March 10, 2022

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Newsroom, 10.03.2022, 13:55

FUEL PRICES
PM Nicolae Ciucă announced thorough
inspections in all oil companies in Romania, after panic last night caused
unprecedented queuing in petrol stations. The PM warned that the required
measures will be taken to curb any illegal, abusive and economically unjustified
practices. Mr. Ciucǎ made these statements after an emergency meeting with the
ministers of energy and economy and the heads of the Competition Council, the
Consumer Protection Authority and the fiscal authority. The institutions have
already initiated inspections following an unjustified fuel price rise. The energy
minister Virgil Popescu also posted a message on social media, stating the
sanctions against those who break the law will be drastic.

REFUGEES PM Nicolae Ciucă is
having talks today with the EU commissioner for crisis management Janez
Lenarčič, who took part on Wednesday in the opening of the European hub for
humanitarian aid for Ukraine, in Suceava (northern Romania). The EU official
said he was encouraged by the solidarity shown by the EU and its member states,
including Romania. A new call-centre has also been opened today in Romania for
the Ukrainian refugees, with Ukrainian-speaking personnel, among others. Some
320,000 Ukrainian nationals have entered Romania over the past 2 weeks, and
nearly 235,000 of them have already left the country.

COVID-19 Roughly 4,200 new SARS-CoV-2 cases and 62
related deaths were reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, the Strategic
Communication Group announced on Wednesday. After almost 2 years in a state of
alert, Romania lifted all COVID-19 related restrictions on March 9th.
The authorities announced that those citizens whose ID expired over the past 2
years have to renew their documents within 3 months. As many as 387,000 people
must get new identity documents by June 7th.

SUMMIT EU leaders convene today and tomorrow in Versailles, France, for a
summit focusing on Europe’s energy independence, on strengthening the bloc’s defence
and on the EU accession request signed recently by Ukraine. A new plan will be
discussed, most likely to be funded through a new joint loan, in order to
address the consequences of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. As regards the
energy crisis, the European Commission has recently presented the RePowerEU initiative,
designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for over 40%
of the Union’s natural gas consumption. As for Ukraine, a strengthened
partnership is being considered, by tightening Kyiv’s ties with the European
single market and connecting Ukraine with the European energy network.

PRESIDENCY Romania will be represented in the Versailles summit
by president Klaus Iohannis. Ahead of the meeting, he took part
on Monday in a video call with the president of the European Council Charles Michel, and the prime-ministers of the
Netherlands, Greece, Croatia and Estonia. President Iohannis emphasised the
importance of firmly maintaining the unity and coordination within the EU and between
the Union and the US, NATO and other strategic partners, in responding to
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Mr.
Iohannis also presented the measures taken by Romania to support Ukraine, including
the set-up of a hub collecting and coordinating international aid to Ukraine
and Moldova. The president of Romania also emphasised Romania’s support for the
EU accession requests signed by Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia.

UKRAINE Today’s negotiations
between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro
Kuleba, mediated by Turkey, failed to lead to any progress towards a ceasefire.
Promises were made to carry on humanitarian efforts to evacuate civilians,
without any firm commitment on Russia’s part in this respect. Kuleba added that
a decision was made to carry on talks in this format. In turn, Lavrov continued
to accuse Ukraine of seeking to use biological and chemical weapons and of
being manipulated by the West. Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded once again
this morning in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as the 3rd week of war
began. According to the Ukrainian army, Russian forces are advancing in an
attempt to surround the city, and have carried on attacks in other parts of the
country as well. President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of war crimes.
Moscow agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire to enable civilians to leave 6 of the most
affected areas, but the Ukrainian authorities say steady Russian bombing
prevented some locals from leaving. On the other hand, Ukraine claims it
killed, wounded or captured over 12,000 Russian soldiers, and destroyed over 330
tanks, over 1,110 armoured vehicles and some 130 aircraft. Russia claims to
have destroyed nearly 3,000 military infrastructure elements in Ukraine. (A.M.P.)