This week parliament sacked Ombudsperson Renate Weber, which says more about Romania’s political parties than about the Ombudsperson. President Iohannis promulgated the 5G law; we spoke with Tiberiu Gîndu, Executive Director of the National Association of Internet Providers in Romania (ANISP), what this means. And Austrian, North Macedonian and Ukrainian fans flocked to the National Arena in Bucharest to cheer on their squads in the EURO 2020 football championship.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
This week we are launching the Romanian Dispatch podcast. Guest is civil engineer and urban planner Michael Horodniceanu. Romanian-born Horodniceanu was traffic commissioner of New York City and is a pro-bono advisor to Bucharest mayor Nicuşor Dan, who made headlines last week declaring his intention to raise parking fees in order to increase mobility. To improve traffic flows in the capital in the short term, Horodniceau advocates for low-cost measures like a clearer parking policy and the use of artificial intelligence.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Bucharest mayor Nicuşor Dan made headlines this week with introducing pedestrian-only zones in the capital on weekends and declaring his intention to raise parking fees in order to increase mobility. The European Commission once again called on EU member states to admit Romania to the Schengen area. And the long-awaited National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) was approved by Brussels and published by the government on Wednesday.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
June 1st is on the horizon, the day that many anti-corona measures will be relaxed. The pace of vaccinations is slowing and hence authorities are rolling out a new campaign to encourage laggards to get the jab(s). Pensions are back in the limelight, this time because the government is committing to pension reform as part of the PNRR, the EU’s recovery fund.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Infections are down, vaccinations are up, economic activity is up too. Slowly but surely Romania is returning to pre-pandemic normalcy — whatever that means. Simona Halep will not compete at Roland Garros and Romania did not qualify for the Eurovision 2021 songfestival final slated for today.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Romania is slowly entering the post-pandemic phase. President Iohannis announced that wearing face masks outdoors as of today is no longer mandatory — sooner as expected — and curfew will be lifted. And after having been in quarantine for months, Timişoara entered the “green scenario” for the first time this year.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Hope you had a restful Easter break. During the break we have been busy building the Romanian Dispatch web platform and producing our first podcasts. We expect to present you with the fruits of our labour soon!
This week news broke that a Liechtenstein prince shot Arthur, Romania’s largest brown bear. Police started investigating this possible poaching case involving the prince, who is reported to have “wrongly” killed the male bear in a trophy hunt on a visit to the Carpathian Mountains in March.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Prime Minister Florin Cîţu says that if Romanians get vaccinated, the country could return to normal starting the end of July. He ruled out a lockdown despite hospitals facing record number of patients. In Timișoara dozens of people gathered to protest an anti-corona measures demonstration during which xenophobic slogans were shouted. And a new IMF forecast predicts a whopping six percent economic growth for Romania this year.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
The pace of the vaccination campaign is slowing. At the same time the ICU capacity is overstretched with corona patients. The nationalist AUR managed to mobilise people on the streets throughout Romania all week protesting against the COVID-19 measures. Yet the fact that a few hundred protestors showed up in the capital and elsewhere should not be interpreted as a sign that there is not sufficient support for the restrictions to get us out of the pandemic.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
It was the week of strikes and protests. A spontaneous strike of metro personnel threw the capital into chaos on Friday. A day before, police protested cutbacks and poor working conditions. Antivaxxers took to the streets again too. Meanwhile politicians and policy makers could not agree on which new measures should be taken to contain the pandemic.
This and more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch’s coverage of the past seven days. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
