Protests. The Romanian government has
\nadopted several measures aimed at solving the problems that have brought
\nfarmers and transporters to the streets in recent weeks. Money was allocated
\nfor subsidies for animal breeders and the subsidy for diesel fuel used in
\nagriculture was increased. The money will reach the farmers by the end of June
\nthis year. For farmers affected by last year’s drought, the government adopted
\nan emergency order that allows them to postpone the payment of their loans to
\nthe banks. It was also decided to change the legal framework so that truck
\ndrivers will no longer be fined for the expiry of the road tax in the case of
\nlong waiting times at customs points and an overall 20% salary increase this
\nyear was agreed for healthcare workers.<\/p>\n
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Cars. Car production in Romania saw a
\nrecord increase last year to pass by more than 4% the total number of cars
\nmanufactured in 2019. Adrian Sandu, the general secretary of the Romanian
\nAutomobile Manufacturers Association, believes that this increase was possible
\nthanks to the efforts made by the factories Dacia and Ford to find solutions to
\nthe electronic component shortage crisis. Both the Dacia and the Ford
\nteams did their best to ensure an optimal supply flow of components, so, with
\ndemand constantly on the rise, we are now seeing a new record of production of
\nvehicles in Romania, about 513,000 units, said Adrian Sandu.<\/p>\n
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Schengen. Slovakia’s
\nminister for foreign and European affairs Juraj Blan\u00e1r said in Bucharest that
\nhis country fully supports Romania’s complete entry into the Schengen area
\nbecause it has fulfilled all accession criteria. His talks with his Romanian
\ncounterpart Lumini\u0163a Odobescu also looked at ways to boost cooperation in
\nsectors such as energy, infrastructure, the car industry, the defence industry
\nand tourism, as well as in the areas of security and defence. The two also
\nsigned a bilateral programme in the field of education. <\/p>\n
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Loan. The
\nEuropean Investment Bank signed a 40 million euro loan with an Austrian company
\nfor the installation of 8,500 electric vehicle charging stations in Romania,
\nBulgaria and Lithuania. The project is to be carried out over the next three
\nyears as support for green mobility and the European Green Deal objectives with
\nrespect to sustainable transport and decarbonisation. The project is supported
\nvia the InvestEU programme and will help achieve the goal of having 1 million
\npublic electric vehicle charging stations and alternative fuel stations spread
\nacross the 27 EU member states by 2025. Also, the investment will contribute to
\nreducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in urban areas in the three
\nstates. <\/p>\n
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NATO. Sweden will not
\nnegotiate with Hungary over its application to join NATO and which Budapest is
\nthe only NATO member yet to ratify, said Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson
\non Friday, quoted by Reuters. Together with Finland, Sweden requested to join
\nNATO in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but its bid has so far
\nbeen blocked by Turkey and Hungary. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan
\nsigned the ratification documents on Thursday. The prime ministers of Sweden
\nand Hungary will meet next week at the EU Council in Brussels, but Kristersson said Sweden would not make new promises with respect to NATO. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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-612119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n