June 9, 2022
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 09.06.2022, 14:05
NATO – Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General of NATO, has been diagnosed with shingles and will therefore hold talks scheduled in Germany and Romania only remotely, Reuters cited a NATO official as saying on Thursday. Stoltenberg had been set to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Thursday and attend a meeting with the leaders of Romania, Poland and Hungary in Bucharest, as part of the Bucharest Nine Format (B9) on Friday. The Bucharest Nine Format is an initiative launched by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Polish President Andrej Duda, attended by the nine NATO countries on the Alliance’s eastern flank.
DEFICIT — Romania’s trade balance deficit stood at around 10 billion euros in the first four months of this year, by almost 3 billion euros more than the one registered between January 1st and April 30th, 2021, according to data made public today by the National Institute of Statistics. In April 2022 exports totalled 6.886 billion euro and imports 9.711 billion euro.
VOUCHERS — The Bucharest Senate has recently passed the Government’s emergency order under which social vouchers are granted to all Romanians with low incomes. Almost 3 million people will benefit the measure. The vouchers, worth 50 euro, can be used only for the purchase of basic food products. The distribution of vouchers will start next week.
OECD – The 2022 meeting of the OECD Council at the Ministerial Level (MCM), chaired by Italy, with Mexico and Norway as Vice-Chairs, brings leaders and Ministers together under the theme “The future we want: better policies for the next generation and a sustainable transition”. The meeting is held today and Friday in Paris. Ministers will discuss a range of pressing challenges including the implications of the war in Ukraine, strengthening pandemic prevention and preparedness, trade and environmental sustainability and providing a better future for young people, cooperation with Africa and the green transition for future generations. Romania is for the first time attending an OECD meeting as candidate country.
RULING – Romania’s Constitutional Court has decided that the Education Ministry can withdraw a PhD title for plagiarism and for not meeting the quality standards of a thesis only if the doctoral degree did not enter civil circuit and did not produce legal effects. According to former Justice Minister Stelian Ion, this is a form of pardon for plagiarism. In turn, journalist Emilia Sercan, who published numerous investigations into plagiarised doctoral thesis, has said the Court’s ruling marks the end of academic integrity in Romania. Among the politicians accused of having plagiarised their PhD thesis are the incumbent PM, the Liberal Nicolae Ciuca, and two former prime ministers, the Social Democrats Victor Ponta and Mihai Tudose respectively. (EE)
