iohannis at the Romanian Diplomacy Annual Meeting. According
to the president, in the wake of the pandemic crisis, the Romanian diplomacy is
going to embrace some new facets and that involves additional ingenuity and
flexibility. The present Annual Meeting of Romanian Diplomacy has been held
online for the first time as videoconference and is going to last three days
under the title, ‘The impact of the pandemic over the international tendencies
and the Romanian diplomacy response’. High on the agenda are the impact of the
medical crisis over the international relations and global tendencies as well
as the adjustment of the Romanian diplomacy instruments in this context. The
guest list this year includes the head of the European diplomacy Josep Borrell
and NATO’s deputy secretary general, Romanian Mircea Geoana.

SCHOOL YEAR
– Romania’s Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has said the school year begins on
September 14, at the same time underlining that people’s right to education is
fundamental. The Romanian official has explained local authorities are allowed
to establish their own scenarios depending on the epidemiological situation in
their region. In Bucharest the infection rate in the past two weeks has stood
at 1.19 per thousand, which places the capital city in the yellow zone and that
allows for the students’ return to schools. 43 localities have been placed in
the red zone, where students are taking only online courses, while over 27
hundred localities are in the green zone, allowing normal school attendance.
The Health Ministry will this week provide direction lines for the organization
of activity in education institutions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

BREXIT -
Negotiations on post-Brexit relations between the EU and the UK will resume on
Tuesday in London. British chief negotiator for Brexit, David Frost, has
recently said that London does not fear a failure in reaching an agreement on
trade. On the other hand, EU chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier,
expressed concern and disappointment with the progress of negotiations. The two
parties have only weeks at their disposal to settle the negotiations. According
to officials in Brussels, negotiations will end next month. If an agreement is
reached, Member States will require time to ratify it before taking effect on
January 1, 2021, when the EU will officially leave the EU.

(Translated
by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)