July 26, 2022
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 26.07.2022, 13:55
Drought. The Bucharest government has requested the European Commissions approval to grant an advance of 70 to 85% in direct payments for environmental and climate measures from the National Rural Development Program 2014-2022, to help farmers affected by the drought. Also, the Executive wants to grant fruit growers and winegrowers, as well as pig and poultry farmers an aid of 51.6 million euros, of which 25.5 million euros from European funds, and the rest from the national budget. According to data centralized by the Ministry of Agriculture, the drought has so far affected almost 107 thousand hectares of agricultural land in 20 counties across Romania.
Gas. The EU energy ministers are meeting today to discuss plans to reduce the Unions dependence on Russian gas. The Commission had proposed a voluntary reduction of consumption by 15%, with the possibility of a mandatory regime in case of emergency. However, the plan was opposed by several member countries, which are either less dependent on Russian gas, or have sufficient stocks for the winter. That is why the initial proposal was modified, so that the energy ministers could approve it today. According to the version seen by the Reuters agency, exemptions from the 15% cap are provided for the gas used in critical industries, such as the metallurgical one. Europe is already facing a drop in supplies from Russia, with Gazprom announcing a further reduction in flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia has been accused of using energy as a weapon, and the European Commission has warned that a total shutdown of gas supplies is likely .
Washington. The Romanian Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, is in the United States, for talks on the development of the civil nuclear program and strengthening the strategic partnership in the field of energy. In a post on Facebook, he writes that he had a very good dialogue in Washington with representatives of the American and Canadian companies that are part of the project that provides for the construction of units 3 and 4 at the Cernavodă nuclear power plant (southeast Romania ). Virgil Popescu also discussed with the representatives of the NuScale company, which is building the small modular reactor at Doicesti (south). “Together with the American, Canadian and French partners, we are modernizing and developing nuclear energy in Romania”, the Romanian Energy Ministry said.
Visit. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, is in Romania today, at the invitation of the head of Romanian diplomacy, Bogdan Aurescu. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is one of Romanias main partners in the Middle East region, and the meeting of the two dignitaries will focus on the prospects and concrete ways of developing Romanian-Jordanian relations in the main fields of cooperation, namely education, trade, agriculture, medicine , IT&C, cyber security and defense, the MAF says. At the same time, means of increasing the volume of commercial exchanges and investments will be discussed, starting from the already existing potential. At the same time, Bogdan Aurescu and his Jordanian counterpart will address the main political issues of common interest, including recent developments in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Infocons. Romanians can very easily find out what the emergency numbers in the country and abroad are, info about European alerts regarding food and non-food products, as well as the list of ranked accommodation units and licensed travel agencies. All this through the Infocons application, which can be downloaded on the mobile phone, can call emergency numbers and also provides information on waiting times at the Romanian border crossing points. The application is free and can be used both in European Union and non-EU countries. It contains over two million products, including the updated list of civil protection shelters in Romania.
Covid. The number of cases of coronavirus infection is again on the rise in Romania, with 5 thousand new cases reported on Monday, three times the figure reported the previous Monday. The same increase has been reported in hospitals. There are some 3,600 hospitalized patients, of whom 204 serious cases, in intensive care. Most new cases have been registered in Bucharest and in the counties of Cluj, Constana, Timis and Brasov. The national infection rate for a period of 14 days is 2.1 per one thousand inhabitants. So far, Romanian authorities have not taken any anti-pandemic measures.
Migrants. Several migrants were discovered when trying to leave Romania, through the Nădlac II Border Crossing Point (west), hidden in the trunks of four cars driven by Romanians. They were citizens of Morocco, India and Syria, who had planned to fraudulently get to a Schengen Area state. Also, four Afghan asylum seekers, who were attempting to illegally cross the border into Hungary, were found in another truck, also driven by a Romanian driver. (MI)
