Monthly Wrap-up March 2021: Restrictions return as third wave hits Romania

This is our monthly overview for Romania Insider members for March. We curate the main topics of the month, to make sure you don't miss the bigger picture, no matter how often you choose to read the news. If you choose to stay away from much of the media frenzy, this monthly bulletin brings the essentials without wasting a lot of time, in a basic visual version, so you can focus on the text alone.

Romania kicked off the third phase of its vaccination strategy in March, opening the vaccination platform to the general population. The available spots quickly filled up, especially in bigger cities. "Vaccination tourism" started, as some people decided to drive even several hundred kilometers to smaller cities that still had available doses. By the end of March, some 2 million Romanians have been vaccinated with at least one dose. The authorities are confident that the pace will accelerate in April when Romania will get more vaccines and will increase the capacity of its vaccination centers while also opening new channels - such as vaccination at the family doctors. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases rose again in March, and the number of people treated in intensive care units (ATI) reached new highs. The infection rates went up mostly in bigger cities such as Timisoara and Bucharest. While Timisoara was placed under quarantine, the authorities tried to avoid a similar scenario for Bucharest, although the incidence rate went over 6 per 1,000 inhabitants. Instead, the authorities tried to come up with some hybrid restrictions, including an earlier curfew and shorter opening hours for shops. However, the overall impression was that the decisions lacked coherence, which also determined a negative response from the population. While hundreds went to the streets in bigger cities to protest against the restrictions, others were calling for tougher measures. On the political stage, the main themes in March were the bill for dismantling the special section for investigating magistrates and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Besides constant criticism from the opposition Social Democrats (PSD), the center-right ruling coalition also faces some internal tensions as the Liberals prepare for an important congress where they will elect their leader while the cooperation between the Liberals and their reformist partners from USR-PLUS is not always smooth. The biggest disputes so far revolved around reformist health minister Vlad Voiculescu and his relationship with the Liberals. The recovery measures also continued to advance slowly. The grants program for helping local SMEs made little progress in March and the Economy Ministry decided to halt and start over the procedure for distributing the investment grants. EU funds should drive Romania's economic recovery in the following years. Still, while the funds received from the EU were higher in the first two months of this year compared to the same period of 2020, the programs for attracting new funds are advancing slowly. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which should be the most important reconstruction program Romania has undertaken since joining the EU, is struggling to balance the country's need for basic infrastructure with the EU's digitization and decarbonization goals. The macroeconomic indicators support the scenario of economic recovery this year, although managers and entrepreneurs are still cautious. Energy, industry, and real estate continue to draw new investments, but the growth in these sectors is uneven. In the energy sector, renewables and gas are under the spotlight, in industry, the pharmaceutical segment is one of the most active, while the growth in real estate is driven by the industrial and residential segments. With plenty of money still available in the economy, the capital markets are also doing well. Financing through the Bucharest Stock Exchange and equity crowdfunding platforms such as Seeblink has increased significantly in the last year. Airlines are also trying to recover after a disastrous year with new flights and new routes from more Romanian cities. Meanwhile, with most cinemas still closed in Romania, a Romanian movie has won the big prize at the Berlin Film Festival while another one is nominated for two Oscars.