National Press Review, 1 September

The state of the Romanian health system and the second session of the Baccalaureate, with many candidates leaving before the end of the mathematics examination, are main topics in the newspapers of the day.

20% of the losses in the Romanian medical system are caused by corruption and fraud.

The România Liberă publishes today five reasons why there is no money in the health system.

The first of them: the fraudulent procurement of medical equipment and the unnecessary medical prescriptions of expensive and original drugs over others with the same effects, but cheaper.

Next, in the ‘hit parade’, the ‘infected’ money from the national health programmes, the unjustified outsourcing of some services by some hospitals and the overstatement of the costs for the rehabilitation or construction of health facilities.

Nineteen ministers of health in twenty years – the România Liberă counts. All have vowed to fight to reduce losses, but the system remains as corrupt and inefficient as always.

Baccalaureate 2011, session two – the written test in mathematics is over, but ‘with absences and blank answering sheets’ – the Jurnalul Naţional notes.

The assignments determined the candidates to leave the examination rooms in great numbers. They complained – the Adevărul writes – that the tasks had been even more difficult than in summer. ‘Candidates can’t pass the maturity test because of mathematics’ – the Evenimentul Zilei also headlines, while arguing that this year’s Baccalaureate means a EUR 50 million disaster to the universities.

The school tax revenues obtained from first year students will drop significantly, the lecture rooms will be empty, many... university shops will go bankrupt - the Evenimentul Zilei predicts.

The two-page analysis entitled ‘Romania loses fight with Bulgaria’ opens today’s issue of the Adevărul. We go on holiday on the Bulgarian coast, we register our cars and we move our companies to Ruse. How does Bulgaria succeed in getting the better of us in almost anything?

The Adevărul replies: lower taxes, permissive legislation and a stable economic policy are strengths that Bulgarians rely on in the ‘war’ from a distance with Romanians.

The cultural event of the day (actually of the year) in Romania is the start of the George Enescu Festival, which reached its 20th edition. The Jurnalul Naţional comes out today with a substantial supplement of 16 pages, entitled ‘The Festival’s Agenda’, at the start of the event that its director, Ioan Holender, called ‘a luminous and bright symbol.’

‘Enescu is our great maestro’ – the Jurnalul Naţional publishes the statement of Christian Badea, who will be conducting the opening concert tonight. The newspaper begins by publishing a brief history of the event, starting with the first edition 53 years ago, but also noting the novelty of this years’ edition: the competition is to include a section for cello (in addition to piano and violin). Although the cello competition is a ‘premiere’, the number of entries exceeded the expectations.

Translated by Iulia Florescu and Ruxandra Câmpeanu
MA students, MTTLC, University of Bucharest