March 5, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.03.2020, 19:45

CORONAVIRUS – Three out of the six people diagnosed with
coronavirus in Romania have been declared cured, authorities say. One was
discharged and two remain under medical care pending their discharge. The other
three are currently in special medical centers for infectious disease in
Timisoara, Cluj and Iasi, their condition being stable. According to official
data, 35 people are in quarantine in Romania, and more than 11,700 are in
isolation at home. Two Romanian citizens infected with coronavirus and hospitalized
in Japan have been declared cured and will be discharged. Meanwhile, Britain
has decided to amend the legislation to ease access to medical leave. In France
the outbreak has spread to all regions while in Israel a quarantine is imposed
on all persons arriving from several west-European countries. Hungary has
announced its first cases. Italy, the country with the third biggest outbreak
after China and South Korea, has closed down all schools and universities until
March 15. Schools have been closed in 13 states, affecting 290 million students.
In continental China the death toll has exceeded 3,000. COVID-19 has spread to
80 countries and territories. The total number of infections stands at 95,000
worldwide, with over 3,300 people having died to the virus.

GOVERNMENT – Parliament’s specialist committees on Thursday
gave a positive opinion to the nomination of Bogdan Aurescu as Foreign
Minister, Marcel Bolos as Minister for European Funds, Marcel Vela as Interior
Minister and Virgil Popescu as Economy Minister, who were proposed by Prime Minister
designate Florin Citu. The candidates for minister of transport, infrastructure
and communications, sports, defense, agriculture and the environment have also
received the green light, while the candidates for minister of labour, health,
education, culture, finance, development and justice have received negative
opinions. The opinions are consultative and the vote of investiture is expected
next week. The only change from the Orban government is the position of finance
minister, where Lucian Ovidiu Heiuş is proposed to replace the former occupant,
the Prime Minister designate. Citu was nominated by president Klaus Iohannis
after the Constitutional Court ruled as unconstitutional the designation of the
acting Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, whose cabinet had been dismissed in a vote
of no-confidence.

VISIT – Cluj Mayor Emil Boc on Thursday announced the
city would compete in the 2020 European Capital of Innovation, a competition
won last year by Nantes, France. The decision was taken after the European
commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth Mariya
Gabriel officially opened the competition on the sidelines of the StartupCity
Cluj-Napoca conference. European cities with over 100,000 inhabitants can
enroll. The grand prize is 1 million euros. The European official met with
Education Minister Monica Anisie, who underlined the key role of education in
the Commission’s latest initiatives, namely the European Green Deal and A Strong
Social Europe for Just Transitions. Minister Anisie highlighted the need for
the Commission to disburse proper financial resources to ensure school
infrastructure becomes sustainable. Mariya Gabriel in turn said that research
and education are key to creating innovative ecosystems, in partnership with
the business sector.

POVERTY – In 2018, children were the age group at highest
risk of poverty and social exclusion in almost half of the EU member states.
The percentage varies from 13.1% in Slovenia and 13.2% in the Czech Republic to
38.1% in Romania and 33.7% in Bulgaria, according to the data made public on
Thursday by the European statistical office Eurostat. The risk of poverty and
social exclusion affected 23.4% of EU’s children, 22.1% of its adults aged
between 18 and 64 and 18.4% of people over the age of 65. The biggest gaps were
noted in France, Romania and Slovakia, where the rate among children was more
than 5% higher than the rest of the population.

MEMORANDUM – Six EU member states, including Romania, signed
in Zagreb a memorandum of understanding on mutual assistance in the field of
cyber security, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU defense
ministers. The project, which is coordinated by Lithuania, aims at creating
multinational response networks and teams made up of EU cyber security experts.
The other signatories are Croatia, Poland, Estonia and Holland. In 2017, 25 EU
member states joined PESCO, an initiative allowing countries to cooperate more
closely to consolidate their military capacity, laying the foundations of the
so-called European defense union. This covers concrete projects, including the
creation of a medical union, a logistical center and the development of joint
standards for military radio communication.

(Translated by C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)