March 4, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Vlad Palcu, 04.03.2024, 19:46
MOTION – A simple motion against the Romanian Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, was debated on Monday in the Chamber of Deputies and will be voted on Tuesday. Boloș is “the most harmful” Finance Minister Romania ever had after 1989, our country’s inflation now being twice the average of the EU, USR president Cătălin Drulă said. The USR leader added that under Minister Boloș’s tenure, Romania is borrowing another billion Lei every day, and that budget deficit has reached unprecedented scales. In turn, PNL deputy Călin Bota said the motion is “an example of manipulation of genuine information” with a view to “appealing to Romanians’ emotions”, also arguing that the document is populist.
SCHENGEN – Romania is ready to join the Schengen area with its land borders, evidence of which can be found in clear-cut data and results, Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu has said. The Romanian official is attending the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, focusing on combating illegal migration and drug trafficking. On the sidelines of the event, the Romanian Minister met with his Bulgarian counterpart and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs to sign a new framework of cooperation on border management. Under the new deal, the two states will receive an additional 85 mln EUR to boost their administrative capacities. Romania is at the forefront of European states that implemented the provisions of the Dublin Agreement, seen as the cornerstone of the asylum system, Minister Predoiu has argued, adding that Romania could strengthen Schengen, which is why it is unfair our country should only be partly integrated in this area. At the end of March, Romania and Bulgaria are expected to join the Schengen area with their air and maritime borders.
AGRICULTURE – Over 400 mln EUR worth of European funds have been made available to modernize the irrigation infrastructure in Romania, according to the Agency for Rural Investments Financing. All organizations using water for irrigation can submit their applications starting March 15, for a maximum funding of 1.5 mln EUR worth of non-reimbursable funding for each beneficiary.
MOLDOVA – The Republic of Moldova belongs in the EU, and Romania remains its main partner in this endeavor, said the Speaker of the Romanian Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, who paid a visit to Chișinău. At the meeting with the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, he stressed that Moscow’s hybrid war had not fulfilled its goals in Moldova and that’s a victory and good news for Bucharest as well. Ciucă also met with the President of the Moldovan Parliament, Igor Grosu. The officials discussed topics regarding inter-parliamentary cooperation, cooperation in the energy field and means of speeding up infrastructure projects.
1977 QUAKE – On Monday, Romania commemorated 47 years since the strongest earthquake ever hitting the country, on March 4, 1977. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was in the Vrancea Mountains (eastern Romania). It lasted 56 seconds. Over 1,500 people, mostly from the capital, lost their lives then, and around 11,000 were injured. 32 high- or medium-rise buildings collapsed in Bucharest and almost 33,000 homes were affected nationally. The quake was felt throughout Eastern Europe, but also in Russia, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. After the earthquake, a state of emergency was declared on the territory of Romania, and more than 30,000 firefighters and soldiers were mobilized. According to the authorities, if an earthquake of the same magnitude were to occur today, it would cause more than 42,000 deaths. Bucharest would suffer the most, as it has around 2,400 buildings in seismic risk classes, most of them in the city center.
HANDBALL – The Romanian women’s national handball team defeated Croatia yesterday, in Koprivnica, 25-23, in Group 1 of the 2024 European Championship preliminaries. Romania has thus qualified to the European Championship and ranks first in the group with 8 points, followed by Croatia and Greece, each with 4 points. In the last matches due in April, Romania will take on Bosnia-Herzegovina away from home and Greece on home turf. The first two teams in each group qualify for the European Championship, as well as the four best third-placed teams. The European Women’s Handball Championship will take place over November 28 – December 15 in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. (MI & VP)
