March 18, 2024 UPDATE
AMMUNITION – PM Marcel Ciolacu Sunday night announced that Romania would have the most advanced ammunition powder production facility in Europe, in which the EU will also be a partner. Romania is set to receive EUR 47 mln in EU funding for this project implemented by the Romanian state-owned company Romarm jointly with Germany.
Elena Enache, 18.03.2024, 19:53
AMMUNITION – PM Marcel Ciolacu Sunday night announced that Romania would have the most advanced ammunition powder production facility in Europe, in which the EU will also be a partner. Romania is set to receive EUR 47 mln in EU funding for this project implemented by the Romanian state-owned company Romarm jointly with Germany.
STRIKE – In Romania, local administration staff are on two-hour daily warning strike until the end of the week. For the rest of the working hours, they will be on a Japanese strike. Protests were also held one month ago, but were suspended after civil servants were promised solutions for their salary problems. In turn, healthcare employees say the 20% pay raise recently approved by the government is insufficient. Unionists in the trade sector, affiliated to the Cartel Alfa bloc, also picketed the labor ministry headquarters on Monday, to demand decent wages and working conditions.
RUSSIA – Vladimir Putin won the highest election score in the history of post-communist Russia, and secured another 6 years as president of the country he has been leading since late 1999. At midnight he thanked his supporters at his campaign office, where he gave a one-hour press conference saying his main challenge in this new term would be resolving tasks related with what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russia’s elections were criticized around the world. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was obvious for anybody that “there is no evil Vladimir Putin will not commit” in order to extend his rule. In turn, the White House claimed the elections in Russia were neither free nor fair, given Putin’s track record of imprisoning his political opponents. Poland said the vote in Russia, held under extreme pressure, made it impossible for the election to be free and democratic. News agencies mention that under Vladimir Putin Russia was involved in several brutal wars, in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine, and the democratic system introduced after the fall of the Soviet Union has been replaced by a regime in which independent media have been forced out of the country and the opposition has been largely eliminated, with many of Putin’s critics assassinated, arrested or forced to leave the country.
VISIT – The United States Ambassador to Romania, Kathleen Kavalec, on Monday visited the site where the future modular nuclear power plant in Doicesti (south) is to be built. It is a project developed jointly by the Romanian state-owned company Nuclearelectrica and an American company. Kavalec said that the technology used in the construction of the modular plant is ‘safe’, and the project has the support of the US government. The unit would become operational in 2029, if the feasibility and performance studies establish that the construction site, a former thermal power plant, remains the best option. The Romanian Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, said in turn that he was optimistic about the implementation of this project, the first of its kind in the world.
MOTION – The opposition party USR filed a simple motion against the Social-Democratic minister of agriculture, Florin Barbu, on Monday. USR says the minister has been treating disgruntled farmers with contempt since taking over the mandate and has not responded to Parliament’s requests for an activity report. Last week, USR called on Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to immediately dismiss Barbu, following his statements in which he evoked, in a positive context, the name of the former communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. (EE)
