August 10, 2022

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 10.08.2022, 14:04

PROJECTS – Romania will borrow 600 million euros from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development according to a draft law discussed by the government today. The money will finance reforms included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the management of the current humanitarian crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, in fields like health, education and social assistance. Also today, the government will discuss the allocation, from the intervention fund, of almost 2 million euros for emergency operations of dredging the Danube and of removing risk situations.

PROTEST – A number of NGOs are participating today in downtown Bucharest in a protest dubbed August 10 — We don’t forget and we don’t forgive. The Declic community, one of the protest’s organisers, called on the prosecutor general and on the military prosecutors who investigate the violence of August 10, 2018, to speed up investigations and expand them to the persons who ordered the attack on peaceful protesters. Four years ago, hundreds of people were injured during a protest staged by the Diaspora, with 100,000 participants shouting their discontent with the legislative changes in the field of justice operated by the Social Democrats in power at the time. The protest ended with the brutal intervention of security forces, who used tear gas and water cannons. More than 700 people filed criminal complaints after being hit by gendarmes and inhaling tear gas. The Military Tribunal’s Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation in 2018, which was closed in 2020 by the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism and then reopened this spring following the appeal field by a protester.

INDICTMENT – The mayor of Bucharest’s District 3, Robert Negoita and a number of employees with the mayor’s office have been indicted by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) in a case related to a sanitation contract. Negoita is accused, among others, of abuse of office. The damage was set by investigators at around 118 million euros. The sanitation company is also investigated.

BANK – The Romanian National Bank (BNR) changed its inflation forecast for the end of this year to 13.9% and estimates an inflation rate of 7.5% for the end of next year, according to a report presented recently by the banks governor Mugur Isarescu. In May 2022, the BNR forecast an inflation rate of 12.5% for this year and 6.7% for 2023. Last Friday, the Banks Board decided to increase, starting August 8, the monetary policy rate to 5.5% a year from 4.75%.

TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep is today up against Chinese Shuai Zhang in the second round of the Toronto tennis tournament. The score is 3-2 for Halep in direct matches. The Romanian has last defeated Zhang this year in the first round of Madrid Open. Halep is currently 15th in the world. (EE)