August 31, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 31.08.2022, 19:47

Poll. Half of
Romania’s population is most worried about the rising inflation rate, followed
by the energy and food crisis and the rising bank rates, shows a survey
conducted by the sociological research company Avangarde. Two thirds of respondents
believe a big economic crisis is ahead
and this is their main reason for concern. According to the same survey, even
under these circumstances, one third of the Romanians say they have no savings.

Celebration. Cultural
events staged simultaneously in Romania, the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, and
Romanian communities abroad were held on Wednesday to celebrate Romanian Language Day. Established by Parliament
in 2013, Romanian Language Day is also celebrated in the neighbouring,
Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova. On 31st August 1989, during
the final days of the Soviet regime, the Parliament in Chisinau, picketed by
750 thousand people, accounting for a sixth of the country’s population at the
time, declared the Romanian language as the state language and passed from the
Cyrillic alphabet, imposed by the Russian occupiers following the 1940
annexation, to the Latin alphabet.

Government.
The Romanian government discussed in its Wednesday meeting the measures needed
to prepare for winter, including two pieces of legislation to help the
population cope with the rising energy costs. The government is planning an
emergency order to introduce a surtax on the entire production, intermediation
and supply chain for electricity and natural gas. A reference price will be
set, above which a surtax is levied. The Social Democratic Party is proposing
that the money collected from this surtax should go to the finance ministry.
Prime minister Nicolae Ciucă said he would like the order to be adopted by the
government on Thursday and that the cap on electricity and natural gas prices
will remain in place. A second piece of legislation is drafted by the energy
ministry and will be adopted next week. One of its provisions refers to the
quantity of natural gas reserves. 2.2 billion cubic metres are currently in
stock, accounting for some 73% of total storage quantity.

Visas. EU foreign
ministers meeting in Prague on Wednesday decided to suspend the EU’s visa
facilitation agreement with Russia, making it more difficult and more expensive
for Russians to obtain visas. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that
in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations with Moscow
cannot be business as usual and the agreement should be fully suspended.
The decision comes after two weeks of pressure from EU member states bordering
Russia for Russian citizens to be stopped from entering the bloc with Schengen
visas issued by some member states. Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu,
who was also in Prague, said Bucharest is open to additional measures to
restrict the movement of Russian citizens within the European Union, with a
focus on tourist visas. He pointed out, however, that measures should not
target persons in need of humanitarian, medical or protection visas. He also
said it was important not to prevent young Russians from being exposed to the
European values.

Swimming.
Romania’s men’s 4×100 meter relay race won the gold medals at the World Junior
Swimming Championship in Lima, Peru, while Vlad Stancu won the silver in the
400 meter freestyle race. The Romanian team made up of David Popovici,
Alexandru Constantinescu, Stefan Cozma and Patrick Sebastian Dinu ended the
race in 3 minutes and 18 seconds, while multiple champion Popovici has set a new
record for his relay. Romania has 9
swimmers at the championships in Lima. (CM)