TALKS The National
\nLiberal Party, the USR PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic
\nHungarians in Romania (UDMR) on Saturday kicked off a new round of talks in an
\nattempt to forge the future centre-to-right government and share portfolios in
\nthe new legislature. The teams set up the structure of the ruling programme and
\npledged to carry on talks on Sunday. This round of talks proves to be difficult
\nbecause the Liberals, who are currently ruling the country and came second in
\nthe legislative election on December 6th, aren’t willing to give up several
\nministries, such as finances, justice, transports, development and EU funds,
\nwhereas the USR PLUS Alliance is claiming some of these portfolios. UDMR would
\nlike to take over the healthcare, culture and the environment, as it
\ncoordinated these ministries before and would also like to take over other
\nportfolios as well. The talks should be completed before the consultations with
\npresident Klaus Iohannis on Monday for the designation of a Prime Minister.
\nThese consultations will begin with the Social Democratic Party, which mustered
\nthe largest number of votes in the latest election. The Alliance for the Union
\nof Romanians AUR, a party founded a year ago, got half million votes and ranks
\nfourth in Parliament. The Legislature will be completed by the representatives
\nof national minorities, other than the Hungarian one. The PSD proposed
\nAlexandru Rafila, Romania’s WHO representative for the position of Prime
\nMinister, whereas the Liberals have designated the incumbent Finance Minister
\nFlorin Citu. <\/p>\n
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ALERT Authorities in Romania have
\ndecided to extend the state of alert because of the Covid-19 pandemic for
\nanother month, starting December 14th. The present restrictions will
\nremain in place including the nighttime curfew. Only one restriction has been
\nadded; in order to avoid overcrowding ski-slopes, access to cable cars has been
\nrestricted to only 10 people. Authorities have made a new appeal asking the
\nRomanians to limit visits, avoid going caroling and to New Year’s parties. Over
\n13,100 Covid-related fatalities have been registered in Romania since the
\nbeginning of the pandemic. 6460 new infection cases have been reported in the
\npast 24 hours, mostly in Bucharest, where the rate of infections has exceeded 7
\nper one thousand people. 13 hundred people are in intensive care. <\/p>\n
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CLIMATE Romanian president
\nKlaus Iohannis has called into attention the fact that the climate change
\neffects are being felt in Romania more and more. Its summers have become hotter
\nand hotter while desertification and drought keep affecting crops and limiting people
\naccess to food supplies. In a message conveyed on celebrating 5 years since the
\nParis Agreement on climate change, the head of the Romanian state said it’s
\nimperative that we make sure these effects will not deepen and multiply to
\ndramatically impact the citizens’ life and health. In this respect at the
\nEuropean Council summit this week, we have agreed with EU leaders, to bring
\ndown greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 as against the year 1990.
\nPresident Iohannis said the authorities would implement in the following years
\na series of projects allowing for the reduction of greenhouse gases at the same
\ntime sustaining economic growth. The main goal of the Paris Agreement is to
\nlimit global warming under 2\u00b0C and make efforts to keep it at 1.5\u00b0C by the end
\nof the century. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS Romanian tennis player Sorana
\nCirstea on Saturday clinched a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win against Katerina Siniakova of
\nthe Czech Republic in the finals of the ITF tournament in Dubai. Sorana has
\nalso won the other three matches she played against Siniakova, in Eastbourne in
\n2017, in Madrid two years later and in the first round of US Open. The victory against
\nSiniakova has prompted Cirstea to the 71st position in the WTA
\nranking. <\/p>\n
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(bill)
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