National Press Review, November 9

The Danube Summit - the main topic these days – held yesterday, in Bucharest – is thoroughly debated in today’s newspapers.

‘A treaty for the future of our relationship with Chişinău’ – that is how Evenimentul Zilei describes the document concerning the state border regime that was signed yesterday by Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

The treaty – underlines the Bucharest newspaper – discourages the statements regarding Romania’s alleged ‘irredentist agenda’.

Adevărul emphasizes the fact that the signature of the treaty has been announced neither by our officials nor by the officials from across Prut, but by the Portuguese Jose Manuel Barosso, the President of the European Committee.

‘Barosso tells us what treaties Romania is signing these days’ – writes Adevărul, which also make reference to Teodor Baconski’s statement, the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, according to which he allowed the European official to make the announcement out of courtesy.

Barosso’s visit to Bucharest led to another topic: “Romania and the Schengen Area”.

Gândul: the CE president promises us that we will enter the Schengen Area if we meet all the technical criteria, but reminds us that there are states that wish to tie Romania’s entry in the European space without borders to the reforms in the justice department.

România Liberă emphasizes the latter aspect under the headline: ‘Justice, a barometer for Schengen.’

Barosso warns us that some countries want to see concrete results as far as the reform is concernedd.

Anyway, referring to the actual work of the summit, Jurnalul Naţional describes the Danube as‘a river of gold’ for Romania.

Almost 100 billion euros will enter the piggy bank of the littoral states. The development of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region – explains Jurnalul Naţional – would also involve creating jobs in many regions on the river bank.

There is something else in today’s press worth remembering. ‘When will the economic crisis be over in Romania?’ This time, România Liberă is looking for the answer not with ministries or bankers, but with people who are directly engaged in economy: the heads of the companies.

Out of three managers, one thinks that the crisis will be over next year, the second thinks the exact opposite and the third does not even dare to guess, being content with the fact that his company manages to stay afloat.

We close this article with the debate in today’s Evenimentul Zilei: ‘Health care without paying for it with your own money.’

The insurants benefit from fewer and fewer medical services.

To put it this way, you pay for insurances and cannot even tell – states the newspaper, which analyzes the situation in two pages, writes about the Canadian model or the solutions found closer to our country, in Hungary and proposes, at least, a different handling of the little money taken from the insurants.

Translated by: Iris Butnariu and Raluca Mizdrea

MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University