Press review – December 23, 2020

The post-revolution prophecies told us about a real change in Romania only after twenty years. But 30 have passed and the change has not fully occurred. Why? What should be done from now on? What would be the priorities? I talked with publicist Emil Hurezeanu, present then, as now, on a wider world stage, about light and darkness in our struggle with history. About what we couldn't do and what should be done. What are our backlogs, but also our priorities. "Our emotions, because we had a clearer and somewhat comparative perspective of existing realities and possible scenarios," he confesses now, "were driven by a mandatory lucidity. I suspected that Romania would have greater difficulties after the removal of the Ceausescu regime than all other communist countries."

Emil Hurezeanu was then an editor at "Europa Liberă" radio. His voice was breaking through the walls of communism towards the Romanians.

How would you describe Romania's start in the new world today? There are voices that criticize the slow rhythm, maybe even intentionally with the foot on the brake. What would be our failures and successes?

The last 30 years were the result of prolonged illnesses in fears, reflexes, absolutism, excessive polarization, uproar, all against a background of relative inefficiency. We entered the EU and NATO - and here we have an absolute progress, unprecedented in our history dominated by marginalization and fortuitous leap forward, through happy events more than through continuous concentration and deliberate maturation processes under our control. Our lack of efficiency has taken us somewhat out of the mainstream of the Western alliances of which we are a part. We obstinately repeated our errors. We relied, perhaps too much, on the automatic pilots of the alliances, we forgot the tactical resources and the broad strategic breath of the diplomacy of the traditional states.

But nothing is lost, basically, you will say. No, several million Romanians who left their country - a huge and for now irretrievable loss. Years wasted in internal political wars, in a long period of external peace. An inexplicable indifference to the persistence of the difference between town and country, worthy rich people and poor people abandoned by conditional assistance, North and South, East and West - without modern connections, with roads built between the wars by Swedes and trains slower than in Carol's time the II. With too many people dying for days and living from day to day.

Against this background, what resources do we have left?

Anyway, even so, with so many losses and defeats, our social capital, the people, are resistant, protean, patient and polite. We learn, no matter how late, from mistakes, maybe we make new ones, I don't think we repeat the old ones.

But, in our slow pace and busy with our own obsessions, we did not make the mistakes of others, too quickly captivated by the national anti-European hubris. We seem to have more "common sense" than the British, and with all our uncritical pro-Americanism and anti-Russianism, we manage to avoid the zig-zags of risky geopolitical options. But, but, the fine calibrations, the differentiation, the hashes are also rigorous. In geography and foreign policy, ignoring moving targets with eyes fixed only on the fixed stars may improve the moral law, but it does not save us from misfortune.

Overall, 56,3% of the 13.356 teachers surveyed said they do not agree to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and 43,2% say they want to return to school and teach face-to-face before the start of the vaccination campaign. The survey was conducted by the Federation of Education Unions "Spiru Haret" between December 16 and 21, 2020, among education employees, to see what their perception is regarding the reopening of school units and voluntary vaccination, according to a press release of them.

Regarding the timing of the return to face-to-face teaching, 43,2% want to return to schools as soon as possible, while 41,4% believe that the resumption of classes should take place after the completion of the national vaccination campaign .

The European Commission published on Monday indicative models intended to help member states draw up national recovery and resilience plans that comply with EU rules on state aid, informs a press release of the Community Executive

"We provide Member States with all the necessary guidance and tools so that their national recovery and resilience plans can be implemented as quickly as possible, in line with EU state aid rules. We continue to work closely with Member States to mitigate the economic effects of the current crisis and ensure that the European economy recovers quickly from the crisis, while maintaining a level playing field in the single market," said European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager .

In the context of the implementation of Member States' recovery and resilience plans, State aid control will help ensure that Member States' public spending does not crowd out private spending, avoid overcompensation and guarantee a level playing field in the single market.

To address potential state aid issues downstream, the Commission will hold early discussions with Member States on the investments envisaged in their national recovery and resilience plans. The Commission stands ready to examine, together with the national authorities, the possible state aid dimensions of their recovery plans and to provide them with all the necessary assistance to develop investment schemes that comply with state aid rules.

Many measures that might be proposed by Member States, such as certain infrastructure investments and direct support to citizens, are not subject to State aid control because they are not selective or do not relate to economic activities. Other measures are likely to fall under the General Block Exemption Regulation and therefore do not need to be notified to the Commission and can be implemented immediately by Member States.

The European Commission has published eleven indicative models on state aid. These indicative models cover the many types of investment projects in line with the "European Flagship Initiatives" set out in the Commission's 2021 Annual Strategy for Sustainable Growth. Indicative models are technical documents, intended to help member states draw up national plans that comply with EU state aid rules.

The indicative models provide sectoral guidance on cases where: it is possible to exclude the existence of State aid and therefore prior notification to the Commission is not required; there would be state aid but no notification is required because that state aid falls under a block exemption and there would be state aid and notification is required in the light of the main applicable state aid rules.

He made his career on three continents and succeeded everywhere he set his sights. He was the first Romanian to teach economics at Harvard, and for a year and a half he was a consultant for the Government of Japan. Andrei Hagiu is now a professor at Boston University, one of the most prestigious university centers in the world.

Originally from Iasi, Andrei Hagiu moved with his family to France since childhood, and the first college he graduated from was the famous Ecole Polytechnique in France. Until then, however, he had to start from scratch and learn a foreign language at school. If at first he was not too happy, with time he managed to adjust, even if not all things were rosy. This is also because some of his high school classmates looked at him coldly because he was Romanian.

"When I arrived in France, at high school, children at that age are bad. A new colleague comes to a class and the children are normally reluctant. I think what bothered me the most was this thing with the gypsies, because that's what they believed about the Romanians. And the second... they had seen those shows with the orphanages. In general, they are ignorant people, who only know what they have seen, they don't go into the depth of things", recalls the Romanian.

He admits that it was not easy at all, but he managed. And just as he managed to settle in France, he would later manage to do it on another continent.

But not before obtaining a master's degree in statistics and economics at the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique, in Paris.

"I think this is very important for young people: it's very good to change the environment. Especially radically. It's hard, especially at the age of a teenager, when you have identity problems, when you're looking for yourself. To completely change the environment. I didn't speak the language very well either, and it was kind of difficult, but I fit in. After that, after I fully adjusted in France, moving to the United States was very easy for me.

The second full moving experience becomes much easier. I probably also had an intrinsic preference, I always liked to explore something completely new. It is very important to put our children in situations where they are faced with something totally unfamiliar, even if it is difficult. Any experience like this contributes enormously to maturation, to personal growth," he says.

Another special experience followed, at one of the best universities in the world, Princeton. There he obtained his doctorate, after which he went to Japan, to Tokyo, in 2004. Here, he was employed for a year and a half as an adviser to the Government of Japan. What mattered in his choice was the fact that he was passionate about Japan and everything that this country meant and had visited it before.

As a government advisor, he tried to find out the reasons why Japan, although so technologically advanced, is almost non-existent when it comes to software.