🇷🇴🇩🇪🧳 2022 was the year when the number of Romanians residing in Germany surpassed the number of Poles, reaching 900k.

Thus, Romania is the EU member with the most citizens living and working in Germany. Poland has 880k people working and Italy has 644k people, despite being double and triple in population compared to Romania.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇪🇺🤝🇲🇩 A few days ago, Moldova and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the transeuropean transport network (TEN-T) and its expansion into Moldova.

Portions of the R7 and R30 highways were included into the TEN-T as well as the rail lines Chișinău-Căinari-Basarabeasca and Bălți-Ocnița.

The TEN-T was created by the EU to develop a coherent, efficient, multimodal transport infrastructure across its territory linking cities, with ports, terminals, airports and other major infrastructure facilities with the purpose to transport as many people and goods while also providing access to jobs and services, all in a seamless manner. The EU is currently revising the TEN-T to make it more environmentally friendly.

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴✈️🇺🇸 Romanian-Moldovan commercial airline company HiSky, has received the necessary approval from the US Department of Transportation to begin operating direct flights between Bucharest and New York 4 days a week.

The first such flight is scheduled for June 7th. Direct flights between Bucharest and New York were suspended more than 20 years ago. Coupled with the planned lifting of the visa requirements in 2025, these flights make more sense to operate.

🔗 https://timpul.md/articol/zborurile-directe-intre-romania-si-statele-unite-se-vor-relua-anul-viitor-prima-cursa-pe-7-iunie.html

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇦🇹🇷🇴⚡️Suspecting that Austria would not give away these concessions without getting anything in return, it turned out, the Romanian government agreed long ago, in August of 2023, to accept the role of “host nation” for the migrants awaiting their asylum claim to be reviewed.

The deal negotiated by the ministers of internal affairs of Romania and Austria state that the asylum seeker which filed for refuge will be transferred to one of the signing parties through an airport, or by land after one of the signatories has claimed responsibility over the asylum seeker and, depending on the circumstances, his family also.

The deal is based on the Dublin Regulation (Regulation 604/26 June 2013) on defining the criteria and mechanisms of determining the member state responsible for the examination of the asylum claim presented in one of the EU member states by a seeker or a stateless person.

Art. 22 of the Regulation, which was referenced in the deal, places the responsibility of processing the claim on the state which was first asked to grant asylum which can accept or refuse based on its own investigation into the seeker’s background and other circumstantial proof which will be reviewed by a special commission which will decide which member state’s decision (acceptance or refusal) was fair and order the taking in of the migrant.

This deal puts Romania at a disadvantage because some migrants do pass through Romanian territory before reaching Austria and if the Austrians can prove so, Romania will be obligated to take them in. The likelihood of the opposite happening, a migrant arriving in Romania and being discovered to have come from Austria is near zero.

As expected, the announcement of the lifting of restrictions for Romanian citizens in airports and harbours was pridefully exposed to the Romanian public by premier Ciolacu who promised to give a date in 2024 for the lifting of all controls on the land borders and complete the entry into the Schengen Area.

Looks like someone is desperate for popular support which should translate into votes..

🔗 https://sintact.ro/#/act/17021749?cm=DOCUMENT

Readable version: https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/274832

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇦🇹🇷🇴⚡️ Yesterday, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, stated clearly that the partial entry into Schengen is not “Austria conceding” adding that its previous terms still apply for full Schengen membership meaning that the Romanian government did not achieve the claimed breakthrough in negotiations.

As for the deal mentioned earlier, Austrian medias told that it has nothing to do with the Schengen Area being based on better fulfilling the requirements of the Dublin Regulation on asylum seekers.

Reminder that Austria demanded, before letting Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen, that FRONTEX expand its operations in both countries and that Romania and Bulgaria house the asylum seekers looking to get benefits in Austria.

The last part follows a similar pattern set by the UK with European countries looking for third party states to house the refugee flux as a way to win back the voters which are flocking to right-wing anti immigration parties.

🔗 https://www.rostonline.ro/2023/12/austria-o-spune-raspicat-nu-exista-negocieri-privind-aderarea-propriu-zisa-a-romaniei-la-schengen-conditiile-din-schengen-air-se-refera-la-protejarea-frontierelor-si-la-preluarea-solicitantilor-de-a/

🇷🇴🌹⚡️Romanian PM, Marcel Ciolacu, fired the state secretary for Revolutionaries (yes, this a thing), Mihai Dodu, for letting journalists access what should be public information.

