Romanian media on Tuesday hails the official nomination of the country’s future European Commissioner, which puts an end to a scandal that tainted the image of the political class in Bucharest. Newspapers today also look into a wave of Westerners flowing into Romania and fills in the blanks with new reports of shady deals and moves in the local economy.
“Habemus comisar”, proclaims Jurnalul National, reporting that Romania finally gets a candidate for a seat in the Brussels Commission who falls within the profile of a valid European official.
He is Leonard Orban, a state secretary with the EU Integration Ministry in Bucharest, whose nomination was confirmed by EC President Jose Manuel Barroso officially yesterday and who is now waiting for the final stamp of approval from the European Parliament.
Gandul focuses on Orban’s new portfolio, that of Commissioner for Culture, Education and Multilingualism, with special focus on the latter.
And the newspaper notes that while European commissioners named by the CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 had six months to prepare for hearings in the European Parliament, Orban and Bulgaria’s nominee Meglena Kuneva have less than a month.
Cotidianul believes the portfolio of multilingualism is less important than those speculated so far - migration or customs union - and notes that European Socialists who argued against the first Romanian nominee Senator Varujan Vosganian, forced to withdraw last weekend, are now much more pleased with Orban.
And Evenimentul Zilei explains what the multilingualism portfolio means - policies that provide access for EU citizens to documents translated in all 22 EU languages and programs to promote these policies.
Meanwhile, the newspapers also take special interests in the goods and bads of EU accession.
The same Evenimentul Zilei reports that the number of real estate transactions in the SE region of Dobrogea, close to the Romanian coast at the Black Sea, has been increasing as Italians are taking special interest in expanding their agricultural properties here.
Cotidianul tackles the inflow of Westerners backwards: it writes that Romanian professionals take the place of Scots, Englishmen and Spaniards in the offices of multinational companies in Romania, as the firms are trying to cut costs by moving their activities to the country.
And yet another angle from the same Cotidianul: a new scandal is about to affect Romania as the future EU member has the right to two judges in the European Court of Justice.
A candidate for such a job, the head of the Open Society Foundation in Bucharest, Renate Weber, publicly claimed a lack of transparency in the contest for the two seats as rules were changed along the way.
For its part, Jurnalul National publishes a document of the Antifraud Office of the Romanian Government that draws the profile of crime groups specialized in fraud with EU funds.
And it reports that over the past several years local officials across the country became experts in fraudulently use such funds, delivered to PHARE, SAPARD and other EU programs.
And Gandul looks south and reports that President Traian Basescu got angry at a Turkish investor who, during a seminar, complained about the lack of continuity in the Romanian tax control system as well as about the effects of political tensions on the business environment in the country.
Basescu replied with what Gandul calls a diplomatic blunder, loughing out that „eventually we will ask the Army to guarantee political stability, just like in Turkey”.
HotNews.ro, Oct 31, 2006
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