National Press Review, March 30

“List of compensated drugs compiled in the offices of drug companies”, we read in ROMÂNIA LIBERÃ. Our country is the only one in Europe allotting as much money for medication as for hospitals. The state has no other available sources to collect money from. Why, then, does it waste it on expensive drugs? The answer offered by the authorities: the situation cannot be solved “on paper” because the system works “by itself”. You cannot deduct the allotted amounts of money. The same number of physicians will write the same number of prescriptions to the same number patients.

“For five years, Renault has been requesting the rehabilitation of a 7-kilometre-road, while Morocco is already building a highway for the company”, ZIARUL FINANCIAR writes. The road has not been completed, although, within that time span, the Romanian National Company of Motorways and National Roads has had a budget of ten billion euro for infrastructure. Ford has also been anxiously waiting for five years for a belt highway in Craiova to be completed, as well as the roads leading to the plant.

JURNALUL NAŢIONAL writes that Victor Ponta, the President of the Social Democratic Party, has announced that next week the opposition will put into action the decision to remove Roberta Anastase from the Chamber of Deputies due to “serious violations of the Regulation”; he foresees a successful outcome. The Social Liberal Union practically owns the majority in the Senate.

According to a quick count of the journalists from EVENIMENTUL ZILEI, “Geoanã is the rule maker in the Senate”. Paradoxically, the governing party is on the verge of losing the majority, which does not necessarily mean that these votes will go to the opposition. The majority depends entirely on independent senator Mircea Geoanã. In the end, the governing party might prove incapable of holding a single meeting even with Geoanã at their side, and the opposition will still not obtain the majority without him and will remain on strike.

“How dangerous is the extraction of shale gases”? ROMÂNIA LIBERÃ offers some pros and cons. The Chevron representatives have promised to provide results of research studies which aim at proving that the shale gas is a type of “clean energy”. The upside is that it would contribute to a massive cutback in the number of imports, like in the United States, where shale gas is used on a large scale. The downside, however, is that the groundwater could become contaminated during the mining process.

“The Căncescu Baron has directed two million euro on his way in order to serve his own interests”, we find out from EVENIMENTUL ZILEI. Aristotel Cãncescu, President of the County Council of Brașov, is being investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate for abuse of office and peculation. He illegally “invested” public money into a private sports club, which, in the meantime, has become bankrupt. This case is a relapse: Cãncescu has another open file at the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for trafficking twenty-four radio licenses, which resulted in damages worth six million lei.

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