Recorder sent a team to look at Ciolacu’s dossier (more details in the post linked) and discovered a number of irregularities like faked signatures as well as false testimonies, a file which he submitted in 1992 while he was selling pretzels in Buzău, a city with a population of 103k people despite being a distinct lack of anti communist manifestations or activity during the events of December 1989.

Being recognised as a revolutionary by the Romanian state offers a few perks such as free health insurance, the right to 3000 m2 of arable land (unsure if this disposition is still valid), tax exemptions and more.

Edit#1: Ciolacu did get his revolutionary status and received that land which he later sold. Not content with his privileged status, he sued the secretariat for revolutionaries aiming to get the status of “Revolutionary with a determining role” and he just fired the boss of the secretariat who also was his subordinate. This is the status of the Romanian “democracy” in 2023.

🔗 https://recorder.ro/erou-sau-impostor-ce-am-gasit-in-dosarul-de-revolutionar-al-lui-marcel-ciolacu/

🇲🇩 🇷🇺 Statistics were presented in Moldova that showed one in five schoolchildren choosing to study Russian.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 19.1% of schoolchildren in the country study in Russian, while 80.8% study in Romanian, which has replaced Moldovan.

▪️ In Chisinau, the percentage of Russian-speaking schoolchildren reaches 21.8%, and in the Gagauz autonomy - 92.3%. Additionally, in the capital, almost half of the population speaks Russian, and in general, about 80% of the population of Moldova understands and uses the Russian language.

▪️ The Bureau does not have statistics for Transnistria, where Russian is an official language alongside Moldovan and Ukrainian. However, in the majority of school institutions in Transnistria, education is conducted in Russian, especially since approximately 200 thousand local residents hold Russian citizenship.

▪️ Data on the language situation in schools in Moldova started being collected in 2020, coinciding with the rise to power of Maia Sandu and the PAS party, who advocate an anti-Russian stance and aim to unify the country with Romania.

▪️ During her election campaign, Sandu promised not to restrict the use of the Russian language, recognizing its importance for the citizens of Moldova. However, the ruling PAS party recently decided that new laws will now be published exclusively in Romanian, without translation into Russian. They are planning to have translations in English in the future.

▪️ Finally, Sandu and the PAS party are targeting Russian-speaking Gagauzia based on linguistic grounds. The president attributes his unpopularity in the region to the dominance of the Russian language and the lack of interest in Romanian-language media. Furthermore, PAS opposes the teaching of the Russian language in Gagauzia, referring to it as "foreign," despite its familiarity to the Gagauz people.

📌 We have already witnessed the fight against the Russian language and the attempt to impose a surrogate culture in the neighboring state of Moldova, which is gradually losing its own identity.
#Gagauzia #Moldova #Transnistria
@rybar

Support us Original msg

🇺🇸🇨🇦📰 American-Canadian News Company, Vice Media, closed down its branch in Romania after 13 years of activity.

🔗 https://r3media.ro/esec-major-pentru-cauza-progresista-vice-romania-se-inchide-dupa-doar-13-ani-de-activitate/

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴💰🤑 Finance minister, Marcel Boloş, wants the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and the Customs Authority to earn at least 40 billion Romanian lei monthly.

Boloş also told that, after the New Year, he will dismiss some of his subordinates leading various institutions under the ministry of finances.

He promised in 2024 to not add new taxes, to stop all tax evasion and all those who embezzle public funds.

🔗 https://www.news.ro/economic/ministrul-finantelor-target-ul-meu-ca-ministru-al-finantelor-pentru-anul-2024-este-sa-ajunga-anaf-ul-si-autoritatea-vamala-romana-la-un-plan-de-venituri-mediu-lunar-de-peste-40-de-miliarde-de-lei-1922405330362023121121446263

🇷🇴🇪🇺💰 Romania ends 2023 with the worst deficit in all of the EU near 6% close to triggering the the “excessive deficit procedure” which will prevent the Romanian government from borrowing and limit EU funds.

At the beginning of 2023 the former Ciucă cabinet predicted it will end the year with a 4.4% deficit.

In October, Romania declared a 3.97% deficit and will end December with a 6% deficit meaning that the Ciolacu cabinet overspent in the last 2 months of the year.

Ciolacu has yet to come with solutions to this overspending and economists predict 2024 will not see an improvement.

The government borrows today to win the next election so the next generation spends most of its life paying these debts..

Out of the 57 billion Romanian lei kept for “investments” for things like motorways, railways, upgrading the power grid etc. half of them were EU funds. Without the EU literally nothing would be built in Romania.

