May 21, 2023

EDUCATION In Bucharest, the Liberal PM Nicolae Ciucă, the Social Democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu and the labour minister Marius Budăi invited trade unions in public education to talks in order to avoid an all-out strike announced for tomorrow. Unionists said protests could only end when the solutions to their demands, particularly concerning salaries, were introduced in officially endorsed legislation. The finance minister Adrian Câciu said the teaching staff's demands could have been solved, if Romania had received the money in the second disbursement round under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is currently suspended because of targets that have not been met in the field of energy, for which the National Liberal Party is responsible. On the other hand, PM Nicolae Ciucă said the solution to the unions' demands has to do with the unified salary law that the labour ministry headed by the Social Democrats has failed to finalise in spite of the support of the entire ruling coalition. Amid these disagreements, the president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, demanded that negotiations on the new cabinet make-up following the PM rotation should be suspended until the issue in the education sector has been solved, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, agreed. The Liberals on the other hand argue that the government transition should be completed quickly in order to maintain stability and balance. Under a protocol signed by the 2 parties, on 26 May the Social Democrats should take over the prime minister post from the Liberals, for the next 1,5 years, until the next general elections.

MOLDOVA A large-scale rally is held in Chişinău today, at the initiative of president Maia Sandu, in order to prove Moldovans' support for the country's EU accession. "Europe is the Republic of Moldova. The Republic of Moldova is Europe. Moldova is not alone," the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola said in Romanian at the "European Moldova" National Assembly. Participants adopted a resolution confirming the support of Moldovan citizens for the country's EU accession efforts. The rally takes place as the Republic of Moldova, an EU accession candidate country, would like to begin accession negotiations by the end of this year. For this stage to begin, Moldova must complete 9 recommendations, which will be assessed by this autumn in a European Commission report. In Bucharest, the Organisation of Moldovan Students organised a similar rally in front of Moldova's Embassy. Scores of people watched the speeches in Chisinau jointly with the Moldovan Ambassador to Bucharest, Victor Chirila.

UKRAINE The US president Joe Biden Sunday announced new military aid measures for Ukraine, following talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima. The new aid package will consist of ammunitions, artillery and armoured vehicles, Joe Biden explained, just days after approving the provision of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. According to Reuters, this new package is worth up to USD 375 mln and is designed to strengthen Ukraine's defence in the war against Russia. The British PM Rishi Sunak also announced in Hiroshima that his country would start training Ukrainian pilots this summer, to support Ukraine's air forces in the conflict. Rishi Sunak added that no one wants peace more than Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the terms for peace, he added, should be based on Ukraine's principles. In the 3-day summit in Japan, the G7 nations voiced their willingness to stand by Ukraine in the long run.

FLOODING In Italy, code red alerts for heavy rainfalls with landslide risks are valid today as well, in the Emilia Romagna region in the north of the country, already affected by unprecedented flash floods. Fourteen people died and 36,000 others were evacuated by the authorities. According to Radio Romania's correspondent in Italy, in Ravenna province alone, the most severely hit by the floods, over 16% of the territory has been evacuated. A preliminary estimate by Confagricoltura, the association of Italian farmers, indicates that the flooding in Emilia Romagna caused crop damages of over EUR 1.5 bln.

GREECE Greece is holding elections today for its single-chamber 300-seat parliament, with around 9.5 million people expected to take part in the vote. As many as 36 parties and political associations are running for parliamentary seats, for which they need at least 3% of the votes. The most likely to win is incumbent PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis's party, New Democracy, with 33% of the voting intentions in polls. The left-of-centre Syriza party, headed by Alexis Tsipras, is predicted to carry 26% of the votes. A novelty in this election is the scrapping of the 50-seat bonus for the winning party. Unless the parties manage to form a new government, early elections will be held in July, with a return to the previous bonus system. (AMP)