August 9, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 09.08.2025, 13:55
MEASURES A second package of fiscal-budgetary measures aimed at curbing Romania’s budget deficit, the highest in the European Union, is going to be promoted also through assuming responsibility in Parliament by the government as the first one. Deputy Prime Minister, Tanczos Barna, says the decision has been made by all the ruling parties and is going to be implemented next week. The second package is expected to include reforms of the local public administration through lay-offs and decentralization. The reforms will also be targeting the medical system and public companies. We recall the first package of measures came into effect in Romania on August 1st. The package includes higher excises and VAT, higher healthcare contributions for pensions above 600 Euros, frozen pensions and salaries in the public sector as well as limited bonuses and employments in state institutions. Disgruntled with the new measures, employees in various fields of activity have staged a series of protests.
MAE Romania’s Foreign Ministry has announced in a communiqué that it is presently facing a shortage of personnel, which is getting worse constantly. The crisis was caused by a series of factors such as retirement, resignations due to low wages, years of banned jobs interviews or the enlargement of Romania’s consular network in an attempt to respond to the need of bigger Romanian communities abroad, mainly n European countries. The Ministry’s Foreign Service includes 598 people in diplomatic and consular jobs and 386-strong administrative personnel. Some of these employees have been embedded with various public, central and local institutions. The Ministry has announced that it is going to improve the situation by staging a series of job interviews aimed at attracting highly-trained professionals.
PERFORMANCE The Romanian librarian Avram Iancu on Friday achieved a notable performance by swimming through the Main-Danube Canal linking the rivers Danube and Rhine. The Romanian has thus become the first man to have crossed Europe by swimming along its main rivers from the North Sea to the Black Sea. In 2017, the librarian covered the entire Danube River swimming 2860 kilometers in 89 days. In 2023 he swam 1032 kilometers in 48 days. His last performance in the series was the 556-kilometer Main-Danube Canal, which took him 40 days. Avram Iancu has thus totaled 4448 kilometers of swimming without wearing a neoprene costume, a distance which he covered in 177 days. Among his performances there is also the crossing of the English Channel in 2016 and 2024.
WEATHER The weather is warm in most of the territory and hot in the country’s south-west, west, south and south-east, where the Temperature-Humidity Index is going to hit the critical threshold of 80 units. Short showers are expected in the eastern Carpathians and highs ranging between 30 and 37 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 33 degrees centigrade.
(bill)
