Poll. <\/strong>Half of
<\/p>\n
Celebration.<\/strong> Cultural
<\/p>\n
Government.
<\/p>\n
Visas.<\/strong> EU foreign
<\/p>\n
Swimming.<\/strong>
A roundup of local and international news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRomania’s population is most worried about the rising inflation rate, followed
\nby the energy and food crisis and the rising bank rates, shows a survey
\nconducted by the sociological research company Avangarde. Two thirds of respondents
\n believe a big economic crisis is ahead
\nand this is their main reason for concern. According to the same survey, even
\nunder these circumstances, one third of the Romanians say they have no savings. <\/p>\n
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\nevents staged simultaneously in Romania, the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, and
\nRomanian communities abroad were held on Wednesday to celebrate Romanian Language Day. Established by Parliament
\nin 2013, Romanian Language Day is also celebrated in the neighbouring,
\nRomanian-speaking Republic of Moldova. On 31st August 1989, during
\nthe final days of the Soviet regime, the Parliament in Chisinau, picketed by
\n750 thousand people, accounting for a sixth of the country’s population at the
\ntime, declared the Romanian language as the state language and passed from the
\nCyrillic alphabet, imposed by the Russian occupiers following the 1940
\nannexation, to the Latin alphabet. <\/p>\n
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\n<\/strong>The Romanian government discussed in its Wednesday meeting the measures needed
\nto prepare for winter, including two pieces of legislation to help the
\npopulation cope with the rising energy costs. The government is planning an
\nemergency order to introduce a surtax on the entire production, intermediation
\nand supply chain for electricity and natural gas. A reference price will be
\nset, above which a surtax is levied. The Social Democratic Party is proposing
\nthat the money collected from this surtax should go to the finance ministry.
\nPrime minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 said he would like the order to be adopted by the
\ngovernment on Thursday and that the cap on electricity and natural gas prices
\nwill remain in place. A second piece of legislation is drafted by the energy
\nministry and will be adopted next week. One of its provisions refers to the
\nquantity of natural gas reserves. 2.2 billion cubic metres are currently in
\nstock, accounting for some 73% of total storage quantity. <\/p>\n
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\nministers meeting in Prague on Wednesday decided to suspend the EU’s visa
\nfacilitation agreement with Russia, making it more difficult and more expensive
\nfor Russians to obtain visas. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that
\nin the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations with Moscow
\ncannot be business as usual and the agreement should be fully suspended.
\nThe decision comes after two weeks of pressure from EU member states bordering
\nRussia for Russian citizens to be stopped from entering the bloc with Schengen
\nvisas issued by some member states. Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu,
\nwho was also in Prague, said Bucharest is open to additional measures to
\nrestrict the movement of Russian citizens within the European Union, with a
\nfocus on tourist visas. He pointed out, however, that measures should not
\ntarget persons in need of humanitarian, medical or protection visas. He also
\nsaid it was important not to prevent young Russians from being exposed to the
\nEuropean values. <\/p>\n
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\nRomania’s men’s 4×100 meter relay race won the gold medals at the World Junior
\nSwimming Championship in Lima, Peru, while Vlad Stancu won the silver in the
\n400 meter freestyle race. The Romanian team made up of David Popovici,
\nAlexandru Constantinescu, Stefan Cozma and Patrick Sebastian Dinu ended the
\nrace in 3 minutes and 18 seconds, while multiple champion Popovici has set a new
\nrecord for his relay. Romania has 9
\nswimmers at the championships in Lima. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"