Romania: Press review - March 16.
Bucharest, March 16 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Tuesday give main coverage to the start of President Traian Basescu's talks with the parliamentary parties on the 2003 constitution revision, Romania's prospects to attain the economic growth targets set for this year and the agenda of the unions protests to be staged in spring.
Since the independent MPs also attended the talks with President Traian Basescu on Monday, although the invitation had been extended to the parliamentary parties, the opposition walked out of the meeting at the Cotroceni presidential Palace, leaving Basescu to discuss the revision of the constitution with the ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), the independents and the junior leadership of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR, a ruling co-partner), Jurnalul National says. The opposition Social Democrats (PSD) and National Liberals (PNL) left their proposals for the constitution modification in an envelope at Cotroceni. PSD leader Victor Ponta and PNL head Crin Antonescu walked out of the talks with Basescu, arguing that the independents should not take part in the discussions, Evenimentul zilei reports.
The opposition politely listened to Basescu's explaining his view of the modifications to the fundamental law. The president said he wants to reach a consensus on the state modernisation and pointed out he has no personal stake in the moves, since the constitution modifications will not affect his term, Gandul reports.
IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn will visit Bucharest on March 30. He will meet the Romanian authorities and will address Parliament. The main problem in Romania's observing the loan agreement is related to the arrears, the old debts amassed by the firms, for which the IMF has granted Romania a delay by the end of April, the Bucharest-based papers announce.
Romania has formally met the requirements set by the international lender in order to be disbursed the third and fourth loan tranches and 2.45 billion euros got into the State Treasury and Central Bank accounts in March. Romania also received the second one billion euro tranche from the European Commission. However, it still has to solve the issue of the arrears, for which it won a delay, namely it must cut such arrears by more than one billion lei, i.e. from 1.5 billion lei to 480 million lei by the end of the year, Gandul reports.
The economic growth target set for this year at 1.3 percent can be attained if 'the foreign markets see no additional trouble', Public Finances Minister Sebastian Vladescu is quoted by Tuesday's print media as telling a news conference. 'Any analysis at around one percent can be considered. The 1.3 percent growth can be attained by Romania if the foreign markets see no additional trouble. The Romanian economy begins to show budding signs of growth. The Romanian economy, however, cannot grow separately. Its growth is related to the global developments', Vladescu stressed.
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) holds some 11 billion euros, i.e. about a third of the total forex reserve, in foreign banks, mostly central banks in powerful economies, Ziarul financiar announces.
Although the crisis in Greece has already affected much of the euro area, thus contributing to the depreciation of the single currency, the rest of the continent shows no visible signs of this situation. Nevertheless, the analysts caution that the situation in Greece could have repercussions on Romania too, Curierul National says.
Traffic in central Bucharest will be blocked for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday due to the protests staged by the carriers' unions. More than 10,000 cars, vans, coaches and taxicabs will drive in a column in the capital. The subway workers will also go on indefinite all-out strike on Thursday, the national newspapers announce.
The Romanian unions are working on a set of methods on the European model to regulate overworking strain. The model given by the European Agency for Labour Security and Health has been followed by such countries as Belgium, Denmark and Britain for 30 years, Adevarul writes.
The announcement comes a few days after a young woman working for a Bucharest-based multinational company died allegedly from overwork; the case is being investigated by the Bucharest Local Labour Inspectorate, the papers report. AGERPRES
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