STRIKES - 10,000 teachers have resumed classes, although over half of teachers in the system continue the strike action, Education Minister Ligia Deca has said. Trade unions say the authorities are mistaken, arguing some 87% of teachers and auxiliary staff are currently on strike. In the meantime, representatives of pupils, parents and trade unions on Tuesday met with Education Ministry officials, in an attempt to find solutions. Minister Ligia Deca says there are no plans yet for rescheduling exams or extending the school year. On the other hand, employees in the public healthcare system have launched a work-in strike today, calling for higher wages and the application of the salary law for all categories of workers and the payment of base salaries stipulated in the wage grid. Health workers also demand the authorities change the way bonuses are provided, on-call work is remunerated and meal allowances are paid. The Labor Ministry has published a draft emergency decree which raises the salaries of certain categories of health workers to the maximum allowed by the law, including nurses, orderlies and patient care assistants. The same provision will also apply to social workers and employees in the defense, law enforcement and national security sectors. According to the Labor Ministry, the measure will not entail huge budget costs so as to impair the fiscal targets for 2023, and will do away with salary inequities in the healthcare system, helping reward workers in line with their training and seniority.
B9 - Russia remains the biggest threat to European and Euro-Atlantic security, the president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, said on the sidelines of the Bucharest 9 Summit hosted by Bratislava. The president called for the consolidation of national defense, underlining the need to create a consistent, united, reliable and robust Forward Defense structure on NATO's eastern flank. Klaus Iohannis also argued that Romania will continue to provide support for Ukraine as long as it is necessary, reasserting Bucharest's support for Kyiv's Euro-Atlantic accession aspirations. Klaus Iohannis and other B9 leaders firmly condemned Russia's brutal, unjustified and illegal war against Ukraine, calling on Moscow to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine's territory.
EXERCISE - The city of Constanţa in eastern Romania is as of today hosting the VALHALA 23 exercise organized by the Romanian Border Police Inspectorate. The exercise is designed to test the capacity of the Border Police to manage high flows of refugees and will comprise three phases. The first phase will be held onboard the 0201 Ştefan cel Mare ship and will consist in a simulation: Border Police crews will detect watercraft carrying migrants and escort them to the port of Constanţa. In the next phase, the migrants will disembark in the port and undergo specific procedures. The last phase is scheduled to take place at the Coast Guard headquarters and will consist of an epidemiological triage, body-searches, identifying vulnerable people, border inspections, finger-printing and registering. Each migrant will then undergo specific criminal procedures, a second triage, will be given an opportunity to lodge asylum requests, will give interviews and finally be given access to Romania's territory or taken into public custody, if necessary.
DAM - The European Union will provide the necessary assistance to Ukraine after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said after a telephone conversation with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell. Both Kyiv and Moscow have denied responsibility for the attack. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located upstream, has sufficient alternative cooling systems to keep the plant safe and operational. In the meantime, mass evacuations continued on Wednesday in southern Ukraine after the water discharge flooded numerous settlements along the Dnieper. (VP)