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Covid-19
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Pandemic.<\/strong> EU leaders
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European Council.<\/strong> Today and tomorrow,
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Budgets. <\/strong>The
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HoReCa.<\/strong> The principle of
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":[35374,28997,35693,28945,29598,31797],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-european-council","tag-horeca","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-state-budget","tag-vaccination"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRO. <\/strong>The Covid-19 vaccination campaign continues in Romania. 1.5 million doses
\nhave been used so far to vaccinate some 850 thousand people, mostly with Pfizer\/BioNTech.
\nThe Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have also been administered across the
\ncountry. The vaccination of education employees, through school inspectorates,
\nbegan on Wednesday in Bucharest and most counties. The whole procedure will
\ntake until March 10 for the first dose of vaccine, and authorities estimate
\nthat 60,000 people will be immunized during this period. So far, more than
\n42,000 teachers have already been vaccinated. On the other hand, almost 4,000
\nnew cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been reported today,
\nfollowing about 37,000 tests run nationwide. In total, since the beginning of
\nthe pandemic in Romania, over 790,000 cases have been registered, and about 90%
\nof the patients have been cured. The total number of deaths has exceeded 20
\nthousand.<\/p>\n
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\nare to decide today on the issuance of vaccination certificates for EU
\ncitizens, following the insistent request of southern European countries, which
\ndepend heavily on tourism and are desperately trying to save the summer season
\nof 2021. Restrictions imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus infection have
\ncaused deep recessions in 2020 in the European Union, hitting in particular the
\nsouth of the continent. As vaccination campaigns step up, some governments,
\nsuch as those of Greece and Spain, are pushing for the adoption of vaccination
\ncertificates at EU level so that EU citizens can travel again. However,
\ncountries such as France and Germany are much more reluctant, saying that such
\na decision would create a de facto obligation to vaccinate and would be
\ndiscriminatory against those who cannot or do not want to be vaccinated. In the
\nworld, according to worldometers, at least 113 million people have been
\ninfected with the new coronavirus so far. 2.5 million people have died and more
\nthan 88 million have been declared cured since the beginning of the pandemic a
\nyear ago.<\/p>\n
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\nRomania’s president Klaus Iohannis is attending an extraordinary meeting of
\nthe European Council. The members have
\ngathered via video conference to discuss the current situation of the Covid-19
\npandemic, preparedness for health threats, security and defense, and relations
\nwith the Southern Neighborhood. According to a draft conclusion document
\nobtained by Radio Romania, non-essential travel within the EU and from outside
\nmust still be restricted, but in a proportionate and non-discriminatory manner,
\ntaking into account the specificities of each community inside or outside the
\nEU. Also, the movement of goods and
\nservices in the single market should not be affected, the Council members
\nbelive. On Tuesday, Klaus Iohannis had a video conference with the President of
\nthe European Council Charles Michel and other European leaders, in preparation
\nfor the summit. <\/p>\n
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\nstate and social security draft budgets have reached Romania’s Parliament. They
\nwill be analyzed and endorsed by the joint specialize committees and follow the
\nentire formal cycle so as to have the bills ready by Monday, March 1st.
\nThe governing coalition has decided that the MPs representing the three parties
\nwill not file amendments and will endorse the bills as they were submitted by
\nthe Executive. From the opposition, the Social Democratic Party criticizes this
\nyear’s austerity budget and has prepared lots of amendments. However, there is
\nlittle chance for amendments to be accepted that will substantially change the
\ntwo bills, because Parliament has already voted on the Law regarding the ceilings
\nthat set the financial constrains for the two budgets. This year, the deficit
\ncannot exceed 7.16% of the GDP, and personnel costs will have to stay below
\n9.8%. The plenary vote on the two draft budgets is scheduled for next Tuesday. <\/p>\n
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\n‘first come, first served’ has been removed from the Government Emergency
\nOrdinance on support measures for HoReCa companies, the Minister of Economy,
\nEntrepreneurship and Tourism, Claudiu N\u0103sui, has said today. He has stressed that, following the removal
\nof this principle, all eligible applicants, regardless of when they applied,
\nwill receive funding. The Minister of Economy has also stated that this aid
\nscheme is based on a budget of one billion lei (approx. 200 million euros) and
\nbenefits the HoReCa sector in the form of grants in the amount of 20% of the
\ncalculation base, without exceeding 800,000 euro per enterprise. HoReCa
\nentrepreneurs have repeatedly called for the situation of restaurants to stop being
\ndecided depending on the COVID incidence rate. They recalled that the industry
\nis on the verge of bankruptcy. (M.I.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"