🔗 https://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/financiar/romania-a-fost-in-2023-singura-tara-din-ue-in-procedura-de-deficit-excesiv-iar-in-2024-ar-putea-fi-si-mai-rau.html

🇪🇺🇦🇹🇷🇴 The European Council announced the abolition of controls for Romanian and Bulgaria citizens in airport and harbours on March 31st 2024.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding this decision in Romanian medias about this news with many contradictory statements coming from all sorts of places but from what I could gather:

🟡 The deal applies to ports too not just airports as some have claimed

🟡 Austria’s three conditions still applied for this “breakthrough” even though some have said they didn’t.

🟡 In addition to those conditions mentioned earlier, two new terms were accepted by the Romanian government.

These conditions are:

Romania accept in three work days Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers currently awaiting the answer of Austrian immigration offices who are reviewing their claims

Romania accept Austrian inspectors in its airports to make sure these migrants land and are taken in by Romanian authorities, according to Peasant Christian Democrat MEP, Cristian Terheș who left PNȚCD for AUR a few months ago.

🟡 What has not been stated by Romanian medias but which is pretty obvious is the secretive nature of these negotiations, as this announcement came out of the blue after Austria already refused to lift its veto over Schengen.

In any case, Romanian PM, Marcel Ciolacu, took to Facebook to claim “victory” over the deal which was not needed as Romania fulfilled the Schengen criteria last year in 2022. In other words, Romania got cucked for nothing just so one man can say he did something.

The details, the concessions made to Vienna are not public.

🔗 https://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-26790254-ministerul-interne-confirma-consiliul-adoptat-decizia-privind-aplicarea-acquis-ului-schengen-romania-bulgaria-intampla-controalele-frontiera-terestra.htm

🎉 Happy New Year and God bless you all!

Thank you for staying subscribed and coming every day to read the timeline.

We wish to see you, dear reader, come back, again, in 2024!

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴🔌🪫🇺🇦🇲🇩 A report done by the ENTSO-E, the European network of electric grids operators, for the 2023-2024 winter assessed significant vulnerabilities with Romanian power grid.

In short, Romania is not producing enough electricity and can find itself unable to cover its needs during peak hours directly as a result of the transition to green energy and renewables as coal was replaced by solar and wind which are underperforming in winter or have not yet been installed.

Romania might also find itself unable to buy energy from its neighbours if the need ever arises.

The worst part is that Romania is an exporter of electric energy to both Ukraine and Moldova.

If in 2022 Romania was a major buyer of electricity from Ukraine having bought 337.656 MWh in November 2023 it imported just 14.698 MWh and exported 21.099 MWh.

In December 2023, Romania exported 22.451 MWh without buying a single MWh in return.

Also in December 2023, Romania exported 193,74 GWh to Moldova.

Between 2015 and 2023 Romania had the biggest drop in power generation from 22.590 MW in 2015 to just 16.357 MW in 2023. For comparison, Bulgaria, in the same timespan, grew its power output from 11.285 MW to 14.058, Poland added 20k MW to its power generation as well.

🔗 https://www.national.ro/0pp/alerta-de-risc-alimentarea-cu-energie-a-ucrainei-si-moldovei-vulnerabilizeaza-romania-808878.html

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴🛫❓ Is the Braşov-Ghimbav airport a waste of money?

Romania inaugurated its newest airport in June of 2023 at Ghimbav, a town adjacent to Braşov, costing 140 million EURs to build.

It is the newest airport built in the last 50 years in the country and was paid for almost exclusively by the Brașov County with a small fraction coming from the central government.

The airport is open only 12 hours a day which has already caused an airline company to leave the airport, moving to Bacău.

As a result, the Brașov airport now offers two destinations with the low-cost company, Wizz Air.

In the first 6 months of 2023, Brașov ranked 10th out of 17 by the amount of passengers which passed through the airport.

🔗 https://brasovromania.net/2023/12/aeroportul-brasov-locul-10-din-17/

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇲🇩🗳️🇪🇺 Institutul pentru Politici și Reforme Europene (IPRE), a NGO which works closely with the presidential administration of Moldova, believes that organising a referendum for EU membership, like Maia Sandu promised, should be done after the negotiations with the EU are finished which could mean… between 5 or 10 years or more.

However, every EU member state organised a referendum to join the European Union after its negotiations with the bloc ended.

The IPRE doesn’t see how could the referendum fail.

🔗 https://politik.md/expert-ipre-ideea-organizarii-unui-referendum-de-aderare-la-ue-inainte-de-finalizarea-procesului-de-negocieri-este-prematura/

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇲🇩🇷🇴⚖️ There are rumours in Moldova that the Supreme Court of Justice could get a new president in the person of Cristian Danileț.

