National Press Review, January 31

Amid the arrival of a new wave of price increases of food next month, the Gândul comes to help with a ‘map of cheap food in Romania’, thus, we find the best price for cheese in Mureş and Gorj, the cheapest pig meat in Bacău and Gorj, the cheapest potatoes in Braşov and Galaţi.

The same newspaper also puts together a list of the most toxic E’s, after translating the products` labels.

The bad news is that most food in supermarkets, and most certainly the ones that are industrially processed, have E’s is their composition.

The Adevărul investigated in several counties and reads about ‘how hard the reform is reaching hospitals’.

The abolition of several hospitals began two months ago, but the main obstacle is local pride.

Another problem that was traced was that we have many hospitals and very few doctors, which would justify the Ministry’s measure to unify departments and laboratories, thus alleviating to way to computerization of the system and making savings by reducing the positions of chief, expenses with the institutions’ accreditation, using equipment more efficiently.

‘Here is your money!’- is the headline under which the Jurnalul Naţional shows how, and I quote: ‘The Ministry of Transportation slept on four billion euros, money coming from the European Union’.

The newspaper came into possession of a document, according to which, in 2007, the company undertook to launch several infrastructure projects of 4.5 billion euros.

Three years later, the state only got invoices of 51 million euros, for the mistakes made on pre-accession funds.

The money must be returned to the constructor that the company pretended to work with – the newspaper adds.

The Gândul found out what is the climax of circulation: you build a road and sidewalks, but you don’t build the bridge that would ‘cross’ over the railway.

It is happening in Bucharest and it is about a bridge over Doamna Ghica Street, a project began in 2007, which swallowed 5.6 billion euros, after which it was abandoned.

From the Adevărul we learn that ‘Senators burn more gas than policemen.’

Last year, senators consumed on average 428 liters of gas each, monthly, while the ratio for a police car is of only one hundred liters.

The Evenimentul Zilei writes that ‘The Ministry of Economy delays the single counter for the SME’s.’

The project of the bureau, financed with european funds, will be set three months late, at least.

The companies state that the ministry’s officials haven’t done anything concrete for one year.

‘There’s too much nervous tension in the Schengen case’ - the statement belongs to the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, in an interview for the Adevărul.

He also added that in the months to come a compromise solution will be found for the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area.

‘There are 27 member states and we have to understand that it often happens to have different views, but after discussions the right decisions are taken. Nobody should be blamed, because each of us wants to solve the problems in different ways.’- the European official assured.

Today’s media does not miss, of course, the Egypt topic.

‘Egypt falls prey to chaos and can blow up the world economy’- we read in the Gândul, which explains: ‘Six days of protest have practically suppressed 5 percent of the Egypt’s GDP, as much as the tourism brings to the country, the stock markets in the Persian Gulf are dropping, and the price of oil increased with 4 percent worldwide – and reaching the maximum level of the last 28 months.’

The Evenimentul Zilei publishes an extensive interview with a Romanian diplomat who had several missions in the Arab countries and who states, I quote: ‘the risk to which the Arabian world is exposed to is that the power would fit in the hands of the Islamic terrorist organizations.’

Translated by: Manuela Stancu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University