Romania: Press review - February 19.
Bucharest, Feb 19 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Friday give main coverage to former Romanian President Ion Iliescu's possible return to Social Democratic leader, an invitation to Romania to join the South Stream project, solutions offered by businessmen to emerge out of the downturn and the Romanians' pessimistic view of the national economy's chances for a speedy recovery.
The unified public wage law has decided that the president of a country of 21 million people gets a little over 2,000 euros a month, i.e. around 24,000 euros a year. This compares to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's annual wage of 242,000 euros, Evenimentul zilei reports.
One can understand that the people in a post-communist state hit by recession expect to see symbolic gestures from the rulers. Thus, Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai accepted to head the Government for a forint a year and decided to cut salaries and benefits in the state administration, a move also made by Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc, the daily says.
Sources in the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) told Gandul daily that the party's honorary president Ion Iliescu accepted an offer to take over the party's top position at the congress due this weekend, after he had recently announced he was giving up any position in the party. The plan at the Feb. 20 congress is that the former President of Romania led the Social Democrats for no more than a year, during which time elections will be held in all the PSD organizations and then a new congress be held, Gandul reports.
Border police from the Republic of Moldova have begun taking down the barbed wire fence on the Romanian border, with the operation to be completed by the end of March. The fence was put by the Soviet Union in 1940 and an 80 kilometre stretch has been left in place in the Moldovan areas of Ungheni and Cantemir till today to remind of the past. The Chisinau executive now hopes to draw European funds to develop the border area, Romania libera reports.
The Old Car scrappage scheme will include just two phases this year, down from three in 2009 and it offers the clients the possibility to get rid of three vehicles older than 10 years for a new one, Environment and Forestry Minister Laszlo Borbely said. The programme beneficiaries can thus get up to 2,800 euros discount on purchasing a new car, Jurnalul National reports.
The Old Car scrappage scheme will be extended to tractors from March 20, which is a first in Romania. The environment ministry has set aside 100 million lei (1 euro=4.12 lei) for the move, Gandul announces.
Russian power giant Gazprom has invited Romanian national gas carrier Transgaz to join the South Stream project. The announcement was made by Economy Minister Adriean Videanu following an official meeting with Gazprom Vice President Alexander Medvedev, Friday's print media announces. Videanu announced after meeting visiting Medvedev earlier this week that Romania could be shipped Russian gas without intermediaries after 2012, when the supply contracts expire, Romania libera reports.
The Romanian business people accuse the authorities of showing a lack of interest in the sectors that could take Romania out of the recession. The Association of the Romanian Business People suggests the Government to at least partially use the tranches disbursed under the loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund to re-start exports and for infrastructure investment, Adevarul reports. The Association said exports this year could be the main engine driving the national economy to growth. Their main argument is the recovery, though fragile, seen by the most powerful European Union economies, such as Germany, Britain and France.
A CURS pollsters survey shows that 64 percent of the Romanians believe the current Government will not be able to take the country out of the downturn, while 54 percent say they live a worse or a much worse life than in the same period a year ago, Jurnalul National reports.
The recession that has brought a wave of redundancies coupled with the Government's inability to manage it has pushed the Romanians to the brink of poverty. A quarter of the CURS survey respondents say their incomes cannot even buy them the bare necessities, Evenimentul zilei reports.
Three quarters of the Romanians are merely surviving, headlines Cotidianul. The Romanians are extremely pessimistic when it comes to the current economic situation, shows a CURS poll. More than half the surveyed say Romania will emerge out of the crisis in three years or even later.
The National Institute of Medical Expertise and Labour Capacity Recovery based in Bucharest has been working hard these days, after it was discovered that there were medical networks in several counties that approved the retirement of scores of people on grounds of disability, despite being perfectly fit to work, Gandul reports.
Thus, while in December 2009 there were 923,052 pensioners having retired due to disabilities, their number was 801,722 in December 2004. The state' expenditure for the disability pensions tripled during the above-mentioned period, the daily reports. AGERPRES
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