National Press Review, February 21

“The lack of effort to restructure Europe is raising our bills”. România Liberă offers proof that authorities and private companies are charging the bill with unnecessary expenditures which are supposedly required for maintaining an unjustifiably large plant capacity of over 20.4 GW. Capacities which will never be turned on are being maintained in official records.

These capacities are neither functioning nor providing power; many of them are incomplete, but swallow large amounts of money because they require protection and maintenance under specific conditions. In addition to wasting money, another negative effect is that investors are surprised by the figures and decide to leave.

On another note, Jurnalul Naţional gives us good news from the power sector: “The smart guys have surrendered.” The traders have accepted higher prices – from 130 to 155-166 lei/MWh – the price estimated by ANRE. The country’s largest consumer, Alro, has also accepted a higher price.

On the same topic, Ziarul Financiar tells us that “Petrom has won 1.1 billion euro on the stock exchange market since the start of the year”, and tomorrow it will report a record net profit for Romania: between 850 and 900 billion euro. According to specialists cited by the newspaper, the increase of the oil price opens the possibility for an even bigger profit in the following years.

In Adevărul we read that “One and a half billion euro from the medical system have been lost”. According to the Court of Auditors’ report, the black hole is the National Health Insurance House computer system, which has been poorly designed and poorly implemented.

The contract did not fully comply with the legal provisions and expenditures were inflated. Barely a month has passed since its inauguration and the application has turned the National Health Insurance House activities into chaos.

“A little make-over after the snow has been cleared”, România Liberă writes. The snowmelt is paving the way for new business at the expense of taxpayers’ money. The Romanian National Company of Motorways and National Roads must come up with a minimum of 25 billion euro for filling up the equivalent of 375 kilometres of road, because last autumn the Company did not seal the cracks in the road, which over the winter have become fully developed holes due to frost.

The front page of Evenimentul Zilei announces that the new Prime Minister, Mihai Rãzvan Ungureanu, has landed first place in a CSOP poll researching the level of trust in politicians. Ungureanu is like a “locomotive” for the Liberal Democratic Party as well, increasing its percentage rate to 20. The Liberal Social Union still occupies first place with under 50 percent.

From Adevărul we find out “What Greek society looks like under bankruptcy”. Daily life is increasingly difficult and the money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund will not help a great deal. Over three million Greek people are living below poverty level, according to Eurostat. Trading food instead of money, tens of thousands of people are now homeless and eating in canteens for the poor.

Translated by:
Cristina Baciu, MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University