March 21, 2024 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 21.03.2024, 20:05

Forestry – The Romanian government approved the new Forestry Code on Thursday. As a result, clear cutting will be prohibited in almost half of the country’s forest area, as announced by the Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Mircea Fechet. He added that the law allows the state to intervene and reforest the lands that have been deforested and abandoned by the owners. At the same time, the document gives private or state forest owners the right to alternative security solutions: specialized structures and security provided by own means, specifying that forest security is mandatory by law. Also, the right of access to the SUMAL 2 computer system is suspended whenever there are situations related to the theft of wood. The executive also approved a major investment in the infrastructure of the healthcare system: the construction of a new medical compound in which the Fundeni Clinical Institute from Bucharest should operate, in order to expand and improve the treatment conditions for patients. The building will have 21 modern operating rooms, intensive care units for multidisciplinary surgery and transplant surgery. Also on Thursday, the Romanian Government signed the contract regarding the construction of the Regional Emergency Hospital in Craiova (south). The medical unit will serve the entire Oltenia region and will be able to treat 800 people a day, as stated by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. Funds were also allocated for the refurbishment of the Berceni-Pipera highway, the busiest subway route in Bucharest.

Recovery and Resilience – Romania has a little over two years left to achieve all the objectives assumed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – NRRP, the financial support package in the form of grants and loans, mainly intended to eliminate the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The warning was launched in Bucharest by European Commission officials for the implementation of the NRRP. During the assessment conference of the state of implementation of the NRRP in Romania, the officials warned that failure to meet the milestones could put the country in a position to return the money received. The Romanian officials have given assurances that the Plan as a whole is in progress compared to last year.

Summit – The heads of state and government from the European Union gathered in Brussels together with experts, for a summit aimed at giving a new impetus to the production of energy from nuclear sources. This field came back to the attention of Europe, with the war in Ukraine, and also due to the need to reduce the emissions of the classic industry. Nuclear energy is clean and not volatile, as is the case with wind or photovoltaic energy, where production depends on the weather, and Romania is one of the spearheads in terms of new technologies. The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis stated that Romania is determined to develop its nuclear energy program and is collaborating with the US to implement the small modular reactor technology. Iohannis emphasized that Bucharest wants to become a regional leader for nuclear operations, expertise, and also for the supply chain in the field. The trend of returning to energy from nuclear sources is not to the liking of environmental NGOs, which organized protests in Brussels, in parallel with the meeting of European leaders, and demand the concentration of investments strictly on renewable sources. In the capital of Belgium, the Romanian president also participates in the European Council meeting and the extended Euro Summit.

Film – Films from the selections from Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Venice, Toronto and Annecy can be found on the poster of the 28th edition of the French Film Festival in Romania, which takes place from March 21 to 31, in Bucharest and another 12 cities across the country. More than 100 film screenings will take place in cinemas and alternative cultural spaces, the organizers informed. They decided that the festival should be opened, in Bucharest, by the comedy ‘Une Annee Difficile’/’A difficult year’, made by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, the authors of the film ‘Intouchables’ – one of the biggest box office successes in France. (LS)