WEATHER Severe weather caused
\nfresh problems in Romania, where heavy snowfalls and snowstorms affected 177 localities in 22 counties, according to the National Inspectorate for Emergencies. More than 660 vehicles were snowed under and over 540 trees were
\nbrought down by the wind. The most affected region was the east of the country,
\nwhere roads were closed, railway traffic was disrupted and electricity and
\nwater supply discontinued. The Mihail Kog\u0103lniceanu International Airport
\n(south-east) was closed, and so were the Black Sea ports on the Romanian coast.
\nSchools were also closed down in 5 counties in the south-east. <\/p>\n
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BUDGET The government will continue this week to work
\non the state budget for 2024. The main challenges are related to pension
\nincreases and large-scale investments. PM Marcel Ciolacu says the new pension
\nlaw is sustainable and that next year’s budget will be able to increase
\npensions twice, on January 1st by 13.8 percent and then until September 1st.
\nCarrying on large investment projects is the priority of the government for 2024
\nas well, the finance minister Marcel Bolo\u015f said. According to him, the budget
\nof the education ministry will be increased significantly next year, especially
\nin order to fund the investment projects included in the National Recovery and Resilience
\nPlan. This budget must also cover the salary increase that the government
\npromised in order to end an all-out strike in June. <\/p>\n
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RECYCLING The first regional sorting centre for packaging was opened
\nin Bon\u0163ida, north-western Romania, as part of the Packaging Guarantee and
\nReturn System to become operational as of November 30. A total of 17 such
\ncentres will be opened across the country in the forthcoming period. The
\nenvironment minister Mircea Fechet explained that around 7 bln glass and
\nplastic bottles as well as aluminium cans will reach recycling facilities, and
\npromised that Romania will switch from storing to recycling.<\/p>\n
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INVESTIGATION President Klaus Iohannis submitted prosecution
\nrequests concerning 2 former health ministers, Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana
\nMih\u0103il\u0103 (USR party), to the justice ministry. The two are probed into for abuse
\nof office with respect to the procurement of vaccines during the COVID-19
\npandemic, in a case in which the former PM Florin C\u00ee\u0163u is also facing charges
\nof complicity to abuse of office. The latter, accompanied by his lawyers, appeared
\nbefore the Senate’s judicial committee to review the case file against him. C\u00ee\u0163u,
\ncurrently a senator with the National Liberal Party, said he would request
\nSenate to suspend his parliamentary immunity. A decision in this respect will
\nbe made on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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GAUDEAMUS In Bucharest, almost 100,000 people visited the 30th
\nedition of the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair, which ended on Sunday evening
\nwith the awarding of trophies. The most coveted book of the Gaudeamus Fair was
\ndesignated More than the past, by Ana Blandiana, from the Humanitas
\nPublishing House. Also by public vote, Humanitas, Litera and Polirom were
\ndesignated the best publishing houses of this year’s fair. The prize for
\ntranslation from Romanian into a foreign language was won by \u015eerban Foar\u0163\u0103 for
\nthe volume of bilingual Romanian-German poems Schlimmericks, and
\nthe prize for translation from a foreign language into Romanian was awarded to
\nAlexandra Coliban for the translation from English of the novel
\nCrossroads by Jonathan Franzen. The Book Fair hosted over 500
\npublishing events over five days. The honorary president of the edition was the
\nwriter and literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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