Vaccine rollout goes
\nsmoothly in Romania<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania is doing ‘extremely
\nwell’ in terms of its vaccine rollout, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said
\non Thursday after the daily ceiling of 100 thousand people vaccinated had been exceeded.
\nAuthorities in Romania have diversified the ways through which Romanians can
\nget the vaccine, easing the people’s access to various vaccination centers. The
\nauthorities’ goal is to have 5 million people vaccinated by June 1st.
\nSince the vaccine roll out kicked off in Romania in late December, out of the 6
\nmillion people vaccinated, 2.2 million have got the the booster. Romania has
\nthis week started to use the single-jab vaccine produced by
\nJohnson&Johnson. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Donation for the
\nneighboring Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The government in Bucharest
\nhas this week endorsed a new humanitarian aid for the Romanian-speaking
\nRepublic of Moldova consisting in 100 thousand doses of the Astra Zeneca
\nvaccine in an attempt to assist this country’s efforts to contain the pandemic.
\nAccording to government sources, authorities in the two countries have
\nconcluded an agreement on reselling the vaccine, 200 thousand doses per month.
\nThe government has also passed a series of technical elements concerning the
\ndonation of 100 thousand doses to the neighboring Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
School resumes in Romania<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Schools in Romania
\nreopened on Wednesday and are presently functioning on-line and in-person
\ndepending on the infection rate in certain areas across the country. Schools
\nreopened after the four-week spring holiday. According to the country’s
\nEducation Minister Sorin Cimpeanu, children are now physically attending primary
\nschools and kindergartens and in the regions where the infection rate has
\ndropped under one per thousand, secondary schools and high-schools are also offering
\nin-person courses. According
\nto the latest official data, over 1,800 localities in Romania are now in the
\ngreen scenario in terms of Covid-19 infections, with less than one case per
\nthousand inhabitants. In the other approximately 1,400 localities, where the
\ninfection rate is higher, middle and high school pupils resumed online classes.
\n8th and 12th graders, who are to take exams this summer, will resume school on
\nMay 10. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
New relaxation measures in
\nRomania as of June 1st <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Authorities in Romania are
\nconsidering new relaxation measures after June 1st, when people are
\nallowed to give up face covering while on trips in the mountains, on the beach,
\nin gyms and swimming pools. Under the new measures vaccinated persons will be
\nallowed to attend private parties whereas some businesses, such as restaurants
\nand hotels may be allowed to function at full capacity if all personnel and
\ncustomers have been immunized. Only vaccinated fans will be allowed to attend
\nthe football matches part of the European Football Championship Romania is due
\nto host this summer. According to Romania’s Prime Minister Florin Citu, this is
\nthe solution proposed by the UEFA, which he also agrees. Referring to
\nlarge-scale events such as the music festivals Untold and Neversea, the Prime
\nMinister says they cannot be staged starting June 1st but rather
\nafter August 1st. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Government in Bucharest
\nhas endorsed the Convergence Programme and adjusted the National Recovery and
\nResilience Plan (PNRR)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian
\ngovernment has endorsed the Convergence Programme comprising a series of
\nreforms assumed by the executive in various fields such as the pension system,
\npayment, state enterprises and public administration. The country’s Prime
\nMinister Florin Citu has explained the document is part of the Fiscal-budgetary
\nStrategy and the National Resilience and Recovery Plan. He mentioned the talks
\nhe had with ministers over the PNRR asking them to get directly involved in the
\nprocess of completing it shortly before the upcoming talks with the EU
\nrepresentatives. Citu has mentioned that upon the EU recommendation, the PNRR
\nbudget has been trimmed from 42 billion euros to 29 billion Euros. The Romanian
\nofficial has given assurances the plan will absorb all the EU funds available to
\nRomania. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
GRECO report on Romania<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania continues to lag behind with
\nregard to judicial reforms and the fight against corruption, according to the
\nlatest report by GRECO, the Council of Europe’s specialized body. According to
\nthe document, Romania has implemented only five out of the 18 GRECO
\nrecommendations. Overall, the Bucharest
\nauthorities appear determined to remedy or abandon many of the controversial
\nlegal reforms adopted during the previous Social Democratic administration, the
\nreport reads. However, Romania’s level of compliance with its
\nrecommendations to prevent corruption in respect of MPs, judges and prosecutors
\nremains globally unsatisfactory despite some progress and planned reforms that
\nstill are at an early stage. As for Members of Parliament, the level remains
\nunchanged, with the exception of some procedural requirements, with only two of
\nthe nine recommendations implemented. Given the importance of these
\nrecommendations for preventing corruption among parliamentarians, GRECO emphasizes
\nthat more determined action is needed to implement them. Regarding the prevention of corruption among judges and
\nprosecutors, the report shows that much more determined steps are needed in
\nthis direction as well. The report also shows that a stronger role for the
\nSupreme Council of Magistracy in this process is still needed, and the
\ninvolvement of the executive power, i.e. the Minister of Justice, in appointing
\nor removing top prosecutors should be diminished to ensure judicial
\nindependence. It is also necessary to establish clear and objective criteria
\nfor the promotion of judges and prosecutors, taking into account their real
\nqualifications and merits. In
\nBucharest, the Liberal Prime Minister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u says that the GRECO report
\nshows that Romania is on the right track. Justice laws will no
\nlonger be abused and we will not witness again what happened between 2017 and
\n2019, Citu says. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of the week’s major political and social events<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[35389,35386,29818,29951,35416,32515,32402],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review","tag-citu","tag-covid","tag-greco","tag-infection","tag-pandemic","tag-school","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n