A roundup of domestic and international news
GAS RESERVES - Romania's gas reserves exceeded 90% storage capacity on Friday, thus covering the necessary demand for household users and businesses for the upcoming cold season, regardless of the weather, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă has announced. The Romanian official called on the relevant authorities to continue stockpiling natural gas at a high pace and to carefully watch gas demand. We recall that in June, the European Parliament passed a resolution requiring Member States to reach at last 80% gas storage capacity by the end of the year. Gas reserves were labeled a critical resource, and EU official recommended all states should secure gas reserves up to 90% of their storage capacity.
NATO - 14 NATO allies, including Romania, as well as Finland signed a Letter of Intent for the development of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a common European air and missile defense system. Spearheaded by Germany, the initiative provides for installing Arrow 3 anti-ballistic systems developed by Israel and the USA and American Patriot systems in European states. "This multinational and multifaceted approach offers a flexible and scalable way for nations to strengthen their deterrence and defense in an efficient and cost-effective way", NATO deputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoană, said on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers meeting held in Brussels.
TRILATERAL MEETING - Officials from Bulgaria, Greece and Romania on Friday had a trilateral meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. Energy infrastructure, support for Ukraine and the European prospect of the Western Balkans ranked high on the agenda of the meeting, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Velislava Petrova said. The Greek Alternate Minister for European Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, highlighted the need to eliminate the countries' dependency of Russian energy imports, underscoring the importance of the recently inaugurated gas pipeline linking Greece to Bulgaria. Minister Varvitsiotis underscored the need for Greece, Romania and Bulgaria to join efforts to help Ukraine recover after the war. The Romanian Secretary of State for European Affairs, Daniela Grigore Gîtman, in turn referred to the need to boost efforts with a view to admitting countries in the Western Balkans in the European Union. Secretary Gîtman also argued in favor of the European integration of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
DEFICIT - Romania's current account deficit went up by 6 billion EUR in the first eight months of the year compared to the similar period of 2021, reaching nearly 17 billion EUR, the Central Bank reports. The biggest deficit was reported for goods and services. Romania's external debt also went up by over 5 billion EUR during the same interval, now standing at 141.7 billion EUR. Government debt exceeded 125 billion EUR, accounting for 48% of the GDP in August, the same as in July and the end of 2021.
BOOK FAIR - Romania will be represented this year at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, to be held over October 19-23. Romania's pavilion is organized by the Ministry of Culture and is due to host public readings, author sessions, book launches, debates, negotiations between publishers, print shops and authors, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday. Much like previous years, authors and publishers from the Republic of Moldova will also be well represented in the fair. This year, the ministries of culture of Romania and the Republic of Moldova are cooperating to ensure the best possible representation of Romanian-language literature from both countries. The series of Romanian events will end on October 22 with the presentation of the album Order 7161, created by photographer Mark Schroeder. The volume is an elaborate documentation effort illustrating the trajectory of German nationals deported from Romania to Siberia during World War II. The event will be followed by a public debate on the recent market release of the volume Why Romanians are Different from Germans, written by Jan Cornelius and Adina Popescu and published in German.
PILGRIMAGE - Thousands of Orthodox Christians on Friday attended Holy Mass at the Metropolitanate of Moldavia and Bukovina devoted to the Feast Day of Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans. Pilgrims from all over the country and abroad formed kilometer-long queues to get before the reliquary of Saint Paraskeva, who is particularly honored in Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian and Serbian Orthodox churches. In 1955, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church agreed to generalize the cult, establishing October 14 as the Saint's Feast Day. Also known as Holy Friday, Saint Paraskeva is considered to be the patron saint of Moldavia and the poor. (VP)
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