ELECTION
\n– President Klaus Iohannis on Monday said Sunday’s results in the local
\nelection mark a victory for Romanian democracy, but also an unprecedented
\nvictory reported by right-wing parties. The President said the voter turnout
\nwas good, considering the health crisis the country is facing, and this proves
\nsociety is acting responsibly. Romanians have voted for a new direction, for
\ncommon sense and respect towards citizens, as well as for democracy, President
\nIohannis said. The President congratulated the National Liberal Party and the
\nSave Romania Union – PLUS alliance for their good results in Sunday’s ballot,
\nand asked them to continue cooperating with a view to shaping up a new majority
\nin Parliament after the legislative election slated for December. According to
\npartial results, the independent candidate Nicu\u015for Dan, backed by the
\nNational Liberal Party in power and the Save Romania Union – PLUS alliance won
\n42.78% of the vote, to the detriment of his opponent, Social-Democrat Gabriela
\nFirea, the current Mayor General of Bucharest, who won 37.95% of the vote.
\nCandidates supported by the National Liberal Party and Save Romania Union-PLUS have
\nreported victories in 3 of the 6 districts in the capital city, while left-wing
\ncandidates have won the mayor seats in the other three. Over 46% of Romanians
\nvoted in Sunday’s ballot to elect 41 presidents of county councils, over 1,300
\ncounty councilmen, 40,000 local councilmen and over 3,200 mayors. Nationwide,
\nthe Social-Democratic Party has reportedly won 20 county councils, the Liberals
\n17 and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19
\n– 1,271 new coronavirus infections were reported on Monday in Romania, taking
\nthe total number of cases to almost 124,000. 99,344 people have recovered. 30
\nnew deaths were also reported on Monday, with the death toll now standing at
\n4,748. Globally, the pandemic has caused more than 1 million deaths and over
\n33.3 million infections, according to worldometers.info. Some 25 million people
\nhave recovered. The worst hit regions in terms of number of deaths are Latin
\nAmerica and the Caribbean, Europe, the United States and Canada. In the US
\nalone, infections have passed 7.3 million and the death toll is nearing
\n210,000. India also topped 6 million cases on Monday. According to World Health
\nOrganization officials, coronavirus fatalities could double to 2 million before
\na successful vaccine is widely used, and this figure could be even higher
\nwithout coordinated measures to contain the pandemic.<\/p>\n
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FUNDING
\n– The European Commission has approved modifying the Competitiveness
\nOperational Programme for Romania, by redirecting funding worth \u20ac550 million
\nfrom the Cohesion Fund in order to offset the economic fallout of the
\ncoronacrisis. According to a Commission release, some 120,000 SMEs and other
\ndigitization and e-education initiatives will be able to access the funds. The
\nCommission recalls Romania has already attracted some \u20ac350 million worth of EU
\nfunds in the healthcare sector to help doctors in the first line of defense
\nagainst COVID-19. Thanks to the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, a
\ntotal of \u20ac900 million from the Cohesion Fund is being earmarked to efforts at
\ncombating the coroanvirus and its effects in Romania. <\/p>\n
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EPPO -
\nRomanian Laura Codru\u021ba Kovesi was sworn
\nin on Monday as the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office at the
\nCourt of Justice of the European Union. Joining her in the swearing-in ceremony
\nwere another 22 prosecutors representing the 22 EPPO member states. In a joint
\nagreement signed on October 16, 2019, the European Parliament and the Council
\nof the European Union designated Laura Codru\u021ba Kovesi as the first head of the
\nEPPO. Under a resolution passed on July 27, 2020, the Council of the European
\nUnion appointed the first European prosecutors. EPPO is an independent body of
\nthe European Union charged with investigating, prosecuting and taking to court
\ncrimes that infringe on the EU’s financial interests, such as corruption, or
\ncross-border VAT fraud that result in a prejudice exceeding \u20ac10 million. To
\nthis end, the EPPO is conducting investigations and prosecutions working with
\nthe relevant courts of law in member states. The EPPO will be headquartered in
\nLuxembourg. <\/p>\n
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DEFICIT – Romania’s budget deficit went up to 5.18% of the GDP after the first
\neight months of the year, from 2.1% in the similar period of last year, the
\nMinistry of Finance reports. Over half of the deficit reflects the costs of
\nmeasures introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. According to official
\nestimates, the budget deficit will reach 8.6% this year, 5% of which directly accounting
\nfor the economic fallout of COVID-19. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS – 4 Romanian tennis players will
\nbe competing in Tuesday’s first round at Roland Garros. Ana Bogdan will take on
\nTimea Babos of Hungary, Monica Niculescu will play Danielle Collins of the
\nUnited States, Sorana C\u00eerstea will
\ngo up against Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, while Irina Bara will play Donna
\nVekic of Croatia. On Wednesday, Simona Halep, the top seed at Roland Garros,
\nwill play another Romanian player, Irina Begu. In the last encounter at the
\nsemi-finals in Prague, Halep defeated Begu. Eight Romanian players will compete
\nin the women’s doubles: Raluca Olaru, Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu,
\nAndreea Mitu, Irina Bara, Ana Bogdan, Patricia \u0162ig and Sorana C\u00eerstea. In the
\nmen’s doubles, Romanian Horia Tec\u0103u and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands,
\nlast year’s quarterfinalists, are seeded 12 and will play Cristian Garin of
\nChile and Pedro Martinez of Spain. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by C. Mateescu & V. Palcu) <\/p>\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":[35768,35374,31801,29053,31085,28945,29799,29900,29089],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-budget-deifict","tag-covid-19","tag-eppo","tag-european-commission","tag-funding","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-laura-codruta-kovesi","tag-local-election","tag-roland-garros"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n