19 January, 2018

South-eastern Romania reels from recent snowstorm./ Two die from flu in Romania.

Newsroom, 19.01.2018, 13:44

Weather.
Tens of thousands of homes, mostly in south-eastern Romania, are without
electricity following a snowfall in recent days. Tens of schools have been
closed in several counties in the south and east. The sea ports of Midia and
Mangalia and the river port of Constanta South-Agigea and Bara Sulina have been
reopened for navigation. Precipitation, mainly rain, is reported in the west,
north and centre of the country, and snow in the mountains, as well as wind at
high altitudes. The highs of the day range from 2 to 11 degrees Celsius, with 4
degrees in Bucharest at noon.

Government. The executive committee of the Social Democratic
Party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition in Romania, is to meet on
Monday to form a new government. President Klaus Iohannis has accepted the
proposal of the Social Democratic Party and their ruling partners, the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, to task the Social Democrat MEP Viorica Dancila
with the formation of a new government. The Social Democrats’ leader Liviu Dragnea
says Parliament will meet in extraordinary session so that the new cabinet can
be sworn in on the 29th of January. Early this week, the Social
Democrat prime minister Mihai Tudose resigned after losing his party’s
political support.

Flu. The Romanian healthcare minister Florian Bodog called on
family doctors to continue to monitor the situation of flu vaccination in January,
particularly in the case of people at risk, given that the flu season has begun
later than last year. Florian Bodog says over 700,000 people have received
their flu vaccines so far, with almost 300,000 free doses still being
available. Two people have died this year because of flu, a teenager and a
69-year-old woman.

France-Germany.
The German chancellor Angela Merkel today meets French president Emmanuel
Macron in Paris, three days before their countries’ Parliaments start
discussing a new French-German treaty, the DPA news agency reports. On the 22nd
of January, Germany and France celebrate the 55th anniversary of the
Elysee Treaty, which established the foundation for relations between the two
states in the post-war era. The French and German parliaments will coordinate
their meetings to debate a joint motion calling for a new treaty to reaffirm
and expand bilateral relations. The French president has called for an overhaul
of the European Union, including a tighter eurozone. According to the DPA, the
reform of the European Union is one of the priorities of the grand coalition
formed by Merkel’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats.

Social media. 47% of enterprises in the European Union used at least one
type of social media in 2017, the highest percentage being recorded in Malta,
with 74%, according to Eurostat data published on Friday. 35% of Romanian
enterprises used social media in 2017, more than in Poland, 27%, Latvia, 30%,
and Bulgaria, 34%, and slightly less than in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Hungary. Across the European Union, the percentage of enterprises using social
media went up from less than a third in 2013 to almost half in 2017. Eurostat
notes that social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are the most widely
used by EU enterprises.

Australian Open. The Romanian pair Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu
reached the third round in the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, after a
3-set victory over the Australian pair Jessica Moore
and Ellen Perez. The Romanian-Ukrainian pair Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk lost, however, to the all-Czech
pair Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova. In the men’s doubles, the
Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer are still in competition.
On Saturday, Simona Halep and Ana Bogdan play in the women’s singles third
round. Halep, who is world no. 1 and first seed in Melbourne, faces the
American player Lauren Davis, while Ana Bogdan takes on another American
player, Madison Keys.