COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – The number
\nof confirmed COVID-19 infections in Romania has exceeded 17.500. Of these 1.156
\nhave died and over 10.500 have recovered. Over 3.000 Romanians living abroad
\nhave tested positive for COVID-19, mostly in Italy, Spain and Germany. Of
\nthese, 105 have died. The authorities
\nand experts recommend the wearing of masks. Failure to wear masks would
\nincrease the infection rate to 70%. In another development, the president of
\nthe Committee for Clinical and Epidemiological Management with the Health
\nMinistry, Adriana Pistol, estimates that the number of infections in Romania
\ncould reach 20,000 by autumn.<\/p>\n
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REPATRIATIONS
\n– The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest on Thursday announced that over May 21-24
\nseven flights will be set up to European states to bring home Romanian
\nnationals with temporary stay permits who have been affected by the measures
\nadopted by other states to prevent the pandemic from spreading. 5 flights will
\nhead to Spain, one to France and one to Great Britain. Also on Thursday the
\nMinistry announced 156 Romanian nationals and two foreign citizens with stay
\npermits for Romania have been returned to the country. According to the Romanian
\nForeign Ministry, the action was carried out with a special flight operated by
\nthe national airliner TAROM to Rome. The same flight also transported some 132
\nItalian citizens from Bucharest to Rome. The Foreign Ministry has renewed its
\nprevious recommendations to verify all information on its webpage and the
\nwebsites of Romania’s diplomatic missions and consular offices abroad. <\/p>\n
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FINE – Romanian President
\nKlaus Iohannis has been fined by the National Council for Combating
\nDiscrimination with the equivalent of 1 thousand euros for discrimination and
\nviolation of the right to dignity on grounds of ethnicity \/ nationality, for
\nsome of his recent statements. The leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic
\nHungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, has said that the Council’s decision is
\nfair while the interim leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu,
\nhas said Iohannis should apologize publicly for his statements about the
\nHungarians. Marcel Ciolacu himself was targeted by the President’s message, which
\naccused the Social Democrats of
\nfighting in their secret offices in Parliament to give Transylvania to the
\nHungarians. The Presidency has announced Klaus Iohannis will appeal the Council’s
\ndecision in Court, as he considers it to be a political move. <\/p>\n
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BILATERAL
\nRELATIONS – Romania is an excellent destination for business people, and
\nthe Romanian Government is open to encouraging investment, Prime Minister
\nLudovic Orban said on Thursday during a videoconference held with his Polish
\ncounterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. The two officials reviewed the status and
\ndevelopment prospects of bilateral relations, including in the economic and
\ntrade fields, amidst economic recovery measures introduced at European and
\nnational levels after the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban
\nrecently announced that the Government is planning on setting up a new
\ninvestment fund, based on the successful model of the Polish Development Fund.
\nThe new fund will be financed from the state budget, the EU budget,
\nstate-issued bonds and the capital of financial institutions and investment
\nagencies. The Fund is run by the Surveillance Council made up of independent
\nmembers. <\/p>\n
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BORDER POLICE -
\nChief Inspector Liviu Bute will take over the Border Police General
\nInspectorate, after Ioan Buda stepped down on Thursday for personal reasons. In
\nrecent days the Hungarian border has been overcrowded after the state of
\nemergency was lifted in Romania, with wait times reaching 12 hours. As of
\nThursday, 10 border crossing points on the Hungarian border are operational.
\nThe longest wait times are reported at Nadlac, where checks are being performed
\nto prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading. According to the Border
\nPolice, wait times are not significantly long for entry into the country in any
\nof the border crossing points. <\/p>\n
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(Translated by V. Palcu & E. Enache)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[30892,35374,35537,35536,28945,35458,34377],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-border-police","tag-covid-19","tag-development-fund","tag-discrimination-fine","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-repatriations","tag-romania-poland-relations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n