NATO.<\/strong> The Parliament of
<\/p>\n
Government.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Report.
<\/p>\n
Gas.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Firefighters.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Automotive.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Decorations.<\/strong>
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[36441,35507,30821,13794],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-david-popovici","tag-firefighters","tag-gas","tag-nato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRomania, convened in a special meeting on Wednesday, ratified the NATO Accession Protocols of Finland and
\nSweden. The documents were signed on July 5 in Brussels. Finland’s and
\nSweden’s decision to join the North-Atlantic Alliance comes amid security
\nconcerns related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Romanian Foreign Minister
\nBogdan Aurescu has informed his Finish and Swedish counterparts about the
\nratification. During a phone conversation with the Finish minister Pekka
\nHaavisto, Bogdan Aurescu tackled Romania’s joining the Schengen agreement, and
\nhis counterpart stressed his country’s support in this endeavor. <\/p>\n
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\nThe Romanian government approved, in
\nWednesday’s meeting, the substantiation note for the purchase of 12 locomotives
\nthat run on hydrogen, the Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, has
\nannounced. The estimated value of the contract, financed under the NRRP and
\nfrom the state budget, will be 862.23 million lei (about 175 million euros).
\nAccording to a Government communiqu\u00e9, the investment will be used for a pilot
\nproject regarding their use as an ecological alternative to the transport with
\ndiesel traction on the lines that have not been electrified. The benefits include
\ntime saving for passengers, lower vehicle operating costs, lower maintenance
\ncosts and savings for passenger rail transport operatiors, as well as lower
\naccident rates and lower greenhouse gas emissions. <\/p>\n
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\n<\/strong>The US State Department has raised
\nRomania’s country rating in the field of combating human trafficking to level
\n2, in its Annual Report. Among the strategic elements that led to Romania’s
\nadvancement in the rankings are the amendment of the Criminal Code and the
\nincrease in the number of investigations and convictions of human trafficking,
\nthe establishment of the Service for Combating Trafficking in Persons within
\nDIICOT, equipping the National Police with the best IT forensic system for
\ndetecting sex offenders and pedophiles online and legislative amendments for
\nthe protection of Romanian seasonal workers abroad. The report also comes with
\na set of 12 recommendations for Romania, which mainly aim to diversify and
\nincrease the quality of services for victims of human trafficking, improve the
\nprocess of identifying potential victims, improve funding mechanisms for
\nnon-governmental organizations providing services to victims, increase the
\nnumber of police officers with responsibilities in combating this phenomenon
\nand the immediate investigation of any suspicions of complicity in trafficking
\namong public system personnel.<\/p>\n
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\nThe European Commission is proposing a plan
\nto reduce gas consumption in all Member States by 15% from 1 August to next
\nspring. The proposal comes as the Union faces the risk of further disruptions
\nin the supply of Russian gas. The European plan focuses on replacing gas with
\nother fuels and on general energy savings in all sectors. The new regulation
\nwould give the Commission the possibility to declare, after consulting the
\nMember States, a Union alert on supply security, imposing a
\nmandatory reduction in gas demands for all Member States. The alert may be
\ntriggered when there is a substantial risk of a severe gas shortage or an
\nexceptionally high gas demand. To this end, Member States should update their
\nnational contingency plans by the end of September.<\/p>\n
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\n28 Romanian firefighters are participating,
\nunder a European multinational program, in the efforts to extinguish the wild
\nfires near the Greek capital. According to Radio Romania’s correspondence, no
\ncasualties were reported, but dozens of houses and shops were burned or
\ndamaged. The fires broke out on Tuesday afternoon, on Penteli Mountain, in the
\nnortheast of the capital, from where the catastrophic fire in Mati started,
\nthree years ago, resulting in the death of 102 people. All suburbs in the
\nregion were evacuated and traffic was banned. About 400 firefighters are
\noperating in the area. They are helped by the army, but also by air fire
\nextinguishers, dozens of vehicles and hundreds of volunteers.<\/p>\n
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\nRomania has again seen the largest increase
\nin electric car sales in the region, according to data released by the European
\nAutomobile Manufacturers Association. Between April and June 2022, sales of
\nbattery-powered electric cars in the European Union increased by 11.1% to
\n233,413 units. Many European markets recorded three-digit percentage increases
\n(over 100%), but Romania had the strongest percentage advance (412.4%). The
\nshare of electric vehicles in the EU reached 9.9% of registrations in the
\nsecond quarter of this year, from 7.5% in the same period last year.<\/p>\n
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\nSwimmer David Popovici and coach Adrian
\nR\u0103dulescu were decorated on Wednesday by President Klaus Iohannis. The head of
\nstate awarded David Popovici the National Order ‘Star of Romania’ in the rank
\nof Knight, and his coach – the National Order ‘For Merit’ in the rank of
\nKnight. The decoration decision came after the results obtained at the World
\nSwimming Championships in Budapest (June 18 – July 3), where David Popovici (17
\nyears old) became double world champion in seniors, in the 100 and 200 m
\nfreestyle events. (MI)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"