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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 29/09-05/10/2008 |
| (2008-10-03) |
| Last updated: 2008-10-06 18:05 EET |
In Romania, 700 thousand students started a new academic year on October 1st, and another 150 thousand began their master degree programs. Romania’s President Traian Basescu has expressed his discontent with the quality of the education system, arguing that it failed to get any of the Romanian universities qualified in the world's top 500 or in Europe's top 100. The President has added that many of the foreign companies operating in Romania complained about the poor skills the young acquire in universities. In turn, students have voiced discontent as to scholarship levels, the inadequate student accommodation facilities and the excessive academic workload. Two months ahead of the general election, Parliament endorsed a 50 per cent increase of teaching staff salaries, much over the 9 per cent proposed by the Government. Pandora's box has thus been opened.
Unionists in the public sector threatened to go on strike unless their salaries are also raised by 50 per cent. Faced with this demand, finance minister Varujan Vosganian launched a warning:
“Should this measure be taken for all public sector employees, the impact on the 2009 State budget would be as follows: an increase in the total salary fund by 21 billion lei, that is, 6 billion euro. If included in the draft budget law, this would require one of the following measures: the complete elimination of investment programmes for 2009, or the deepening of Romania's consolidated budget deficit to 7 per cent.”
Also as of October 1st, pension benefits have been increased by 20 per cent, one month sooner than initially scheduled.
The shock wave of the financial crisis that hit the US is now being felt in Romania as well, where the stock exchange has lost over 3.5 billion Euro. But what do financiers in Bucharest feel about the situation and its consequences on our country? According to the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, the crisis was generated by the violation of well established principles, a total disregard of common sense and the urge to get profit out of nothing. Isarescu believes that Romania will not be seriously affected by the American crisis, but has stated that it is possible that the adoption of the Euro single currency may be postponed until 2014. He has given assurances that Romanian banks have avoided toxic loaning and have applied stricter norms.
Romania, which became an EU member in 2007, is still being monitored in the justice field and risks to be sanctioned due to lack of progress. That is why Liberal Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu went to Brussels on Tuesday to talk with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso about reform in this sector and the fight against corruption. Barroso encouraged the Romanian government to approach the fight against corruption, high level corruption in particular, as an issue of national significance. Recently, the Commission has warned Romania that the latter has failed to fulfil its commitments, after the Romanian Senate modified the appointment procedures for general prosecutors, the head of the National Anti-corruption Directorate included. Under the new procedures, prosecutors shall be appointed by the Higher Council of the Magistracy and not by the head of state, as before. Brussels is worried that a weak, ineffective, politically controlled or corrupt justice will affect not only Romania, but it may have cross- border- implications, especially with regard to fighting terrorism, human and drug trafficking. Tariceanu admitted that, politically speaking, the senators’ vote was an undue act, though some of his own liberals were among the enthusiastic supporters of the amendment.
It was a sad week for football fans in Romania. In the Champions League’s groups, CFR Cluj and Steaua Bucharest managed to obtain good results although they had taken on stronger sides. After a victory in the first home game against AS Rome, CFR, the season’s revelation, managed a nil-all draw against famous English side and last year’s finalist Chelsea. Steaua Bucharest managed a good show against the Italians from Fiorentina, in a game also ending in a draw. Unfortunately, all the five squads representing Romania have been eliminated from the UEFA CUP. Rapid and Dinamo, both from Bucharest secured draws, one-all and nil-all respectively, in their games against the Germans from Wolfsburg and NEC Nijmegen from the Netherlands, but failed to qualify after having suffered defeats in the return games. The same happened to FC Vaslui, from eastern Romania, which ended in a one-all draw the game they played against the Czechs from Slavia Prague, who obtained a victory in the first game. Unirea Urziceni suffered a shameful two-nil defeat at home, against German side HSV Hamburg, while Poli Timisoara failed to score against Partizan in Belgrade, in a game which ended with the Serbs’ one-nil victory.
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