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| The Week in Review |
| (2011-07-15) |
| Last updated: 2011-07-18 14:39 EET |
The debt crisis in some states in the Eurozone and the failure of negotiations in the US on raising the debt ceiling set by law in that country spread panic on the world’s financial and stock markets. The fear that the crisis might spread from countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and, more recently, Italy, seriously shook the confidence of investors in the European single currency. The Romanian leu did not escape unscathed and its value fell dramatically as against the main international currencies. According to Adrian Vasilescu, adviser to the central bank governor, this is a regional context, which is a reaction to what happens in the rest of Europe. The government in Bucharest hopes that the EU can solve the problems in the Eurozone. The Romanian authorities say that, even though a second wave of the economic crisis may spread across the world, they don’t foresee introducing new austerity measures for macroeconomic stability in the country.
This week, the Romanian state put up on the stock exchange half of the shares they hold in Petrom, which stand at 10%. The amount they expect to get is around 600 million Euro, to be used to prop up their public debt handling. This decision was taken in the context of the loan accord with the IMF, with whom they have signed a new precautionary loan agreement this spring, on selling some minor share packages held in strategic entities such as national electricity and gas providers, the managing company for the nuclear plant in Cernavoda, Petrom, the national freight railroad company or the national airline Tarom. The prime minister said that the state continues to hold on to some shares in such companies in order to preserve its control over important sectors of the economy. Boc insisted that the public private partnership was important, which he said modernized the EU, and must be the basis for Romania’s modernization as well, creating opportunities for business.
The Romanian prime minister, Emil Boc, attending a meeting of the committee for supervising the absorption of European funds, called on ministers to punish those beneficiaries who report delay in running the funding projects. He called for the enforcement of tough measures, under the law, such as financial corrections and termination of funding contracts. EU fund absorption is one of the criteria for evaluating each minister in the cabinet, which is going to happen in the next period. The executive is even considering setting up a separate ministry to deal with EU fund absorption. This initiative comes after the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, showed concern about the low rate of community money being absorbed by Romania, which is a bare 3%.
Anti-corruption prosecutors have raided an apartment in Bucharest owned by the Romanian Environment Minister, Laszlo Borbely, as part of an investigation involving abuse of office. Borbely, a member of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which is now in the government coalition in Bucharest, is suspected of having benefited from refurbishment works worth 20 thousand euros in one of his apartments, counting as bribery in exchange for granting some public acquisition contracts to a private company. Prosecutors opened an official investigation against the company owner and against one of Borbely’s advisers, who is supposed to have mediated the deal. Borbely denied any involvement. However, anti-corruption prosecutors interrogated the minister’s wife and mother in law in the matter of the renovation works. Also this week, a court ruled to have one million Euros confiscated from former Social Democratic minister, Dan Ioan Popescu, an amount which he cannot justify. Popescu said the decision was onerous, and said publicly that he will appeal the ruling, and may even take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Monday, the vice-president of the European Commission, the EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda of Europe presented the EU’s action plan regarding e-government. The program provides for measures allowing EU citizens to register companies online, finalize transactions and carry out economic and administrative activities more easily. Neelie Kroes said that the EU’s digital economy was key to economic growth and prosperity and that, nowadays, information technologies and high-speed Internet have radically altered our lifestyle, to the same extent that the development of electricity and transport networks did over a century ago. However she added that we should support the sustainable development of the Internet so as to provide all EU citizens with the benefits of digital economy.
The EU official thanked Bucharest authorities for helping implement the Europe 2020 Strategy, drawing special attention to the professionalism of Romanian IT experts. However, commissioner Kroes has pointed out that it is unacceptable that 54% of Romanians do not have access to the Internet, twice as more compared to the EU average.
Romanian authorities have taken measures to protect the population after meteorologists have issued a heat alert. Relief and First-Aid tents have been set up in numerous cities and the capital city Bucharest in high-traffic areas. The health minister has called on public health institutions and ambulance service providers to run at full capacity. Labor inspectors announced they would run checks with various employers to see if heat-stress limits and employee rights are observed during the days the temperatures are expected to reach extreme highs. Meteorologists announced temperature would reach 39 degrees Celsius.
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