Romania: Press review - February 8
Feb 8, 2010

Romania: Press review - February 8.
Bucharest, Feb 8 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Monday give main coverage to the decision by the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) to allow Romania to host parts of the US missile shield; the internal turmoil ahead of the extraordinary convention of the Congress of the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD); the National Bank of Romania (BNR) reporting record 2009 profits; Romania's victory on Sunday in a world cup sabre team championship in Budapest.


Curentul reports that President Traian Basescu on Thursday announced that CSAT accepted the invitation of US President Obama for Romania to host interception elements of the US anti-missile shield and insisted that the shield defends the entire territory of Romania and it is not meant against Russia. Logically speaking, the paper says, the shield is not meant against anybody, as it is a defensive system.

Unfortunately, the paper continues, there is no anti-crisis, anti-corruption or at least anti-nerve shield. Mr. Basescu's announcement was made exactly on the day when the National Council of PSD convened for a final rehearsal of the party's February 20 convention of its Congress and where Mr. Iliescu brought his shield bearers to their feet, forcefully remembering of his doctrine. First, Iliescu mentioned the 'failure of the state socialism before 1989,' which he termed 'capitalism with a socialist face,' after which he pointed to 'the failure of the current neo-liberalism,' and ended by proclaiming 'a system crisis, even a crisis of the final days of capitalism.'


Gandul quotes political presidential adviser Sebastian Lazaroiu as saying Mircea Geoana is currently the favourite to win the PSD chairmanship, but his chances may be nullified by an alliance of Miron Mitrea, Cristian Diaconescu and Victor Ponta.

Adevarul quotes chairman of the PSD National Council Adrian Nastase, in the race for the PSD chairmanship, as saying he wants to share power if he wins the election of February 20, with Victor Pont as executive chairman, Liviu Dragnea as secretary general and Cristian Diaconescu as chairman of the National Council.

Curierul National quotes former PSD deputy chairman Vasile Dancu as saying in a post on his personal blog, in relation to the PSD National Council meeting, that PSD is not the object of the PSD members' existence, alive as a friend, but it is rather perceived as an UFO, that is a vehicle for winning offices and subject of rhetoric.


Evenimentul zilei reports that the magistrates are campaigning for a majority non-transferable vote system to be introduced before the 2012 general election and for solutions in the case of the vote of the Romanian Diaspora, both topics on the agenda of President Traian Basescu and the Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L), at rule. The paper remarks that the Constitutional Court has become the advocates of the majority single vote system that is wanted by Basescu and the PD-L. At the same time, they have taken over from the political discourse the vote of the Diaspora theme, which was aggressively promoted in the media during the 2009 presidential election campaign, suggesting the introduction of an electronic vote system for them. Moreover, the Constitutional Court has set a deadline for the revision of the Election Law to accommodate the new vote system, and that deadline is before the 2012 election.


The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has reported a 2009 gross profit of RON 4.6 billion (nearly 1.1 billion euros). Although this value is larger than the aggregate revenues of all the banks operating in Romania that ended 2009 in the black, BNR's net profit was only RON 300 million (71 million euros).


Evenimentul zilei carries the findings of a survey of Romania's small and medium-sized enterprises indicating that the first negative impact of the discarding of the 3-percent tax on micro-enterprises will be a rise in unemployment.

More than one third of the micro-enterprises that would pay until last year a 3-percent tax on their revenues are now bracing up for redundancies because of high costs the new 16-percent tax on their revenues will entail. The survey was conducted by IMM Romania, a SME solution web portal of the National Council of Private Romanian SMEs.


Curentul remarks that snow and blizzard are reigning supreme in the southern and eastern parts of Romania. Snow-clearing vehicles are impotent before the snow drifts. As many as 136 county roads were blocked off on Sunday afternoon and river navigation on the Sulina and Bara channels was interrupted.

Cotidianul quotes Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu as saying the orange code advisory of snow and snowdrifts was extended to Monday evening, and as urging Bucharesters to slow down their activity in the streets so that the snow may be cleared off the streets. Oprescu warned that on Monday he will send inspectors to control the situation in the city and fine the public institutions having failed to clear the snow from before their buildings.

Gandul reports that pre-schools and elementary schools of Bucharest City and 11 counties will stay closed today because of the snowdrifts and bitterly cold weather. The Education Ministry has made a decision to extend the holiday of the Bucharest school children to protect them against the bad weather outside.


Adevarul notes that retirement masking unemployment, switching funds from the pension money to cover budgetary potholes, too high a pnesionable age and impolitic pensions have all conspired to blow up the pension system. It says that in 1989, three wage-earners would support one pensioner and the public pension funds recorded a surplus. In 2009, there was one employee supporting one pensioner and the pension fund was two billion US dollars in deficit.

'Ceausescu left a perfectly sustainable public pension system. Politicians and their decisions are to blame for what went wrong with the system. This disaster is the work of the Roman-Iliescu regime, which tried to solve the unemployment issue to the detriment of the pension system,' says economist Ilie Serbanescu.


Romania libera remarks that the news that trade union leaders will be under an obligation to publicly state their wealth and interests, as required under a legislative proposal to pass through Parliament, has heated up spirits among the union leaders. Union members are accusing the authorities of trying to besmirch the trade unions, with specialists arguing that if there are suspicions of dubious business between union leaders and the Government, contracts between the public and the private sectors should rather be made more transparent.


Evenimentul zilei remarks that the Berlin Film Festival turns 60 this year. It quotes Berlin Film Festival Director Dieter Kosslick as saying the 2010 edition is important to the East-European film as well. The paper says Romania may profit from this trend, as four of its productions are running in the Berlinale, to be organised February 11-21.

'Derby' by Paul Negoescu and 'Colivia' (The Bird Cage) by Adrian Sitaru, will be competing for a Golden Bear for short films. 'Portretul luptatorului la tinerete' (The Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man) by Constanitn Popescu will be screened in the Forum section, while 'Eu, cand vreau sa fluier, fluier' (When I Want to Whistle, I Do) by Florin Serban will be running in the main contest for the grand prix and the prize for the best debut.


Romania's men's sabre team comprising Rares Dumitrescu, Florin Zalomir, Alexandru Sireteanu and Tiberiu Dolniceanu on Sunday won an international fencing tournament organised in Budapest that counts for the team fencing World Cup, as they defeated Italy, 45-42, the sports papers report.

Romania successively beat Ukraine (45-36), Spain (45-36) and Hungary (45-39). France and Hungary came in third.

On Saturday, Romanian Dumitrescu won the men's Sabre Grand Prix in Budapest, while Romanian Zalomir came in third. AGERPRES
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