Romania: Press review - February 2

Bucharest, Feb 2 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Tuesday give main coverage to the legislative priorities announced by Prime Minister Emil Boc in the upper Senate house on Monday; movements in the Democratic Liberal Party related to the reform of the ruling political grouping; turmoil seen by the main opposition Social Democratic Party; remarks made by the International Monetary Fund's chief of Romania mission Jeffrey Franks with respect to the downturn that Romania has narrowly escaped; and a three-medal scoop by Romanian athletes at the International Biathlon Union Youth/Junior Championships in Torsby, Sweden.

Prime Minister Emil Boc unveiled the Government's law-making priorities on Monday, the first day of the parliamentary session. 'The Government does not hold the monopoly of the legislative truth', Boc told the senators with respect to the relation between the executive and Parliament. He explained his priorities relate to two objectives: the state modernisation and jobs respectively, Evenimentul zilei reports.

The pension law should target a correct use of the public resources, without any privileges, the prime minister stressed. He said the fiscal responsibility law and the national education law should also be discussed by the legislature fast. Boc spoke to the senators about the penal and civil procedure codes, underscoring that the penal law and the civil law were approved last year. Nevertheless, such laws cannot operate without improving the procedure. The new codes are meant to simplify the proceedings and to allow shorter lawsuits. Another act included on the Government's agenda is the community police law, the daily reports.

Prime Minister Emil Boc said on Monday that the current electoral system lacks efficiency, since it sent to Parliament candidates that came second or third in the elections, which he said is not a 'good' form of democracy; a new system should be discussed with all the political groupings, Romania libera quotes him as saying.

The senior Democratic Liberals refuse to be responsible to the party county leaders, who demand control of the central structures, Romania libera reports.

Vasile Blaga, Adriean Videanu and Radu Berceanu have announced there will be no major changes to the party statutes and they narrow the debate on the party reform to a mere change of logo and name.

The main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) has been seeing hot debate over the internal elections for more than three weeks, as the stake is huge for the current, former or future party leaders, Ziarul financiar reports.

Incumbent chairman Mircea Geoana looks pretty well placed in the race, having garnered the support of more than 30 PSD branches, but he is also the one who lost the most important recent electoral race for the PSD - last autumn's elections for Romania's president - and his defeat has thrown the party into opposition, the daily writes.

Former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, after having managed to persuade Geoana to accept that the party executive president's position be re-introduced, is now about to score a fresh victory, namely that the PSD leader's mandate be halved, Romania libera announces.

Romania could no longer need to take all the money it benefits from under the foreign loan agreement, as it is possible that the next 3.3 billion euro tranches from the international lenders also be the last Romania will draw, says Romanian representative at the World Bank Stefan Nanu.

'The next tranches could be the last drawn from the IMF and the European Commission. /.../ Romania can safely draw the money it gets from the IMF and the Commission from other markets and at different costs at that', Ziarul financiar reports.

Chief of the International Monetary Fund's mission for Romania Jeffrey Franks said in an exclusive interview with Romania libera that Romania's weathering the downturn is a success story, given that a much more negative situation had been anticipated originally. Nevertheless, Franks stresses that Romania last year was on the brink of abyss and it could have crash-landed if it had not got the IMF support. The IMF official hopes the number of the Romanian jobless would not reach the one-million notch, although he expects some rises in the unemployment in the first part of the year and he anticipates a first drop in joblessness by year-end.

More than five billion lei or 1.27 billion euros and one percent of the GDP - such are the arrears amassed by ten state companies the monitoring of which was agreed upon under the technical memorandum of understanding with the IMF last autumn, Gandul reports.

The curbed arrears or the debts to the state as well as to the private sector incurred by the big state-owned companies was one of the toughest negotiation issues in Romania's loan agreement with the IMF.

The biggest state debtor is Petrosani National Coal Mining Company, which has a combined 3.77 billion lei in debts to the state budget, the state security budget, pensions budget, the unemployment and health care budget. On the second spot is National Railway Company CFR SA with more than 500 million lei, followed by CFR Passenger Branch, CFR Freight Branch, CFR Electricity Branch and Termoelectrica electricity and thermal power producer, according to the rankings made by Gandul based on the figures released on the Tax Administration National Authority's Web site on Dec. 31, 2009.

The national leu currency has gained 3.4 percent to the euro since the beginning of the year, with the official exchange rate announced by the National Bank of Romania on Monday having gone down to 4.08 lei to the euro, Curierul National reports.

Although such significant appreciation of the national currency should result in lower prices for the imported goods and contribute to cutting the rates to the forex lending, the economists caution it is possible that the good times seen by the leu be merely short-term ones, as it is possible that the leu should depreciate after the wave of optimism recedes, Gandul writes.

The judges draw Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu's attention that the new pension law breaks the constitutional norms. Judge Dana Garbovan, who chairs the Romanian Judges National Union, calls on the minister to restore lawfulness by observing the fundamental principles and rights recognised in the international treaties signed by Romania, Jurnalul National reports. The draft unified pension law drawn up by the Labour Ministry contains a lot of instructions that run counter the constitutional norms, the European Human Rights Convention and the ECHR jurisprudence, the Union leader argues.

Romanian athletes have recorded a first in the history of winter sports by winning three medals, one in the International Biathlon Union Youth/Junior Championships in Torsby, Sweden, and two in the U23 Nordic World Championship, the Bucharest-based dailies announce.

The Romanian athletes have so far won two gold medals and one silver medal, outperforming athletes from countries with long winter sports traditions, including Norway and Russia. AGERPRES

[www.romaniapress.com]