Danileț is a Romanian judge which is nearing his retirement, meaning he is close to leaving the justice system in Romania.

He is well known in Romania particularly through his work on promoting reforms to create an independent justice system in Romania, his books against corruption but also his scandals. He was kicked out of the justice system three times by the Supreme Council of Magistrates but returned every time to his job as judge.

He is a star among the pro-EU liberals and progressives, i.e. the USR party.

Although Danileț denied wanting to get involved in politics, he nonetheless received Moldovan citizenship in 2022 despite not being born there nor having parents born in the Republic of Moldova.

USR and PAS have a close relationship particularly due to their shared ideology. It is no wonder that Maia Sandu and PAS are handing out positions to former members or USR affiliated individuals.

🔗 https://t.me/moldovatelegraph/113148

— This type of statement is extremely worrying because it is a hands off approach that puts the defense of the country in the hands of foreign militaries which may or may not take interest in fighting any armed aggression. Read this post for more context.

Is NATO ready to defend Romania though from Russian aggression? Not really.

NATO has a little over 5000 men, half of those being American troops, stationed in Romania. 5000 troops for a country on NATOs Eastern Flank is pretty shameful and dismal, rather signalling disinterest.

For comparison, Germany hosts over 35k American troops not accounting for other allied NATO nations. Germany is not bordering Ukraine and yet represents a
far greater interest for the US than Romania.

Japan hosts over 50k American troops, with almost half on one single island, Okinawa. Yet, American officials have not, publicly, called China an enemy of democracy or are in the process of destroying their relations with.

So how are 5000 troops representing the “strongest security guarantees” Romania ever received? Sure the defense of Romania should be the given to the Romanian Army but we can’t expect the Romanian Army to be capable to fight an opponent like Russia, a country with a population nearly 10 times larger and with a military budget nearly 10 times bigger. (Romania spent 7 billion USD on defense, Russia is spent somewhere around 70 billion USD).

Clearly, American interest is in the Pacific and not NATO’s Eastern Flank because if it was, the American presence would be far larger. Romania to them is nothing more than a brake for the resurgent Russian empire, like Ukraine, and will be used as such to “wear down the Russian army”.

My recommendation for Tîlvăr and frankly, any serious politician that cares for Romania, would be to learn the lessons of the Little Entente and especially why it collapsed and it all began once the French told Germany they were fine with a redrawing of Czechoslovakia’s borders. Even though it started strong in 1921 beginning in 1933, Germany began to assert itself as the economic powerhouse of Europe and the anti-German and anti-Hungarian alliance that was the Little Entente immediately fell apart as soon as the French signed the Bled Agreement and later the no Munich Agreement.

France was instrumental in the creation of the Little Entente which was envisioned as an anti-Hungarian but also an anti-Soviet alliance. It was tough to get the signatories, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania to form the alliance but without the French to hold it together, it quickly fell apart.

The same goes with NATO. Without American military personnel and assets, what good is it for? Not to mention the disinterest of other major NATO countries like Germany and France to fight a war with Russia (remember Emmanuel Macron’s Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok statement, the SPD in Germany has a long history of ties with Russia, add opposition parties in both countries which are openly pro-Russian, or pro-peace)

@Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴🇺🇦☦️ The house of Metropolitan Longhin Jar, has burned down last night.

The Metropolitan was not at home when it happened. The neighbours are convinced that it was an act of arson with the direct intent to burn it down.

Metropolitan Longhin is a member of the UOC under Moscow and has had a rough few months with Ukrainian authorities which are actively persecuting the Russian Church for alleged double loyalties to Russia. Longhin is an ethnic Romanian and he has joined the UOC because the UOC allows him to hold the Divine Liturgy in his native Romanian language which the other Ukrainian churches do not allow.

🔗 https://bucpress.eu/regiunea-cernauti-casa-in-care-locuieste-mitropolitul-longhin-jar-a-fost-cuprinsa-de-flacari/

🇲🇩🤝🟥🟩🟥 Moldova renewed its contract with Gazprom through its subsidiary, Moldovagaz, purchasing 451 million m3 of natural gas from January 1st 2024 to April of the same year for 550 USD/m3 which is one of the most expensive costs in Europe at the moment.

In addition, through the company Energocom, Moldova bought electricity at 66 USD/MWh mainly from the Moldavskaya GRES in Transnistria.

Until Moldova builds its links with the Romanian power grid, it will have to buy electricity from Tiraspol and continue to enable the separatists. The good news is that either in 2025 or 2026 Moldova will complete these links and escape from Tiraspol’s grip.

🔗 https://telegraph.md/?p=288826

@Wallachian_Gazette