Romania: Press review - February 3

Bucharest, Feb 3 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Wednesday give main coverage to the Government's priorities unveiled by Prime Minister Emil Boc to the Senate and the Deputies' Chamber, the upgraded rating outlook of Romania given by Fitch rating agency and plans to include the journalists among the public figures who should file an asset declaration.

Prime Minister Emil Boc unveiled his Government's priorities in separate sessions of the Senate and the Deputies' Chamber. He cited the state reform, the country's modernisation, the education law, the pensions system law, the fiscal responsibility law as well as restoring the credibility of the state institutions, the equality of all citizens before the law, the creation of new jobs, one-house Parliament, a smaller number of ordinances to be issued by the executive and higher living standards, Cronica Romana reports.

There has been talk of the state reform and modernisation for some 20 years. All the leaders who ruled Romania have hidden behind electoral clichés that nobody can prove that have been finalised. A reformed state means one in which the powers are very clearly defined. In Romania, however, there is an institutional mishmash, in which guilt is dissipated at all political levels, the same as the decision-making responsibility, Cronica Romana says in an editorial feature.

It might be hard to believe, but Romania has some of the toughest anti-corruption laws in Europe, Adevarul says in an editorial. The asset declaration, the regulation of the conflicts of interests and particularly the National Integrity Agency, a body with exceptional powers, should have left the corrupted persons shaking with fear and should have pushed the topic out of the public agenda. However, this is not what has happened. Graft has remained on the domestic agenda as well as on the agenda of the European Union that monitors Romania, Adevarul writes. According to the columnist, Romanians may devise the best democracy in the world, the best single-voting system, the highest performing institutions 'and still nothing will change'. 'Once the first christening takes place, everything will be like before', the daily says in reference to recent reports that a public person christened a well-known underworld figure's nephew.

Former Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, who leads the Liberal group in the Deputies' Chamber argues, amid talks of the political class reform, that the lawmakers should raise the problem of possibly stripping Romania's president of immunity, given that the head of state is a singular case at present, from this viewpoint, Jurnalul National reports.

Financial rating agency Fitch has upgraded the outlook of Romania's credit rating from ‘negative' to ‘stable' and has confirmed the ratings to the forex- and national currency long-term debts to ‘BB plus' and ‘BBB minus' respectively. The improved external economic and financial conditions, the above-expectations adjustment of the 2009 current account deficit, Romania's having overcome the election-related risk, the approval of the 2010 budget and an anticipated return to normal of the country's relations with the IMF have curbed the pressures on Romania's credit rating, Evenimentul zilei quotes Fitch director David Helsam as saying.

'We expected Fitch to upgrade our credit rating outlook, given our showing in January and the successful conclusion of the talks with the IMF', Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu told Ziarul financiar after the rating agency's announcement.

More than two million Romanians are recorded as suffering from depression at present. The disease ranks second among the Romanians' most common sufferings after high blood pressure, Evenimentul zilei reports. 'Some 40 percent of the patients admitted to the Clinical Psychiatric Diseases Hospital based in Bucharest suffer from depression', said Radu Teodorescu, the chairman of the Romanian Association of Community Psychiatry; this compares to 31 percent such admissions in 2001.

Apathetic, egocentric, little willing to take social responsibilities, radical and intolerant, addicted to Internet communication - this is how today's generation of young Romanians dubbed ‘Converse' generation - after the name of the tennis shoes - is perceived. 'It is strange to see how a generation that declare themselves extremely individualistic - guiding themselves by such slogans as ‘Be yourself' - has fit into a uniform so well', Gandul quotes psychologist Alfred Dumitrescu as saying in reference to the clothing and look adopted by the young Romanians aged between 15 and 20 years old.

Journalists could be included among those who must file an asset declaration, following an initiative by a Democratic Liberal senator. He proposed the Senate's judicial commission to amend the Law on the organisation and functioning of the National Integrity Agency so that the journalists should also file a declaration of interests, Jurnalul National reports. This could be a first in the Romanian press, adds Evenimentul zilei. AGERPRES

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