National Press Review, 1 February

The România Liberă writes ‘What our country got into by accepting fiscal treaty’.

For us it means even more austerity to meet the IMF agreement. There will be no salary and pension increases without productivity growth. First we need to attract more investment and the Romanian agriculture needs to be brought into the 21st century.

The Adevărul says that it was ‘a long summit for nothing’. The fiscal treaty was checked, but the matter of Greece and the European rescue fund increase were not approached.

Measures of economic growth and job creation remained at the level of declaration. Many officials do not agree with Merkel saying that it is a great success. Even the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti called it as ‘decorative’, according to the Adevărul.

The pact from political perspective, ‘Băsescu defeats Opposition’, the Evenimentul Zilei said.

Do you support or not the fiscal treaty of the European Union, which will help us to grow, to control debt and deficits and will remove the electoral alms? - So the journalists summarise the message of the president for the Opposition.

Traian Băsescu criticised the politicians for talking about the need to do something for the people, but on the other hand, for continuing to appoint their customers in administrations, for not reducing the auction costs and for not making the necessary investments. They buy instead ‘pansies and tulips’.

In the Ziarul Financiar: ‘Romania has borrowed 1.5 billion dollars in a few hours from Wall Street.’ It was the first outgo on the U.S. market after 16 years, and the investors wanted to fill the pockets of Romanians with the tremendous amount of 7 billion, for this much was the demand - the highest of the countries in our region.

The offered interest of 6.75 percent per annum and the 10 years term improve the profile of the external debt.

About the loan, the Jurnalul Naţional writes ‘Băsescu doesn’t practice what he preaches’. After the president said that ‘the illusion of living on credit was shattered’, Romania borrowed an additional 1.5 billion dollars.

The România Liberă gives a possible explanation to the anger of the unions in education: the financial blow they received from the Government through the order prohibiting the restraint of the union dues directly from the teachers’ payrolls.

The result is that the revenues available to the union leaders decreased drastically. Only 8 percent of teachers pay their dues, according to sources quoted by the newspaper.

Also in the Jurnalul Naţional, about the effects of frostiness, we read that ‘The State is trying to find gas with a candle’.

There is no company in Romania with the status of interruptible, so that large industrial consumers cannot be disconnected despite their record gas consumption.

The only solution is the import, because if Trasgaz declares the emergency situation, it would be sued and asked to pay the losses of the companies.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University