January 25, 2021 UPDATE

MEETING Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday attended the EU Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Brussels. High on the agenda were strategies for distributing vaccines to countries outside the EU, the case of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and the latest protests in Russia, the transatlantic relations and the latest developments in Turkey, the Gulf area, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and the EU-Egypt elations. The ministers also tackled climate change and the EU's relations with the UK in the field of foreign policy and security. The Romanian Foreign Minister presented the latest developments in the process of setting up and hosting by Romania of the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Center. The Romanian diplomat has reiterated the support for the creation of an assistance mechanism to enable the neighbouring countries to get access to anti-Covid vaccines. Aurescu condemned the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny's detention and joined the other ministers who had called for his immediate release. In another move Aurescu voiced Romania's strong support for the EU's objective to deepen coordination and dialogue with the USA.

ECONOMY Investment and healthcare will be key priorities in the construction of the new yearly budget, Romania's Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Monday. Citu added that the government would focus on amendments to the salary legislation for the personnel in state-owned enterprises and the pension law. The head of the Romanian government said that investment would be covered from European funds just like last year. Romania's budget is under tremendous pressure to fit within the 7% deficit ceiling agreed upon by the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna said on Monday. The Romanian official added that the Executive was working on the Reconstruction and Resilience Plan, Romania is to propose to the European Commission. The government is presently working on the budget, which it wants passed in the first half of the next month. In another development a report of the Moody's rating agency shows that Romania allotted the weakest support package for the economy in Central and Eastern Europe, only 4% of the GDP in the context of the pandemic.

SUMMIT World leaders on Monday met online in the first summit devoted to protecting the planet against climate change. The summit focuses on the effects of climate change. The previous such summits were devoted to combating the causes of climate change, carbon gas emissions in particular. The event is aimed at reducing the vulnerability of state in the face of rising sea levels, a surge in extreme weather phenomena and food shortages all over the world.

COVID-19 Restaurants, bars, cinemas, theatres and gambling outlets reopened in Bucharest on Monday. All these venues will work at reduced capacity and with limited working hours. The ease in restrictions follows a drop in the infection rate in the capital city, to under 3 per thousand inhabitants, thus taking Bucharest out of the red zone. Meanwhile the vaccination campaign continues. Over 860,000 people have made appointments so far, of whom over half have already been immunized. The sixth delivery of over 92,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrived earlier on Monday in airports in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timişoara. The vaccines will then be taken to regional centers for storing and administration. On Monday, the Group for Strategic Communication announced another 1,500 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 65 related deaths. 1,000 patients are in intensive care.

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