National Press Review, February 23

In ROMÂNIA LIBERĂ we read that we stand to gain from the monumental discovery of gas in the Black Sea. In theory, this could cover 20 years of gas imports or the total consumption for three to six years.

The most important question is how will the gas price change in Romania? The specialists consulted by the newspaper say that we should not expect price reductions, because the world market tendency is to go up. Furthermore, Romania has been requested to liberalise energy prices.

But Petrom surely stands to gain, as, together with its partners, it owns the concession rights over the mining area. The company has already reported the biggest profit of a Romanian company for the year 2011.

ADEVĂRUL emphasizes that this record profit, worth over 900 million euro, comes from increasing the pump prices for fuel from 4 lei/litre in 2010 to almost 6 lei at the moment. Petrom’s argument for this increase is the increase in market quotation for oil.

EVENIMENTUL ZILEI presents an interview with the Chief of Traffic Police, Lucian Diniţă, on the new Traffic Law, analysed by the Chamber of Deputies. One of the new rules to be implemented – the introduction of a temporary driver’s license – might cause an alarming number of accidents on the roads. “There are many people driving without a license already”, Lucian Diniţă states.

The newspaper also presents a list of the main changes, including the payment of fines on-the-spot and with a receipt, a minimum education of 10 grades for the drivers, fines depending on the extent to which the speed has been exceeded and driver’s license for mopeds.

ZIARUL FINANCIAR posts the list of the largest payments made last year by the Romanian National Company of Motorways and National Roads to the “kings of the roads”.

We find out who took one fourth of the amount of money allotted for roads: Umbrărescu and Iordache have cashed in 400 million euro for road rehabilitation, maintenance and snow clearing, as well as for building 14 kilometres of motorway.

On the same topic of roads, in JURNALUL NAŢIONAL we read about the “Brilliant idea of a Romanian citizen, who has won a prize at an international competition for innovative ideas”.

Putting the idea into practice could help save billions of euro for all countries. The idea offers a solution for devising a differentiated system for taxing trucks, in accordance with the weight of the load.

Currently, there is now way of monitoring whether trucks are travelling fully loaded or with no load at all, so many trucks are travelling with an overload, putting too much pressure on the roads. Significant amounts of money would be saved, especially if we take into account that, for the last 14 years, Romania has spent 20 billion euro on road maintenance alone.

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