More Romanians pledge
to leave country and work abroad
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Romanians are set to continue leaving
the country to work abroad, postponing
Government predictions that EU membership,
rising salaries and an improved
quality of life would attract Romanians
back to their home country to fi ll the
worker deficit.
About one in six Romanian families
have at least one member who intends to
emigrate in the next 12 months, according
to research conducted by the National
Institute for Scientific Research in Labour
and Social Protection sand pollster
CURS.
Currently, 11.3 per cent of Romanian
families have at least one member working
and living in another country. Almost
twice as many Romanians in the countryside
than in the city have decided to
live abroad. Moldavia, Banat and Dobrogea
are the regions most affected.
Romania will experience a defi cit of
400,000 workers by 2013, according to
the National Commission of Prognosis.
At least two million Romanians are
currently living abroad, from which only
250,000 people are working legally. Another
700,000 have decided to emigrate
on their own for periods longer than one
year. A further 700,000 to 800,000 Romanians
left Romania to have short-term
working contracts in other countries
Five years of Court of Accounts judgements declared illegal
Romania’s Court of Accounts has been
functioning for fi ve years as a court
house even though it does not have the
right to judge.
Only last month a Parliamentary
Commission started investigating the activity
of the Court of Accounts, the highest
institution of fi nancial regulation in
Romania. The court is only empowered
to investigate public spending, draw up
reports and give recommendations to a
court or prosecutors.
The members of the Court of Accounts
are not qualifi ed to act as magistrates.
Until 2003, this institution operated
as a court house specialised in
finance, with the power to judge financial
litigations. In the same year the revised
Constitution was approved, stating that
the Court of Accounts is no longer part
of the Romanian justice system. Nevertheless,
some members of the Court of
Accounts continued to give verdicts.
Hundreds of lawsuits risk annulment.
Both the Supreme Council of Magistrates
and the Constitutional Court have said
the members of the Court of Accounts
cannot make judgements.
Ukraine shelves plan to build
canal near Danube
Ukraine has stopped work on the Bystroe
Canal, which is designed to connect the
Danube River to the Black Sea through
the Danube Delta.
The decision was taken four years after
Ukraine started building the canal, a
project which has caused political tension
between Bucharest and Kiev.
Romania, the European Commission
and other states in the region have voiced
concerns over the high risks of damage to
the natural reservation.
The Romanian Minister of Environment
Attila Korodi said that Ukraine’s
decision may have something to do with
the country’s aspiration to join the EU.
The Danube Delta reserve is a protected
UNESCO World Heritage area with
rare plants, birds and fi sh species.
An Ukrainian offi cial, present in
Bucharest last May at the reunion of the
Espoo Convention on Environmental
Impact Assessment, said that Kiev will
restart the works only after it fulfi lls
its obligations as an Espoo Convention
member state. All the countries in this ‘club’ must consult one another to make a
decision on a major environmental issue.
Sweden and US caught in
defence deal dog fight
Sweden’s fi ghter plane Gripen is battling
with the USA’s F16 to win a 3.5 billion
Euro contract with the Romanian state to
buy 48 fi ghter planes.
This purchase is part of Romania’s
obligation to NATO to modernise its air
fl eet to make it compatible with the Alliance’s
planes.
The decision on which planes to buy
will be taken in the Romanian National
Defence Council (CSAT), the highest security
body in the country, which includes
the President, Prime Minister, some cabinet
members and heads of the secret services.
Competing producers are the Swedish
SAAB and the US Lockheed Martin. Italian
Alenia Aeronautica, French Dassaud
and the US Boeing are also in the race.
But it is not as simple as picking the
best deal, as the winning company will
probably have to counter-invest its own
cash in the Romanian aerospace industry,
such as buying one of the state’s underfunded
aerospace companies.
“The main thing is the off-set programme
that comes with the contract,
which will be a lot of money,” says Bucharest’s
Swedish Ambassador Mats Aberg.
Last month, the Pentagon announced
to the US Congress that it would possibly
sell several F16 planes to Romania. This
news forced Swedish company SAAB to
start pressurising the Romanian Government
to make a decision.
