Romania: Press review - March 15
Mar 15, 2010

Romania: Press review - March 15.
Bucharest, March 15 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Monday give main coverage to the talks with the parliamentary parties called by President Traian Basescu with respect to modifications to the constitution; an optimistic outlook of the Romanian economy's re-start shared by Economy Minister Adriean Videanu; signs of renewed confidence in the Romanian economy showed by the international financial market; and a wave of unions' protests announced for the current period.

The President and the parties on Monday start lengthy talks that might fundamentally change the rules by which the state functions, Romania libera comments. Deputy Sever Voinescu from the ruling Democratic Liberals (PD-L) argues that a bi-polar two-party system - a leftist and a right-wing party respectively - would be harmful because it would set up an oligarchy, the daily reports. PD-L member of European Parliament Cristian Preda last week unveiled his stance on the constitution revision, with one of the planks allowing the head of state to dissolve Parliament in case of a political stalemate, but he does not agree with dismantling the upper Senate house, which instead he sees as turning into a Chamber of the Regions, Curierul National reports.

The local elected officials in the central Romanian counties of Harghita, Covasna and Mures, where the ethnic Hungarians form a majority, voted for making Hungarian the official language of the self-styled Szeklers' Land. The Hungarian radicals got a reply from the Romanian radicals on Sunday. Some 100 persons marched in the central-western Cluj-Napoca, the event being staged by the New Right group. Administration and Interior Minister Vasile Blaga commented the events by telling Gandul 'Romania has other problems to solve, more important problems - a serious economic crisis first and foremost'.

Foreign direct investment in Romania dropped 3.7 times or by 73.1 percent in this January from the last down to 302 million euros, with the current account deficit being fully financed by the direct investments of Romanian non-residents, Curierul National quotes the National Bank of Romania as saying. Managing director of the National Employers Confederation Cristian Parvan said that January in general is not too an attractive month for investors, but stressed such drop registered in the first month of the year should 'make us more careful'.

Economy Minister Adriean Videanu announced the Romanian economy will make a re-start in the coming months, mainly relying his anticipation on the manner that the domestic industrial output developed in the last four months; he calls for confidence in the Romanian economy, that has again become interesting to investors, the Bucharest-based dailies report.

The one billion euros that Romania got by its five-year eurobonds issue last Thursday will be blocked at the IMF recommendation in order to set up a buffer fund at the State Treasury to allow the country to avoid seasonal pressures on the budget deficit financing, Ziarul financiar reports. The Romanian Government pledged such a move in a letter of intent sent the international lender in early February, on the basis of which the third and fourth loan instalments were disbursed totalling 2.45 billion euros, the daily adds.

Financiarul reports that the loans drawn by Romania in the last period come at reduced costs due to boosted confidence in the national economy. The 5 percent interest to last Thursday's eurobonds issue by which Romania borrowed one billion euros from the international markets is a record. Furthermore, the average yield of the government bonds has reached 6.73 percent per annum, close to the 2007 low.

Romania, by the end of February, had absorbed a meagre 2.2 percent of the European funds it has available by 2013, Gandul announces. Romania absorbed roughly 480 million euros from the European-funded projects over Feb. 2009 - Feb. 2010, out of which 10.8 million euros was from the state budget. This is the total amount having actually reached the beneficiaries; this compares to 6.1 billion euros, which is the value of 2,900 projects approved during this span, according to statistic figures made public by the Finances Ministry.

The public workers and the students threaten to start social protests, Monday's print media announces. The unionists, although certain they will not be able to convince several million people to stage street protests, threaten the Government to block activity in the entire public sector, Evenimentul zilei writes. The biggest students' federation in Romania - the National Students Union - on Monday beings a range of week-long daily protests in front of the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport. There will be simultaneous student protests on Wednesday in other university cities: Craiova, Timisoara, Iasi, Bacau, Resita, Targu Jiu, Brasov, Galati, Petrosani and Ploiesti, Cotidianul reports.

Work can kill you, the Romanian national papers write on Monday with respect to the death of a young Romanian who worked at a multinational company. Ramona Ciciu, 34, apparently died from the stress generated by an overload of work, her family says, adding she had been working exaggeratedly to prove she deserved the promotion she had got three months ago. 'Fatigue is never a direct cause of death, but it can be one of the factors conducive to disease', Libertatea quotes Doctor Bogdan Popescu, the Bucharest University Hospital spokesman as saying.

The Health Ministry does no longer want to see people on a sick leave who are not really sick, since it says more than 200 million euros spent on sick leave is unbearable; therefore, it plans measures to cut this expenditure by having 'representatives for the benefit payers and the police' calling in unexpectedly on those on sick pay, Ziarul financiar reports. The provisions are included in a draft act put forward to public debate in the ministry. According to the draft law, the sick persons who are not at home when being paid such a visit will lose the health insurance benefit relevant to the sick leave, Cotidianul reports. AGERPRES
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