March 11, 2024
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 11.03.2024, 13:55
ROȘIA MONTANĂ – The Canadian mining company Gabriel Resources has four months to appeal last week’s ruling issued by the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Romania’s favor in the Roșia Montană legal dispute. The miner had sought damages worth 6.7 bln USD after Romanian authorities decided to block exploitation works at the Roșia Montană gold mine, which in the meantime was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The Canadian company had plans to extract some 300 tons of gold and some 1,600 tons of silver. The court decided Romania is under no obligation to pay damages, and instead must receive court fees and other arbitration-related costs totaling 9.4 mln EUR. The government in Bucharest hailed the decision and thanked all those who made efforts to protect state interests.
VEHICLE TAX – New regulations took effect today regarding the fares and period of availability for taxed vehicles in Romania. Taxes are now issued for periods of 1 or 10 days, 1, 2 or 12 months. The 1-day tax costs 2.5 EUR, the 10-day tax costs 3.3 EUR, the 2-month tax costs 8.4 EUR, while the cost for the 12-month tax remains the same – 28 EUR for vehicles, 96 EUR for trucks and freight vehicles with a gross weight under 3.5 tons, and 320 EUR for multi-passenger vehicles capable of carrying up to 23 people. The National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration (CNADNR) says text payments are suspended until March 21 pending the introduction of the updated fares and new availability periods.
PROTEST – Health sector employees are today staging a large protest action in Bucharest. The group of protesters will march from the Government building in Victory Square to the buildings to the Health and Labor ministries and then to the Palace Parliament, representatives of the Sanitary Solidarity Trade Federation say. Unionists are disgruntled with low salaries, despite the Government’s decision last week to increase salaries in the health sector by 20% in two equal installments, starting March and June. The increase is hardly enough to cover inflation, Federation members say, arguing the government’s emergency decree contains no provisions regarding bonuses or the hourly rates of on-call work.
CANDIDATE – The executive council of the PSD-PNL ruling coalition is today convening to agree on the final draft of the list of joint candidates enrolled in the European Parliament election, as well as on the joint candidate for the Bucharest City Hall election. Both parties have conducted surveys to identify the best-suited candidate. On the other hand, the United Right Alliance in opposition is expected to notify the Ombudsman today to refer the government’s latest emergency decree on the joint organization of the European Parliament and local elections to the Constitutional Court. Alliance representatives say they identified certain provisions in the said decree in breach of the Constitution and previous Constitutional Court rulings.
OSCARS – The 96th edition of the Academy Awards Gala was held last night in Los Angeles. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” swept the board, winning the awards for best picture, best directing (Christopher Nolan) and best actor (Cillian Murphy). The story chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atomic bomb. Emma Stone won her second Academy Award for best actress for her role in “Poor Things”. The first Oscar in the history of Ukraine was awarded to the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”. Andrea Bocelli and his son, Matteo, performed the song “Time to Say Goodbye”, in memory of celebrities who passed away last year, including Tina Turner, Matthew Perry and Ryan O’Neal.
TENNIS – After a break of a year and a half, tennis player Simona Halep is expected to return to court. Halep left for Miami on Monday morning, where she will debut at the WTA 1000 tournament hosted here over March 17-31. Halep’s last official match was in August 2022. Outside WTA rankings, Halep was awarded a wildcard from Miami Open organizers, which puts her on the main draw. We recall Simona Halep was allowed to return to court after the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her doping suspension from 4 years to 9 months. Halep’s team of lawyers succeeded in proving she had been unintentionally exposed to a contaminated supplement, which caused her to fail the doping test. (VP)
