April 8, 2024 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 08.04.2024, 20:00
AID The European Commission has given the green light to reintroducing an approximately EUR 2.5 mln scheme for Romania to support companies in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The aid will be granted as guarantees and direct grants. The measure is designed to ensure that companies affected by the economic disruptions caused by the war are left with enough liquidity. The EC found that Romania’s scheme, as it has been reintroduced, remains in line with the terms of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework. The aid will not exceed EUR 280,000 for an agriculture company, EUR 335,000 for a company operating in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and EUR 2.25 mln for companies in other sectors.
SEA SHIELD 24 More than 2,200 Allied troops are participating starting this week in a multinational exercise in Romania called “Sea Shield 24”. Until April 21, Romanian soldiers, alongside military from NATO states and the partner states of Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, will be training in the coastal area of the Black Sea, the Danube and the Danube Delta, using 27 sea and river ships, 17 aircraft and 91 vehicles and boats. The Ministry of Defence in Bucharest says the exercise is the most complex event conducted by the Romanian Naval Forces in 2024. Also this week, the Royal Air Force of Great Britain begins an air policing mission in Romania. In the next four months, the British units, comprising around 220 troops and 6 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, will perform enhanced air policing missions under NATO command, together with soldiers of the Romanian Air Force.
ELECTIONS The United Right electoral alliance, made up of the Save Romania Union, the People’s Movement Party and the Force of the Right, in opposition, have submitted their list of candidates for the European Parliament elections of June 9. Top of the list is the former USR leader Dan Barna, followed by the former USR health minister Vlad Voiculescu and the PMP president Eugen Tomac. The president of USR, Cătălin Drulă, said the Alliance has the best list of candidates, comprising “people who are going to the European Parliament or carrying on their work at the European Parliament out of belief, and who have results.” On the other side of the political spectrum, the 2 parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party submitted on Friday their own joint list of EP candidates. Opening the list is the former Social-Democratic PM Mihai Tudose and the Liberal MEP Rareș Bogdan. The EP elections in Romania will be held concurrently with the local elections on June 9.
ELECTRICITY Romania has the lowest electricity consumption in Europe per capita, the Association of Energy Prosumers and Communities announced. According to the institution, the transition to the green economy requires an increase of this consumption at the expense of fuels such as natural gas and firewood. The organisation says that in this context electrification is the key to full decarbonisation, and the necessary technologies include heat pumps for households and green hydrogen, along with EVs for the industry.
MOLDOVA A population and housing census began on Monday in the Republic of Moldova. Until July 7, reviewers will go from house to house to collect data about where people in the Republic live, the language they speak, their education, occupation, as well as about their homes. The government spokesperson Daniel Vodă has stated that all citizens will be obliged to answer the reviewers’ questions and provide correct answers, and the authorities have to keep the answers received confidential, Radio Chisinau reports. The last population and housing census in the Republic of Moldova was conducted in 2014. At that time, the population stood at 2,800,000 people, of which only 2.5 million lived in the Republic of Moldova. Also, the data do not cover the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria (east), which went, de facto, out of Chisinau’s control in 1992, after an armed conflict involving hundreds of soldiers and ended by the intervention of Moscow’s troops on the side of the secessionist rebels.
ENERGY The close cooperation between Romania and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in developing a civilian nuclear programme and the prospects for strengthening the cooperation in cancer medicine and energy were discussed on Monday by PM Marcel Ciolacu with the Agency’s director, Rafael Grossi. The Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu also discussed with Grossi about Russia’s war against Ukraine and the successive attacks on the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Luminiţa Odobescu highlighted the important role the Agency plays in the safe and secure use of nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes. In turn, Rafael Grossi praised the implementation of new nuclear technologies in Romania, including small scale modular reactors. The AIEA chief also had talks with the energy minister, Sebastian Burduja. The agenda included the revamping on the Cernavodă nuclear power plant Unit 1 and the plans for Units 3 and 4.
