National Press Review, 31 August

‘Băsescu warns kings of asphalt’ –the România Liberă headlined.

The December 31st deadline for the motorway Bucharest-Ploieşti - ‘mission impossible’, the newspaper quoted the president himself.

Four months prior to the opening of the motorway, there are problems with moving the utilities, unfinished bridges and the access of the material on site. Moreover, there are sectors where the state of completion is below 10%.

The builders are the so-called ‘kings of asphalt,’ which won the contract in 2006, with the intervention of President Băsescu, who then asked the minister of Transports, Radu Berceanu, to give Romanian builders a chance, the România Liberă noted.

The Jurnalul Naţional conducted an overview of the critical situation of the Romanian Railways (CFR). For repairing the wagons, the company provided 12 million euros. Meanwhile, the 230 million euros, the European funds allocated since 2008 to purchase new rolling stock, seem unattainable.

Why? Because the state budget should have provided half of the funding, about 115 million euros. Instead of opting for the purchase of new units and wagons out of European investments, the CFR chose to spend tens of millions per year to repair the old material. And the company's debts rose two thousand times in the past decade, reaching 1% of the GDP.

The Evenimentul Zilei announces tougher conditions for the promotion of judges. Magistrates will no longer accede to the Supreme Court by a simple interview. They will take an exam and will have to have a clean criminal record. The bill containing these provisions is to be voted by the Senate by the end of September.

The România Liberă made a careful evaluation in order to find out, quote: ‘How much agricultural Romania costs.’ The first observation was that the price for a hectare of land is small in comparison to other European countries, but it is acceptable if we relate it to the economic reality of our country. According to the Agriculture minister, Valeriu Tabără, Romania has 8.4 million hectares of plough land.

If, hypothetically, all the agricultural land would be sold and one hectare would be bought at an average price of 2,500 euros, all agricultural Romania would cost only 21 billion euros. Experts said that for the moment, the solution is not selling the land, whose value would increase in future, but its lease.

‘Confidence in national economy, falling again’ – we learn from the Adevărul, which published a survey conducted ​​by the European Commission on Romanian employers. Thus, the heads of companies in Romania declared that the industry, services, trade and constructions will fall short in the third quarter. The largest decline is expected of the managers in the field of services, given that the demand is dropping, and the market could not afford an increase of the prices. Of course, this is good news for consumers, as the companies will no longer operate price increases, because they are aware of the low level the Romanians’ purchasing power has reached.

The same newspaper announced, quote: ‘Brussels: financial state of emergency in Europe.’ After a month of vacation, the European institutions resumed the debates about the debt crisis of the Member States.

The European Central Bank President, Jean Claude Trichet, called for all euro area countries to respect their commitments regarding the debt crisis and to accelerate the implementation of the anti-crisis measures. ‘We expect the governments of the Member States to strictly observe the principles of budgetary discipline and surveillance.’ – Trichet said.

In turn, the Commissioner for Monetary Affairs warned that short-term growth prospects of the EU economy had worsened compared to the spring forecast.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University