VISIT – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, was today decorated by his
\nLithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, with the Grand Cross of the Order for
\nMerits to Lithuania on the sidelines of his visit to this country. In turn,
\nthe Romanian president awarded the Lithuanian president the Romanian Star
\nNational Order 1st class (rank in collar). The distinction exchange
\nwas venued at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius. The president is also
\nexpected to meet Parliament Speaker, Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen
\nand lay floral tributes at the Independence Memorial. On Friday, president
\nIohannis will attend The Idea of Europe symposium held at the Vytautas Magnus
\nUniversity in Kaunas, where he will deliver a keynote speech. Alongside
\ncounterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, Romania’s president will attend
\na summit devoted to strengthening NATO’s eastern flank, supporting Ukraine and
\nthe Republic of Moldova and promoting European collective memory, with a focus
\non combating disinformation and attempts at rewriting history. Yesterday, Klaus
\nIohannis paid an official visit to Latvia where he held talks with president
\nEgils Levits. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
NEGOTIATIONS – Bucharest today hosts a new meeting of government
\nofficials with representatives of trade unions and employers to address the
\nincrease of the national minimum wage. According to Finance Minister, Adrian
\nC\u00e2ciu, the minimum wage is expected to increase to some 600 EUR, of which 40
\nEUR will be tax exempted. The measure is expected to come into force starting
\nJanuary 1, 2023. At the same time, the authorities are planning to increase the
\nminimum wage of construction workers to 800 EUR while keeping any existing tax
\nexemptions to boost the development of this sector. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
ENERGY – The draft law amending the Government Decree on capping electricity
\nprices was voted by the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest. The Liberals believe
\nthe new version of the law will benefit both household and industrial users.
\nAUR and USR in the opposition believe the law will disrupt the energy market
\nand accuses the ruling coalition of sabotaging the economy and the energy
\nsector. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
WAR IN UKRAINE – Millions of Ukrainians were left
\nwithout electricity, running water or heat last night after Russia yesterday
\nlaunched a new massive missile attack targeting Ukrainian infrastructure.
\nAccording to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Kyiv, Russia launched 70
\nmissiles, 50 of which were intercepted and destroyed, the rest hitting their
\ntargets and resulting in damages and the loss of human lives. Moldova’s Foreign
\nMinister, Nicu Popescu, said the attacks in Ukraine caused blackouts in
\nneighboring Moldova as well. Power temporarily went down in approximately 90%
\nof the territory of the Republic of Moldova. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
JOINT SESSION – Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 yesterday met
\nRomanians settled in Castellon de la Plana as part of his visit to Spain. The
\nRomanian official told the Romanian community that the government plans to
\nadopt new measures to improve relations between state institutions and the
\ndiaspora. Previously, the governments of Romania and Spain convened in their
\nfirst joint session, agreeing to start negotiations for signing an agreement on
\nmaintaining the double citizenship of Romanians living in Spain and Spanish citizens
\nin Romania. According to Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, Spain is home
\nto over 1 million Romanians. Romania could become the third country in addition
\nto France and Portugal to sign such an agreement with Spain. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
SCHENGEN – Romania’s Foreign Ministry claims
\nEU’s assessment delegation to Romania has once again confirmed our country
\ncontinues to fulfill all technical criteria to implement the Schengen acquis,
\nincluding with respect to visa and data protection policies. The delegation
\ncomprises experts from the European Commission and the Council of the EU, as
\nwell as from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Upon
\nmeeting his Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, yesterday in Vienna,
\nRomania’s Interior Minister, Lucian Bode, provided more information about how
\nBucharest can ensure the protection of Schengen’s external borders. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
POWER PLANT – Romania and Bulgaria will resume negotiations for
\nbuilding a hydroelectric power plant in Turnu M\u0103gurele – Nikopol, Energy
\nMinister Virgil Popescu has announced. The plant will have a power capacity of
\n840 MW, of which 420 MW in Romania. Minister Popescu says that, following talks
\nwith his Bulgarian counterpart, Rosen Hristov, the two parties agreed on the
\nnecessity of this project for ensuring energy independence and security. Virgil
\nPopescu attended the 26th edition of the Institute of Energy for South-East
\nEurope (IENE) hosted by Athens, Greece. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
WORLD CUP – Two former world champions are today playing their
\nfirst matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: Brazil is taking on Serbia, while
\nUruguay will play South Korea. In the other fixtures today, Switzerland will
\ntake on Cameroon while Portugal will play Ghana. Yesterday, the 2010 world
\nchampion Spain trounced Costa Rica 7-0, while the 2014 champions Germany lost
\nsurprisingly to Japan 2-1. Belgium defeated Canada narrowly 1-0, while Croatia
\ndrew 0-0 against Morocco. (VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic 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":[37224,37221,28945,37220,31408,37223,37222,37219,36572],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-2022-world-cup","tag-joint-romanian-spanish-government-session","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-law-on-capping-energy-prices","tag-national-minimum-wage","tag-romanian-bulgarian-power-plant","tag-schenge-accession","tag-visit-to-lithuania","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n