|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 8/03/2008 |
| (2008-03-07) |
| Last updated: 2008-03-10 13:48 EET |
On Tuesday the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest, which in this case plays the role of decision maker, approved the law on the introduction of the uninominal voting system, which provides for the election of MPs and county council presidents in one single round of voting . This comes after years of delays and scandals. Starting with the legislative elections due this autumn, deputies and senators will be elected only in uninominal colleges. The number of votes won by a party will proportionally correspond to the number of mandates that party obtains in parliament. A deputy will represent 70 thousand Romanians, and a senator some 160 thousand. Parties will be represented in parliament if they can achieve the 5 % electoral threshold, or if their candidates win 6 deputy mandates and three senator mandates. The electoral threshold for alliances ranges between 8 and 10%, depending on the number of constituent parties.
Romania will become one of the key European car producers and the biggest in central and eastern Europe, according to prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu. On Tuesday, he visited the Geneva car show, where the Romanian car maker Dacia, a branch of the French group Renault, launched the Sandero model. It will be produced by the Pitesti-based factory in southern Romania as of June, and will sell for a maximum 9,500 Euros, full options. Also on Tuesday, Romanian deputies passed the law on the privatisation of another Romanian company, Automobile Craiova, after a majority share package was purchased by the American company Ford Motors, which will invest some 675 million Euros in the factory. Annual production is estimated to exceed 200,000 cars. Following Renault and Ford, the Japanese car maker Mitsubishi has showed interest in investing in Romania. The Japanese company is analysing the possibility of opening a production unit.
Romanian education, which was highly regarded and yielded impressive results long ago, has been faced with many problems for years, which is why it needs to be modernised. Romanian president, Traian Basescu and the leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties have taken the first steps in an effort to solve these problems and signed a National Pact for education - a document which guarantees the observance of a long term strategy. The hope is that in 5 years’ time, education in Romania will be brought into line with other EU countries in terms of performance. The signatories have pledged to monitor the modernisation of the educational system and the relevant institutions by annually allotting a minimum of 6% of the GDP to education, and 1% to research. They also commit to making efforts for the instatement of 10 years of compulsory education and to guaranteeing free access to education until high-school graduation.
The Romanian government has approved the first budget revision this year, meant to reduce the budget deficit to 2.3% of the GDP. The budget has been reduced by 1.1 billion Euros, the defence, health, transport and agriculture ministries being most affected. Public institutions will no longer be able to purchase equipment, furniture and cars, and fewer people will be hired, based on a tougher selection criteria. Finance minister Varujan Vosganian has however given assurances that important projects and the salaries of state employees will not be affected. Trade unions have however vehemently criticised the decision made by the government and threatened to initiate protests.
At a time when everyone is trying to ensure the security of their national energy resources, the importance of realising the Nabucco project, which aims at reducing the EU’s dependency on Russian gas, is increasingly obvious, for Romania included. Estimated to cost some 5 billion Euros and covering some 3,300 km, the gas pipeline is to link the Middle East and the Caspian region to Europe, via Turkey and avoiding Russia. 6 countries have already become associated with the Nabucco project - Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria and Germany. The project was debated by Romanian officials and their Turkish and Austrian counterparts, who paid a visit to Bucharest. President Abdullah Gul has said that Nabucco is very important for his country and that Ankara wants it to be carried out as soon as possible. The same opinion is shared by Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The two officials have said the two countries want to set up a strong regional company, in the field of oil and natural gas in the central and east European region, to face competition and provide good prices for energy products.
The European Commission has pledged to support Romania in the case of the Ukrainian Bastroe canal in the Danube Delta, and has called on Kiev to abide by the international law. In January, Ukraine notified Bucharest that it would start works to turn the canal into a navigable canal. Romania, the European Commission, the US and numerous international ecological watchdogs have repeatedly warned that the Bistroe canal could irreversibly damage the ecological balance in this area, unique in Europe. The Danube Delta, which is included in the UNESCO heritage list, mostly lies on Romanian territory.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again