Vaccine. <\/strong>The
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Parliament.<\/strong>
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Anniversary.<\/strong>
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Organised crime. <\/strong>The justice ministry in Romania
A roundup of local 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":[35936,32984,35386,29268,29661,32402],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-anticommunism","tag-coalition","tag-covid","tag-parliament","tag-revolution","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEuropean Medicines Agency on Monday approved the Covid vaccine developed by
\nPfizer and BioNTech. The vaccine is already being rolled out in the UK, the
\nUnites States, Canada and Israel. Agency representatives said there is no proof
\nthat the vaccine is not efficient against the new strain of the virus. A first
\nsmall batch of 10,000 doses is expected to arrive in Romania on 26th
\nDecember, with the vaccination campaign kicking off officially the next day.
\nThe authorities are saying that these first doses will be enough to vaccinate
\nthe medical staff in Romania’s ten infectious disease hospitals on the front
\nline of the fight against the pandemic. Some 2,500 new Covid cases and 87 new
\ndeaths were recorded on Monday in Romania. Total infections near 600,000 and
\nthe death toll 14,500. The number of Covid patients in intensive care is still
\nhigh, at 1,255. <\/p>\n
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\nThe Chamber of Deputies and the Senate resulting from the latest parliamentary
\nelections in Romania on Monday met for the first time after the parliamentary
\nparties negotiated the distribution of leadership positions and the membership
\nof specialist committees. 459 were validated of the 460 MPs representing the
\nSocial Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the USR-PLUS Alliance,
\nthe Alliance for the
\nUnion of Romanians and the Democratic Party of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
\nAlso on Monday, the centre-right coalition formed by the Liberals, the USR-PLUS
\nAlliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians agreed on a governing
\nprogramme for 2020-2024. They spoke about stability, responsibility and
\ncompetence in the future government, with the aim of modernising Romania. The three parties decided to support the current
\nLiberal finance minister Florin Citu for prime minister. In the future
\ngovernment, the National Liberal Party is expected to control nine ministries, the
\nUSR-PLUS Alliance six and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians three. As
\nregards the leadership of the two chambers of Parliament, the Save Romania
\nUnion and PLUS Alliance will designate the new Senate Speaker while the
\nLiberals will be appointing the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. Marcel
\nCiolacu, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, which won the largest
\nnumber of seats, told his fellow MPs they need to prepare for a strong
\nopposition.<\/p>\n
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\n31 years ago, the communist uprising started in Timisoara, western Romania, and
\nthen spread to Bucharest and other big cities, sparking a nation-wide movement
\nthat led to the demise of the communist regime led by dictator Nicolae
\nCeausescu. A day before, Timisoara had become the first city free of communism.
\nOn December 21, Ceausescu called a large rally, meant to condemn the events in
\nTimisoara and muster popular support for the party and the state leadership,
\nbut the reaction of the people was not what he had expected. Targu Mures. in
\nthe centre, became the third city in Romania to rise against the communist
\nregime. Dozens of people were killed on this day all over the country, hundreds
\ninjured and over one thousand arrested.<\/p>\n
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\nhas finalised and submitted for public consultation the draft of the national
\nstrategy against organised crime for 2021-2024, which justice minister Catalin
\nPredoiu says will guide efficiently the response of the state in this regard.
\nThe strategy is pursuing five different lines of action: increasing
\ninstitutional capacity to prevent organised crime and boosting resilience to
\nthis phenomenon; developing institutional capacity to fight organised crime;
\nconsolidating intervention against the manifestation of organised crime;
\nlimiting the access of organised crime groups to financial resources; and
\nconsolidating national and international cooperation. The document also benefitted
\nfrom the input of FBI specialists, with the help of the US Embassy in Bucharest
\nand the US Department of Justice. (CM)<\/p>\n
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