September 18, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 18.09.2024, 19:48
Defence. The Bucharest Nine meeting of defence ministers was hosted in Bucharest by Romania’s defence minister Angel Tîlvăr. The B9 initiative includes Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia. The talks focused on the security situation in the region, amid the growing threat posed by Russia. Minister Tîlvăr called for a coordinated and robust response from NATO. He also said that the B9 states are deeply concerned about the repeated incursions of Russia’s drones and rockets into NATO airspace and the escalation of tensions along NATO’s borders. A number of NATO states neighbouring Ukraine have seen Russian drones and rockets entering their airspace, with Romania and Latvia being the most recent cases.
Ukraine. In Bucharest, on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, called on the Romanian partners to consider the possibility of shooting down Russian drones near the country’s airspace. After the meeting with the Romanian foreign minister Luminița Odobescu, Sybiha said that he was “grateful” for Bucharest’s “historic” decision to donate a Patriot system to Ukraine. “It is very important to strengthen the defence of Ukraine. It is a shield not only for Ukraine, but also for Europe”, the Ukrainian official said. Minister Odobescu reiterated Romania’s support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and again firmly condemned Russia’s war of aggression, which is an attack against the international rules-based order. Romania recently looked into the possibility to amend the legislation to allow the military to destroy suspicious drones entering its territory, after several Russian drones have illegally ended up in the Romanian airspace in the last year.
Storm Boris. More than 20 people have been killed in the torrential rain and flooding in Central and Eastern Europe brought over by storm Boris, the worst in Europe since 1997. Romania reported seven deaths, with casualties also reported in Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy. Flood warnings are still in place in Italy, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia. In Romania, the authorities have begun assessing the damage caused by the floods in Galaţi county, in the east, which was worst hit. The government has approved emergency aid for the families affected.
Electricity. Electricity prices in the south of Europe are almost five times higher than in the Scandinavian countries and almost twice as high as in central and western Europe, according to an analysis made by Eurelectric, the European electricity industry association. Recently, the Greek government called on the European Union to react urgently to the increase in electricity prices in Central and Eastern Europe, also as a result of Russian strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. It also announced an initiative to create an intervention mechanism in partnership with Romania and Bulgaria, to be activated in the event of high prices. According to its own estimates, the European Union needs to invest almost 600 billion euros in modernising its electricity grids by 2030 to be able to take over more energy from renewable sources.
Industry. The Romanian government is planning to take measure to reindustrialise the economy, said prime minister Marcel Ciolacu on Wednesday. He said a national plan for big industry would be launched, consisting in a package of measures worth some 2 billion euros and centres around three main pillars. These include a support scheme for strategic investments in the processing industry, with a budget of 500 million euros; a national programme to support big industry, with a budget of 1 billion euros for the big companies; and, thirdly, a state-aid scheme worth 250 million euros for companies seeking investments in the production of industrial raw materials.
