Romania: Press review - March 3
Mar 3, 2010

Romania: Press review - March 3.
Bucharest, March 3 /Agerpres/ - The parliamentary disputes between the ruling and the opposition parties, the initiation of some censure motions in the time to come by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), the resumption of the idea of the compulsory vote and the launch of the Duster SUV at the Geneva Motor Show are subjects elaborated on by the central dailies on Wednesday, March 3.

The Boc Government has image problems and this is why the Head of State avoids appearing in public. The leaders of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L) say the 'bad communication' is to blame. One of the reasons for which President Basescu has not appeared in public of late is the poor image of the Boc Government, with which he does not want to be associated, sources of the PD-L leadership told daily Jurnalul National. The bricks dropped by Labour Minister Seitan and Finance Minister Vladescu, which had a negative influence in the image of the government and the party, actually caused numerous quarrels and much dissatisfaction within PD-L too in the past few weeks, reads Jurnalul National daily.

The senators that left PSD and PNL and joined the power by means of the independents' group will be expelled from the commissions they were working on, the opposition thus starting to be in the majority here. The decision was made on Tuesday by the heads of the Senate, through the majority vote of PSD and PNL, on the basis of a report drawn up by the legal commission, which ruled that it was impossible for the senators who turned independent to go on working on the commissions to which they had been appointed by the parties they belonged to until not long ago, inform the newspapers on Wednesday.

The power on Tuesday had Parliament pass its bill on preserving the positions of the party clientele in the institutions in the provinces. The opposition contests the vote and appeals to the Constitutional Court. The Democrat Liberals did their best to make Parliament approve their law that enables them to preserve the positions in the provinces for the political clientele, which it described as public servants, reads newspaper Evenimentul zilei.

Sebastian Vladescu dismissed the heads of the deconcentrated services on Friday and employed them again on Saturday. Nobody can explain the mystery of two orders issued by the Ministry of Finance, which caused panic to the PD-L members in the provinces. Yesterday things came back 'to normal' in Parliament, says Gandul daily.

The draft law on the status of the public servants adopted by the Chamber of Deputies were to set things right in the deconcentrated institutions. The new law stipulates that the heads appointed by Premier Emil Boc stay in power. In the provinces there are instances in which the dismissed managers won the case in court, reads daily Adevarul under the headline 'We Pay Several Managers Holding One Single Position.'

Vice-leader of the PNL deputies Eugen Nicolaescu said on Tuesday that the Liberals would table a simple motion on health in about two weeks and a month later they would table another simple motion on the business environment depending on the moment they will launch the changes of the Fiscal Code. The PNL deputy explained that the Liberals found that 'the budget allocated to health in 2010 would be enough till the month of June at latest,' reads Gandul newspaper.

Victor Ponta, PSD chairman, wants every citizen not casting his vote in the general, local or presidential elections to be fined. And he also wants voting to become compulsory. Political analysts either do not like Ponta's idea or are the supporters of the compulsoriness of exercising one's fundamental right to elect or even oppose it. PNL Deputy Adriana Saftoiu launched this idea as far back as last year, before the presidential election, informs Cotidianul newspaper.

The Duster SUV, which was launched on Tuesday at the Geneva Motor Show, will increase the production in Romania and will ensure sales of 250,000 cars, informs daily Ziarul Financiar. Jerome Oliver, managing director of Dacia, said on this occasion that the above-mentioned model had in its genes (the commercial attributes taken up from the models developed on the Logan platform) the qualities meant to make it succeed.

The subsidiary Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd. form Great Britain, which is entirely owned by the Russian energy producing giant Gazprom, got the right to trade electric power on the bilateral contract market on the OPCOM energy stock exchange in Romania. This move comes shortly after the second most important man of Gazprom, Aleksandr Medvedev, was in Bucharest to negotiate for the expansion of the Russian company in Romania, informs daily Financiarul.

Other states' debts to Romania, which come from the contracts concluded before 1989 with 13 states, still top 1.2 billion dollars, to which one must add another 2 billion transferable roubles Cuba owes us, reads daily Bursa. AGERPRES
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