National Press Review, 13 December

Under the headline "Romania and Turkey change their game-play concerning the Black Sea", the România Liberă writes about the strategic partnership concluded with Turkey by President Băsescu yesterday, in Ankara.

After a long time in which the Black Sea has been seen as a Russian-Turkish affair, Ankara is now willing to move past Moscow’s bad mood, according to România Liberă.

Without Turkey there is no Nabucco or South Stream. All in all, it is good news for us and bad news for the Russians, the newspaper states.

From the Ziarul Financiar we find out what Chief Erste Andreas Treichl thinks about the austerity measures applied by the Romanian government: "brutal, unimaginable in the Western world".

The wages in the public sector have been cut back by 25 percent, the VAT has suffered an increase, and all this, without a single day of strike.

People from Eastern Europe are “used to brutality”, this is why they are better equipped to face the crisis. Treichl estimates that our country is already on the way to recovery.

On the other hand, in the Jurnalul Naţional we read "The Apocalypse of Moody: The money crisis in Europe might affect Romania severely. BNR calms us down": there is no risk for the Romanian government to become unable to finance its debt. The rating agency claims that our country will be affected by a decrease in export demand, a slowdown of foreign investments and an increase in the lending price for the euro.

In the Adevărul: "We are preparing ourselves for Force Majeure in the supply of gas” if temperatures are too low this winter. Transgaz will implement the Force Majeure clause, through which some plants will be disconnected in order to supply the population. According to the prognoses, in January the temperatures will drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius, minus 20 degrees Celsius, respectively. The hard winter might result in an import rate increase which will eventually lead to enormous bills, because import gases are three times more expensive than Romanian gases.

The Evenimentul Zilei resumes the summary on the investigation uncovering a network infesting the hospitals in Bucharest, after yesterday’s edition has been bought in bulk from kiosks. The investigation refers to a chain of providers who are constantly awarded contracts with hospitals under the authority of the Bucharest Town Hall. According to the journalists, the chain leads to Mayor Sorin Oprescu. He has categorically denied the accusations.

Under the headline "The Romanians at the South Pole under threat of starvation", the Adevărul writes about the brave expedition of two Romanian men to the harshest places on earth. Mountain climber Coco Galescu and a millionaire from Banat, Romeo Duca, are close to achieving a Romanian first: only one day left before reaching the 3 000 metre high plateau at the South Pole by skies.

The newspaper presents the adventures they have experienced so far in their travel, which, due to the various problems encountered, has turned into “a caravan of suffering”, as the mountain climbers themselves call it in their last post.

Translated by: Cristina Baciu
MA Student MTTLC, Bucharest University