October 14, 2022

Gas – Romania’s gas storage filling level exceeded, on Friday, 90%, and Romanians and the economy will have at their disposal the entire amount of gas necessary to get through this winter, regardless of what the weather will be like - the Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced. He asked the responsible institutions to continue the intense pace of gas storage and to manage the necessary amounts very carefully. In June, the European Parliament approved plans to restore gas stocks for all member states to a level of at least 80%. Gas storage capacities were listed as a critical structure, and the recommendation was that, as far as possible, states should reach a 90% filling capacity.

NATO – 14 NATO countries, including Romania, plus Finland have signed a letter of intent for the development of a common air defense shield called the European Sky Shield. The initiative belongs to Germany, and the European shield could be equipped with the Arrow 3 missile interception system, developed by Israel and the USA, and with the American Patriot system. The placement of such anti-missile batteries in several countries would allow for a complete and efficient defense of the European airspace, and the costs would be lower for each individual state, Mircea Geoană, NATO Deputy Secretary General said in Brussels, where the document was signed. 

Meeting – The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry is hosting, today, a trilateral meeting of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, on the issue of European affairs. Romania is represented by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Daniela Gîtman. The previous meeting of the three countries took place in May in Athens, amid the challenges generated by Russia's military aggression against neighboring Ukraine. The meeting then sought to strengthen the cooperation between Romania, Greece and Bulgaria at the European and regional levels. Regional developments in the context of the Russian Federation's military aggression against Ukraine, the prospects for EU enlargement, the current situation in the Western Balkans, the energy crisis and the migration management have been addressed.

Agriculture - The value of agricultural production in Romania in 2021 stood at almost 104 billion lei (approximately 21 billion Euros), according to the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, published on Friday. Crop production has the largest share, over 71%, followed by livestock production 27%. Compared to 2020 the biggest increases were reported in the South-East development regions of Ilfov and South-Muntenia, the North-East, Center and South-West Oltenia regions. In exchange, decreases were recorded in the West and North-West regions.

Justice - In Bucharest, the Special Parliamentary Committee for Justice Laws completed the article-by-article debate on the draft law regarding the status of judges and prosecutors. It is the last bill in the package of three laws developed by the government in the field of justice, along with the law on the organization of the Superior Council of Magistracy - CSM and the law on the organization of the judiciary. The three documents subject to debate in the Special Committee did not undergo significant changes compared to the form adopted by the Chamber of Deputies. Of the thousands of amendments submitted, only those of the CSM and of the High Court of Cassation and Justice were admitted. The special parliamentary committee will give the reports for the three justice laws on Monday. The final vote on the new laws will take place in the Senate plenum meeting, which is the decision-making body in this case.

Ukraine - NATO will soon deliver anti-drone equipment to Ukraine, after the recent Russian attacks with such weapons, which caused many civilian casualties. On Thursday, at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, stated that NATO would not be intimidated by the dangerous nuclear rhetoric of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and would continue to support Kyiv. He warned again that there would be consequences if Moscow used any kind of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Also at the NATO headquarters, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borell, announced that next week a new funding would be approved that would increase the Union's military support for Ukraine at over 3 billion Euros, since the beginning of the conflict. On the ground, the Russian forces hit, today, the city of Zaporizhzhia, the attack targeting the infrastructure. The Ukrainian forces have liberated more than 600 settlements from the Russian occupation in the past month, including 75 in the strategic southern Kherson region, illegally annexed by Moscow, Kyiv announced. (LS)