September 29, 2022 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 29.09.2022, 20:00

ENERGY Romania will not be facing glitches in natural gas and
electricity supplies, the state secretary with the Energy Ministry Dan Drăgan promised
on Thursday. At the time, Romania has 80% of its natural gas storage facilities
full, and hopefully the figure will be close to 90% in early November, he added.
The official also called for solidarity between the authorities, producers and
consumers, in line with the efforts made at EU level.

PRICE CAPS Diesel and petrol prices will
continue to be subsidised by roughly 10 eurocents until the end of the year, PM
Nicolae Ciucă announced on Thursday. He said the measure has already produced
visible results over the past 3 months, and fuel prices have been stabilised
and even decreased. Moreover, the measure has yielded results throughout the
supply chain, from providers to consumers. The PM added that on Saturday he
would take part, alongside several other senior officials, including the
president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in the opening of
the natural gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, in Sofia.

MONKEYPOX Romania is requesting support in managing a monkeypox
outbreak. The National Committee for Emergency Situations Thursday decided to
resort to the European civil protection mechanism for the medicines needed for
approximately 150 patients. Romania has so far confirmed 40 cases, and in
mid-September the country received from the European Commission 5,000 monkeypox
vaccine doses, to be administered to those who get into contact with infected
people.

NATO NATO’s importance in countries’ national security has greatly
increased in the eyes of the public from 14 European and North-American
countries, according to a survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund made
public on Thursday. The EU is also regarded as very important for the national
security of countries in Europe. 78% of respondents said NATO is very important
for their country’s security, as against only 67% last year. Respondents in
countries near Russia and Ukraine place a particularly high value on NATO: 91%
of Poles, 88% of Romanians and 87% of Lithuanians, the report says. Also, 81%
of the European respondents said the EU is important for national security.

UKRAINE Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is to sign on Friday the
treaties on the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk,
Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the Kremlin announced. The leaders of the 4 breakaway
regions travelled to Moscow on Wednesday night for the ceremony, after the
illegal referendums organised by Russia and described by both Kyiv and Western
capitals as a sham. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is
to hold an emergency meeting of top security and defence officials on Friday. The
US announced plans, jointly with its allies and partners, to impose higher
economic costs on Russia, while the European Commission proposed new sanctions. On the other hand, clashes continue to be reported in all the regions
where the referendums were held, and several Ukrainian localities are being
shelled. According to the Ukrainian defence ministry, the army focuses on
regaining control over the entire Donetsk region. (AMP)