April 17, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.04.2021, 20:00

COVID-19 IN ROMANIA -
3,474 new cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported in the last 24 hours,
the Group for Strategic Communication announced on Saturday. During the
interval, 135 fatalities were also reported. 1,505 patients are currently in
intensive care. A quarter of Romania’s counties remain in the red zone,
reporting an incidence rate over 3 per thousand inhabitants. Meanwhile the
vaccination campaign continues. People who want to get the AstraZeneca jab
without an appointment can now do so. According to Prime Minister Florin Cîţu,
Romania is expected to hit the 35% mark in early June in terms of the total
number of people who’ve got immunized, which will allow for a gradual relaunch
of the economy. The Prime Minister said herd immunity will be achieved when 70%
of the total population gets immunized, which in Romania is tantamount to some
10 million people.

RATING -
Standard and Poor’s financial rating agency has confirmed Romania’s BBB- rating
but improved its prospect from negative to stable. According to the Finance
Ministry, this is the first positive evolution in Romania’s financial rating
operated by this agency since November 2013. Standard and Poor’s says the
stable prospect is indicative of the credibility of fiscal consolidation measures
promoted by Romania. The agency also believes the Government’s planned reforms
could create a more robust fiscal framework, thus limiting the risks of
reversing fiscal consolidation policies, which would lead to an improvement in
Romania’s rating.

DIPLOMACY -
Romania’s Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, hailed the decision of the EU High
Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, to appoint Romanian Dan
Steonescu as the head of the EU Delegation to Syria, headquartered in Beirut.
The appointment comes as an official recognition at EU level of Romania’s
expertise in the Middle East, as well as its diplomatic skills, Aurescu said.
According to a Foreign Ministry release, stabilizing Syria is key to the
security of the entire region, while stepping up efforts to solve the crisis at
political level remains a priority for the EU and the international community.
A career diplomat with a wide experience in the Middle East, Dan Stoenescu has
served as Romania’s ambassador in Tunisia since 2017. In 2015-2016 he was
Minister Delegate for Romanians Worldwide. He previously worked for Romania’s
embassies in Madrid and Beirut. Another four Romanians are currently part of
the EU delegation: Oana Popa in Montenegro, Denisa Ionete in Nigeria, Traian
Hristea in Mongolia and Cristian Tudor in Kuwait.

MOLDOVA – Romania’s Government
announced on Saturday it would continue to provide the Republic of Moldova with
support in its efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Another 132,000 doses
of the AstraZeneca serum will be delivered to Moldova. This new batch is the
third of the total of 200,000 doses Romania pledged to donate to Moldova in
December last year, following the meeting of Romania’s president, Klaus
Iohannis, and his Moldovan counterpart, Maia Sandu. The first batch, totaling
21,600 doses, arrived in Moldova at the end of February, while the second one,
totaling 50,400 doses on March 27. Romania’s ambassador in the Republic of
Moldova, Daniel Ioniță,
at the time said Bucharest wants the doses to be delivered evenly across the
republic, irrespective of ethnicity, including in the Turkish-speaking Gagauzia
in the south and in the breakaway region of Transnistria in the east.

FUNERAL – The funeral of Prince Philip, the Duke of
Edinburg and husband to Queen Elisabeth II of Great Britain for over 73 years,
passed away last week aged 99, was held on Saturday at Windsor Castle in a
solemn ceremony with the observance of COVID-related restrictions. A minute of
silence was observed in memory of Prince Philip across the United Kingdom. His
son and Heir to the British Crown, Prince Charles, has over the years developed
close relations with Romania, a country he visited on numerous occasions and
where he has a number of holdings. Romania has a long history of relations with
the British Royal Family. Prince Philip was the cousin and childhood friend of
the late Prince Mihai of Romania, the two being born a few months apart in
1921. The Royal House of Romania published pictures of Mihai and Philip during
their childhood, when they used to spend their holidays in Romania.
Subsequently King Mihai met his future wife, Ana, at the royal wedding in
London between Philip and Elisabeth. The Duke of Edinburg is also the
god-father of Margareta, the first-born of Mihai and Ana. (V.P.)