February 24, 2020 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 24.02.2020, 20:13

COURT Romania’s
president Klaus Iohannis on Monday announced he is waiting for a motivation
from the Constitutional Court, which said that there was a legal conflict
between the president and Parliament regarding the designation of Liberal
leader Ludovic Orban for the position of Prime Minister. Now the president must
nominate another person for this position. The Social Democratic presidents of
the two Parliament chambers had notified the court about the president’s
decision to designate the sacked Prime Minister to form a new government. The
plan of the Liberals, who are favourite in election polls, is to have two
governments rejected in 60 days, which could lead to Parliament dissolution and
early election.

WHO
The World Health Organisation said it was too early to call the coronavirus
outbreak a pandemic but countries should be in a phase of preparedness. The
statement comes after more cases of infection with the virus, which causes
respiratory disease, Covid-19, continued to emerge with outbreaks in South
Korea, Italy and Iran causing concern. With six deaths and over 200 confirmed
infections, Italy is the most affected country in Europe. The Italian
authorities have imposed strict quarantine restrictions in two northern
hotspots close to Milan and Venice. People are not allowed to enter or leave
several towns in Veneto and Lombardy without special permission; many
businesses and schools have suspended activities while sporting and cultural
events have been cancelled. Cases of infection with the new virus have also
been reported in Britain and Germany and the European Commission has earmarked
232 million Euros to fight the outbreak in the bloc countries. China, where the
epidemic started in December, has confirmed 80 thousand cases of infections and
26 hundred deaths.

QUARANTINE All the people coming to
Romania from northern Italy, a region affected by the new coronovirus, will be
quarantined for 14 days. The decision was made by the Health Ministry and
applies to all those who traveled to the regions of Veneto and Lombardy in the
past two weeks. The passengers arriving at the Henri Coanda airport in
Bucharest from Milan, Bergamo, Treviso and Turin will enter the country on the
route destined for charter flights. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry,
given the emergence of new cases of coronavirus infection in Italy and the
numerous community of Romanian citizens from the affected regions, an emergency
cell was set up at the Romanian Embassy in Rome, which is in permanent contact
with the Italian authorities. We recall that two Romanian citizens infected
with the coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked at the
Yokohama port in Japan, have been hospitalized in Japan.

LOAN The European Commission on Monday
approved, in accordance with the EU norms on state aid, Romania’s plan to grant
a temporary loan worth around 36.7 million Euros to the TAROM state-owned
airline, shows a press release of the EC. According to the EC, this measure
will ensure the continuity of air transport services, especially on the many
routes on which TAROM is the only service provider. Therefore passengers will
not be affected by air traffic disturbances and competition on the single
market will not be distorted in an unjustified manner.

(translated by bill)