FUEL PRICES
\nPM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 announced thorough
\ninspections in all oil companies in Romania, after panic last night caused
\nunprecedented queuing in petrol stations. The PM warned that the required
\nmeasures will be taken to curb any illegal, abusive and economically unjustified
\npractices. Mr. Ciuc\u01ce made these statements after an emergency meeting with the
\nministers of energy and economy and the heads of the Competition Council, the
\nConsumer Protection Authority and the fiscal authority. The institutions have
\nalready initiated inspections following an unjustified fuel price rise. The energy
\nminister Virgil Popescu also posted a message on social media, stating the
\nsanctions against those who break the law will be drastic.<\/p>\n
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REFUGEES PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 is
\nhaving talks today with the EU commissioner for crisis management Janez
\nLenar\u010di\u010d, who took part on Wednesday in the opening of the European hub for
\nhumanitarian aid for Ukraine, in Suceava (northern Romania). The EU official
\nsaid he was encouraged by the solidarity shown by the EU and its member states,
\nincluding Romania. A new call-centre has also been opened today in Romania for
\nthe Ukrainian refugees, with Ukrainian-speaking personnel, among others. Some
\n320,000 Ukrainian nationals have entered Romania over the past 2 weeks, and
\nnearly 235,000 of them have already left the country. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19 Roughly 4,200 new SARS-CoV-2 cases and 62
\nrelated deaths were reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, the Strategic
\nCommunication Group announced on Wednesday. After almost 2 years in a state of
\nalert, Romania lifted all COVID-19 related restrictions on March 9th.
\nThe authorities announced that those citizens whose ID expired over the past 2
\nyears have to renew their documents within 3 months. As many as 387,000 people
\nmust get new identity documents by June 7th. <\/p>\n
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\n
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SUMMIT EU leaders convene today and tomorrow in Versailles, France, for a
\nsummit focusing on Europe’s energy independence, on strengthening the bloc’s defence
\nand on the EU accession request signed recently by Ukraine. A new plan will be
\ndiscussed, most likely to be funded through a new joint loan, in order to
\naddress the consequences of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. As regards the
\nenergy crisis, the European Commission has recently presented the RePowerEU initiative,
\ndesigned to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for over 40%
\nof the Union’s natural gas consumption. As for Ukraine, a strengthened
\npartnership is being considered, by tightening Kyiv’s ties with the European
\nsingle market and connecting Ukraine with the European energy network.<\/p>\n
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PRESIDENCY Romania will be represented in the Versailles summit
\nby president Klaus Iohannis. Ahead of the meeting, he took part
\non Monday in a video call with the president of the European Council Charles Michel, and the prime-ministers of the
\nNetherlands, Greece, Croatia and Estonia. President Iohannis emphasised the
\nimportance of firmly maintaining the unity and coordination within the EU and between
\nthe Union and the US, NATO and other strategic partners, in responding to
\nRussia’s aggression against Ukraine. Mr.
\nIohannis also presented the measures taken by Romania to support Ukraine, including
\nthe set-up of a hub collecting and coordinating international aid to Ukraine
\nand Moldova. The president of Romania also emphasised Romania’s support for the
\nEU accession requests signed by Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. <\/p>\n
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UKRAINE Today’s negotiations
\nbetween the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro
\nKuleba, mediated by Turkey, failed to lead to any progress towards a ceasefire.
\nPromises were made to carry on humanitarian efforts to evacuate civilians,
\nwithout any firm commitment on Russia’s part in this respect. Kuleba added that
\na decision was made to carry on talks in this format. In turn, Lavrov continued
\nto accuse Ukraine of seeking to use biological and chemical weapons and of
\nbeing manipulated by the West. Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded once again
\nthis morning in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as the 3rd week of war
\nbegan. According to the Ukrainian army, Russian forces are advancing in an
\nattempt to surround the city, and have carried on attacks in other parts of the
\ncountry as well. President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of war crimes.
\nMoscow agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire to enable civilians to leave 6 of the most
\naffected areas, but the Ukrainian authorities say steady Russian bombing
\nprevented some locals from leaving. On the other hand, Ukraine claims it
\nkilled, wounded or captured over 12,000 Russian soldiers, and destroyed over 330
\ntanks, over 1,110 armoured vehicles and some 130 aircraft. Russia claims to
\nhave destroyed nearly 3,000 military infrastructure elements in Ukraine. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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