September 17, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 17.09.2022, 20:10

CORONAVIRUS — Some 1,454 new Covid-19 infections have been reported in Romania in 24 hours, by 347 less than the previous day, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday. Also, 1,609 people are treated in hospital of whom 130 in intensive care units. 12 people have died in the last 24 hours from Covid-related causes, one being reported from an earlier date. 66,912 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in Romania since the virus first emerged 3 years ago.

NRRP – Romania will receive in the upcoming weeks a first trench of 2.6 billion euros under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, after the European Commission confirmed that Bucharest had reached all 21 targets assumed under the plan. The money will go into road and rail infrastructure, the modernization of 100 nurseries, digitization of universities, hydrogen co-generation and production and prevention of school dropout. PM Nicolae Ciuca has said Romania may adjust, as of next year, the minimum wage level recently adopted by the European Parliament. The law endorsed on Friday establishes procedures for the adequacy of statutory minimum wages, promotes collective bargaining on wage setting and enhances the effective access to minimum wage protection for those workers who are entitled to a minimum wage under national law. Setting minimum wages remains a national prerogative, but member states should ensure that national minimum wages allow workers to live decently, taking into account the cost of living and wider wage levels.

CYBER SECURITY – Romania’s team ranked 8th out of 33 at the European Cyber Security Challenge held in Vienna between September 13 and 16. Denmark ranked 1st, followed by Germany and France. Top cyber talents from each participating country met in Austria-s capital to network and collaborate and finally compete against each other. Contestants were challenged in solving security related tasks from domains such as web security, mobile security, crypto puzzles, reverse engineering and forensics and in the process collected points for solving them. The European Cyber Security Challenge is an initiative by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and aims at enhancing cyber security talent across Europe and connecting high potentials with industry leading organizations. Romania has won the 2019 edition of the competition and was twice European vice-champion.

CELEBRATION – Bucharest celebrates its 563rd anniversary this weekend. Street shows, photo exhibitions, film screenings and concerts have been scheduled to celebrate the event. From tango, foxtrot and swing to classical music, the cultural events held this weekend try to reconstitute the inter-war period, when Romania’s capital was called Little Paris. In its 563 years of existence, Bucharest has been the main arena for Romania’s artistic, cultural, and political changes. It was first mentioned by documents on September 21st, 1459 during the rule of Vlad the Impaler.

MEDIA – The European Commission adopted on Friday a European Media Freedom Act, a novel set of rules to protect media pluralism and independence in the EU. According to a release by the European Commission, the proposed regulation includes, among others, safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions and against surveillance, puts a focus on the independence and stable funding of public service media as well as on the transparency of media ownership and of the allocation of state advertising. Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, said “We need to establish clear principles: no journalist should be spied on because of their job; no public media should be turned into propaganda channel.”

HANDBALL – Romania’s women’s handball side, Rapid Bucharest is playing on home turf against the French team Metz, in their second Group B match of the Champions League. Rapid beat Croatia’s Lokomotiva Zagreb a week ago, 31-27. Also on Sunday Romania’s vice-champion CSM Bucharest is up against the French side Brest, in a Group A match. In the first match the Romanians beat Krim Ljubljana at home, 30-28. Bucharest is the only European capital with two teams in EHF Champions League. (EE)