The next day, SAAB announced it
would no longer bid for the privatisation
of Romanian aerospace producer Avioane
Craiova.
Short News
Commissioner in hot water over
campaign video
European Commissioner Leornard Orbanhas appeared in a campaign video of his
brother Ludovic, who has been running
for the National Liberal Party to become
Mayor of Bucharest. Commissioners are
forbidden to take political sides or appear in
campaign videos, unless the EC President
Jose Barroso gives permission. Leonard
Orban did not ask for approval to appear in
the video. But brother Ludovic defended his
sibling’s cameo. “This is just a biographical
video that refl ects a reality and in which
my brother does not say ‘Vote for Ludovic
Orban!’,” the Liberal candidate told daily
Evenimentul Zilei.
Tariceanu blasts failure to spend
cash on education
Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu
has criticised the poor administration of his
Ministry of Education’s funds for failing to
allocate cash to schools and universities.
This year the institution’s budget received
the highest percentage of GDP since 1990
- six per cent. “The Ministry of Education
and Research has the most defi cient spending,”
Tariceanu said in a meeting with the
students at the Academy of Economic
Studies in Bucharest.
Nastase hits back at bribe claim
A UK duty-free operator is suing the Romanian
state in an international tribunal in
Washington DC, in a bribe case allegedly
involving former Prime Minister Adrian
Nastase, the Financial Times has reported.
Eastern Duty Free (EDF) is taking legal
action at the World Bank’s International
Centre for the Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID) claiming 75 million Euro
in damages for the loss of two contracts for
duty-free sales at Bucharest Otopeni airport
and on airline Tarom. EDF alleges that
between 2001 and 2002 it was approached
by offi cials working for then Prime Minister
Adrian Nastase demanding a 2.5 million
USD bribe to retain contracts it had
won in 1992 and 1996. When the company
refused to pay, it claims it was forced out of
the business. Nastase expressed “shock and
dismay” at the article. “I am not aware of
any illegal acts of the Romanian Government
or of members of any governmental
agency being perpetrated in relation with
the business of Eastern Duty Free company,”
he said in a letter.
National Integrity Agency fails to
mobilise for elections
Romania’s new National Integrity Agency
(ANI) and its 15 agents have been incapable
of verifying the 60,000 wealth declarations
of the candidates running in local elections
this month. ANI was an institution set up
at the request of the European Commission
to monitor the wealth declarations of public
fi gures. The Agency was supposed to start
functioning in October 2007. When the
Government allocated the funds for ANI,
it was already too late for the institution to
operate in due time for the local elections.
President of ANI Alexandru Macovei told
the BBC that the Agency needs to hire 200
people to function properly.
Becali: accused of bribing football
club to take dive
Gigi Becali, president of New Generation
Party (PNG) and the fi nancier of football
club Steaua is accused of attempting to
bribe the president of club Universitatea
Cluj Anton Dobos. Teia Sponte, one of Becali’s
right-hand men, was caught carrying
a bag with 1.7 million Euro on his way to
meet Dobos, the National Anti-corruption
Department (DNA) stated in a press release.
The next day the fi nal match of the
Romanian Championship was set to take
place between Steaua and Universitatea
Cluj and Becali was alleged to have been
bribing the club to take a dive. After being
questioned by prosecutors, Sponte left
the country. “This is my money, I do what
I want with it and I am not scared of the
DNA,” said Becali. The football fi nancier
denied the bribe attempt.
Basescu: not an anti-Communist
President Traian Basescu said last month
that he would “never dare to consider myself
an anti-communist”, but that he would
continue to fi ght to reveal the whole truth
about the Communist regime. After making
this vague statement, he underlined
that the structures of the former Communist
regime no longer function in Romania.
“I will not accept that 50 years of Communism
remain hidden, because we heal as
the truth comes to light,” Basescu said. The
head of state has been accused of being an
informer for the Securitate, the former
Communist-era secret police, while he was
working as a ship’s commander before the
Revolution in 1989.
