January 25, 2021 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 25.01.2021, 20:16

MEETING Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday attended the EU
Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Brussels. High on the agenda were strategies
for distributing vaccines to countries outside the EU, the case of the Russian
dissident Alexei Navalny and the latest protests in Russia, the transatlantic relations
and the latest developments in Turkey, the Gulf area, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and
the EU-Egypt elations. The ministers also tackled climate change and the EU’s
relations with the UK in the field of foreign policy and security. The Romanian
Foreign Minister presented the latest developments in the process of setting up
and hosting by Romania of the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Center. The Romanian
diplomat has reiterated the support for the creation of an assistance mechanism
to enable the neighbouring countries to get access to anti-Covid vaccines.
Aurescu condemned the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s detention and joined
the other ministers who had called for his immediate release. In another move
Aurescu voiced Romania’s strong support for the EU’s objective to deepen
coordination and dialogue with the USA.

ECONOMY Investment and healthcare will be key
priorities in the construction of the new yearly budget, Romania’s Prime
Minister Florin Citu said on Monday. Citu added that the government would focus
on amendments to the salary legislation for the personnel in state-owned
enterprises and the pension law. The head of the Romanian government said that
investment would be covered from European funds just like last year. Romania’s
budget is under tremendous pressure to fit within the 7% deficit ceiling agreed
upon by the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna said on Monday. The
Romanian official added that the Executive was working on the Reconstruction
and Resilience Plan, Romania is to propose to the European Commission. The
government is presently working on the budget, which it wants passed in the
first half of the next month. In another development a report of the Moody’s
rating agency shows that Romania allotted the weakest support package for the
economy in Central and Eastern Europe, only 4% of the GDP in the context of the
pandemic.

SUMMIT World leaders on Monday met online in the first summit devoted to
protecting the planet against climate change. The summit focuses on the effects
of climate change. The previous such summits were devoted to combating the
causes of climate change, carbon gas emissions in particular. The event is
aimed at reducing the vulnerability of state in the face of rising sea levels,
a surge in extreme weather phenomena and food shortages all over the world.

COVID-19 Restaurants, bars, cinemas, theatres and gambling outlets reopened in
Bucharest on Monday. All these venues will work at reduced capacity and with
limited working hours. The ease in restrictions follows a drop in the infection
rate in the capital city, to under 3 per thousand inhabitants, thus taking
Bucharest out of the red zone. Meanwhile the vaccination campaign continues.
Over 860,000 people have made appointments so far, of whom over half have
already been immunized. The sixth delivery of over 92,000 Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccines arrived earlier on Monday in airports in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timişoara.
The vaccines will then be taken to regional centers for storing and administration.
On Monday, the Group for Strategic Communication announced another 1,500 new
confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 65 related deaths. 1,000 patients are in
intensive care.

(bill)