Romanian press review
Jan 25, 2010

Romanian press review.
Bucharest, Jan 25 /Agerpres/ - Orange Code of frost in seven counties, unrest inside the main Opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), trials of reforming the Liberal-Democratic Party (PD-L), the cost for the state budget of the political sacks, yet the possibility that a Romanian-born director to be awarded the Caesar for his 'The Concert' are just a few of the most important news holding the main pages of the Monday Romanian newspapers.


Seven counties in Romania are under the Orange Code of frost, over Jan. 24, 2:00 p.m. - Jan. 27, 8:00 a.m. (Romania's time), according to a meteorological warning issued on Sunday by the National Meteorology Administration (ANM), the Adevarul daily reads.


During its Saturday meeting with the Prime-Minister and the minister of Finance, the European Commission's representatives have asked the World Bank an audit of the Romanian public sector, the Curierul National says.

On Saturday's meeting PM Emil Boc and Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu had with the representatives of the international institutions, the members of the EC delegation have insisted for an audit to be carried by the WB regarding the organization and functioning of the Romanian public sector, sources present in the meeting said. The topic of the discussion was the assessment of the stage of the agreement with the international bodies, from the year 2009 and 2010 perspective as well.


Mircea Geoana, Cristian Diaconescu and Miron Mitrea are the three Social Democrat Party leaders who announced their candidacy for the party's leadership at the coming Congress. The PSD members are waiting on Monday the move of a fourth candidate, who is Adrian Nastase, the daily Gandul reads.

'I took this decision when the situation got radical', Cristian Diaconescu told the Antena 3 tv station, as quoted by the daily Adevarul.

Victor Ponta tells an interview with the daily Evenimentul Zilei that he wouldn't run for the PSD leadership and that he would support a Cristian Diaconescu - Adrian Nastase formula.


In tandem, Cristian Preda and Monica Macovei will present on Monday in front of the Liberal Democratic Party (PD-L) a set of principles capable to eliminate, among other things, the nepotism and the party's oligarchisation, as well as a doctrinaire clarification, the daily Romania Libera reads.

'We shall present a set of principles to reform the party', Preda said.

He was invited by the PD-L leaders to show his viewpoints in the National Standing Bureau meeting. And this, after the former advisor of president Traian Basescu requested the change of the PD-L leaders and drew attention over the danger of the party's getting oligarchic. The revolt movement of Preda inside the party was unleashed by the action of promoting young Prigoana Jr. as a party's candidate for a deputy seat in Bucharest College 1.


President Traian Basescu on Sunday said in Iasi (northeastern city of Romania), on the occasion of the celebration of 151 years since the Romanian Principalities Union, that the politicians aspirations who talk about territorial autonomy are 'childish', as the 'territorial unity is in the Romanians souls', the daily Cotidianul reads.

The 151 years since the Principalities Union were also celebrated in Bucharest, on the Metropolitan Hills on Sunday. The building - historical monument in the core of the old city and the place where the double election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as head of Wallachia was signed was deserted, due to the frost, the daily Adevarul writes.


The great political cleaning from the spring of 2009 makes a large hole in the state budget, the daily Adevarul reads.

The managers of the public institutions sacked in 2009 have sued the Government and won their positions and the payment of the due salaries in the dismissal period. Hundreds of managers are now staying at the Government's door, equipped with final court decisions and requests of damages payment. The current heads of the institutions are illegal, and the activity there is jammed.


The representatives of the main business partners of Romania - France and Germany - say that Bucharest cannot count on new investments this year from these countries. The ambassadors of France and Germany, Henri Paul and Andreas von Mettenheim, respectively, say that no perspectives of extending their businesses of the investors already present in Romania are to be take place, the daily Ziarul Financiar reads.

The Direct Foreign Investments in Romania went down 54.4 percent in 2009, to 6.1 billion dollars, against the previous year, a almost double fall as compared to the 29.2 pct decline at the EU level. The two ambassadors say that the year 2010 will bring no major alterations and that the investors are reluctant due to the crisis and also unsatisfied with the conditions offered to extend their businesses.


The monthly rate of the credit for the purchase of a three-room apartment in Bucharest decreased from cca 600 euros to 350 euros in less than two years, due to the drop by almost 50 pct of the houses' price and the smaller interests through the First House Programme, an analysis by the daily Ziarul Financiar reveals.

If, in March 2008 when the old apartments in Bucharest attained a maxim 2,060 euros/sqm, the three-room apartments in Drumul Taberei or Titan were worth 120,000 euros, the same apartments currently cost only 70,000 euros, according to the ads on the expert sites.


The state loses in 2010 some 120 million RON from the public servants layoffs if it complies with the trade unions demands. The layoffs would bring to the state budget around 400 million RON savings, but the costs with the compensations for the made redundant could go over 500 million RON, the daily Adevarul reads.

The Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu said at the beginning of 2010 that about 100,000 people would be laid off from the state institutions. The number was immediately contested by PM Emil Boc, who explained that the number would be known after a thorough assessment of all the state institutions. So far, the figure of the state employees to be made redundant this year counts for 45,000. All the unions ask for 12 to 20 months severance salaries. Should the Government accepts their claims, it loses money. Should it gives only half of the sum, the balance will bow to economy.


Two weeks since the NGOs drew attention to the legal peril called 'Special Gold' (Mephedrona) the Health minister Cseke Attila spoke about the measures Romania is taking in order to halt the effects of this legal drug's consumption.

According to Cseke, a seven people commission 'is working for several weeks' to draft a 'Complex' list due to contain all the older or recent dangerous substances and plants.


'The Concert' of Radu Mihaileanu, a Romanian-born French director, has got six nominations to the Caesar Awards: for film, direction, script, sound, music and film editing, the daily Romania Libera writes.AGERPRES
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