March 17, 2021

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.03.2021, 13:55

Plan. Romanian President Klaus
Iohannis is attending today a working meeting on the National Recovery and
Resilience Plan (PNRR). According to the Presidential Administration, the
meeting will be attended by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic
Orban, the Prime Minister, Florin Cîţu, the Deputy Prime Ministers Dan Barna
and Hunor Kelemen and the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Cristian
Ghinea. Ghinea has said that this week the government will reach the final form
of plan, by means of which Romania would receive over 30 billion euros of
European funds for development in the next five years. He stated that one of
the important components of the plan is fighting poverty. Cristian Ghinea has
also mentioned a program for reducing school dropout, which targets 1,600
schools and a bridge scholarship program for high school students, especially
those from rural areas. He also spoke about investments to increase Romanians’
access to the health system, including the construction of new hospitals and
the modernization of existing ones.

Covid-19RO. The Covid-19 vaccination campaign continues in
Romania. Since its start on December 27th, more than 1.5 million people
have been vaccinated, mostly with Pfizer-BioNTech, but also with Moderna and
AstraZeneca. Romania has decided to continue the vaccination with AstraZeneca
shots, based on scientific data and the recommendations of the European
Medicines Agency, the coordinator of the immunization campaign, Valeriu
Gheorghita, has stated. He’s said the decision was not easy to make, given that
so many European countries have decided to temporarily halt the use of the
vaccine as a precautionary measure, following reports of blood clotting in
people who got the jab. The third stage of vaccination, for the general
population, started on Monday. For the time being, people are vaccinated in the
localities where the incidence of cases is higher than 4.5 per one thousand
inhabitants. The rest of the population can register for the waiting lists on
the electronic platform. More than 6.200 new cases of infection were reported
in Romania in the last 24 hours, as well as 89Covid-19 related deaths. 1,266
people are currently in intensive care.

Pandemic. Several Eastern European countries are faced with the
third wave of the pandemic, which puts pressure on health systems again.
Hungary has a new hospitalization record for COVID-19 related cases. This
country with less than 10 million inhabitants currently has over 9,800
hospitalized people, of whom about 1,000 in intensive care. Bulgaria is the
fourth country in the EU with the highest number of deaths reported in the last
14 days, after Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The situation is much
worse in the Czech Republic, which is the country with the highest number of
cases of infection in the EU, ie 15.7 per one thousand inhabitants in the last
two weeks. On the other hand, on Tuesday, the European Medicines Agency
announced that it remained firmly convinced that the benefits of the
anti-COVID-19 vaccine produced by Astra Zeneca outweighed the risks. Several
countries have suspended the use of Astra Zeneca after signaling possible side
effects. Worldwide, according to worldometers, more than 121 million people
have been infected with the new coronavirus. At least 2.6 million people have
died and nearly 97 million have been declared cured since the beginning of the
pandemic a year ago.

Government.
The Romanian Government convenes today in a
weekly meeting. In addition to the projects on the agenda, the draft law
banning cumulated pension-salary incomes, put up for public debate by the
Ministry of Labor, could also be discussed at first reading. According to the
labour ministry, pensioners in the public system will be able to choose to
continue working until the age of 70, during which time the payment of the
pension will be suspended. The agenda could also include a normative act banning
the participation in tenders in Romania of foreign companies that are supported
by their parent countries through various financial schemes. The first targets
are the companies that are state-aided in their countries of origin and therefore
compete unfairly with Romanian companies.

Inflation.
The annual inflation rate in the euro-zone
stood at 0.9% in February, at a stable level compared to January, while in the
European Union it rose from 1.2% to 1.3%, according to data published on
Wednesday, by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). The EU member states
with the highest inflation rates were Poland, Hungary and Romania. In Romania,
according to Eurostat, the annual inflation rate rose to 2.5% in February, from
2% in January. In February 2020, the annual inflation rate in Romania was 2.9%.

Dacia. Dacia car sales in Europe fell by 13.6% in February, but
the Romanian carmaker’s market share rose to 3.1% from 2.8% in the same period
in 2020 , according to data provided by the European Automobile Manufacturers
Association (EAMA). All major car makers reported declining sales last
month. According to EAMA, the
restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the closure of
showrooms, had an unprecedented impact on car sales in Europe. The Dacia
company was taken over by Renault in 1999. Launched in 2004 with the Logan
model, Dacia became an important player on the European car market.

Tennis. The Romanian-Ukrainian pair Raluca Olaru / Nadia Kicenok has
qualified for the quarterfinals of the doubles event at the WTA tournament in
St. Petersburg, Russia, with over 565 thousand dollars in prize money. The two defeated
in two sets 6-3, 7-6 the pair formed by Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and the
Russian Valeria Savinykh. In the quarterfinals, Olaru and Kichenok will meet
the winning pair of the match between Arina Rodionova, Australia / Rosalie van
der Hoek, Netherlands and Ekaterina Alexandrova / Iana Sizikova, Russia. The Romanian-Dutch
pair Monica Niculescu / Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove has also qualified for the quarterfinals.
They will take on the third seed Makoto Ninomiya (Japan) / Renata Voracova
(Czech Republic). (MI)