Press review

The Romanian daily newspapers on Thursday carry reports on the address delivered by President Traian Basescu to Parliament, the Democratic Party’s plans to table a no-confidence motion, the Government’s modification of the Law on the organisation and functioning of the National Agency for Integrity and a concert to be given by British pop star George Michael in Bucharest.

President Traian Basescu called on the Government to resign and on early polls to be held as an effect of the May 19 referendum on his impeachment, in an address he delivered to Parliament on Wednesday, Romania libera reports in an item headlined ‘The Government is forced to resign’. Basescu remarked the numerical asymmetry: three quarters of the MPs voted for his suspension, while three quarters of the voters rejected his impeachment.

The Liberal ministers, Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Speaker of the Deputies’ Chamber Bogdan Olteanu did not attend the legislative body’s sitting in which Basescu delivered his speech. The president slammed the ‘makeshift majority’ set up in Parliament that had led to his suspension, adding the decision cost public money.

‘Resignation and early elections’, says Adevarul in a headline, reporting that Traian Basescu called on the parliamentarians to turn back to the 2004 vote, if they reject the government’s resignation and the early polls.

‘The president’s message that the 322 parliamentarians who had backed his impeachment got a vote of censure from the Romanians on May 19 was received silently by the attending deputies and senators. The head of state’s speech was unusually harsh, with Basescu insisting that those who had backed his suspension should pay for it’, Adevarul writes.

Evenimentul zilei, in an article entitled ‘Basescu’s nine commandments’ writes: ‘The president, strengthened by the popular vote, handed over the roadmap to Parliament. At his first meeting with the legislators after the May 19 referendum, Basescu did not utter the expected phrase of ‘the new transparent majority’. Instead, he called on the ‘makeshift majority’ that suspended him to be called to account. Basescu’s solution is the Government’s resignation, followed either by early elections or by a new cabinet that should take into account that he won the power both in 2004 and at the May 19 referendum.’

‘The PD puts pressure on the Tariceanu Cabinet to fall’, reads a headline in Adevarul, which reports that the Democratic Party is about to table a no-confidence motion in the Government. ‘The PD is making great efforts to collect the signatures required for the motion of censure to be put forward. Barely five or six signatures were yet to be collected on Wednesday, out of the 118 signatures needed for the censure motion to be tabled, according to Democratic sources’, the daily reports.

The Government issued an emergency ordinance on Wednesday by which it modifies the Law on the organisation and functioning of the National Agency for Integrity, Ziua writes by quoting an announcement made by Prime Minister Tariceanu. The act was approved in the form put forward by the justice minister, Tariceanu stressed. The amendment lowers to 10,000 euros from a previous 20,000 euros the threshold at which the procedure on the check-up of a dignitary’s wealth can be triggered, the prime minister explained. According to the ordinance, the new form of the National Integrity Agency law speaks about the confiscation of a dignitary’s unjustified wealth, rather than the illicit wealth, as the phrase adopted by the Senate said.

‘These modifications are being adopted by the Government since we want to have an efficient body in the fight against corruption’, Tariceanu stressed, adding the move was not meant to merely ‘tick off’ another commitment Romania made to the European Union.

‘Romania is closer to Switzerland’, Ziua says, explaining that Berne has accepted a mandate to hold talks with the European Union on the gradual extension of the free movement of Romanians and Bulgarians. The talks are required for the controlled introduction of the free movement of those two states’ citizens, a release posted on the Swiss federal authorities’ Web site says.

In an article headlined ‘The Tax Guard will take over the Economic Police’s tasks’, Ziarul financiar quotes an announcement made by Prime Minister Tariceanu who said on Wednesday that the powers of investigating the economic-financial crimes will be transferred to the Tax Guard, while the Economic Police will be dismantled.

‘Tax evasion is a phenomenon that continues to worry us, though it is decreasing,’ the prime minister said, adding that ‘the former economic military police’ of communist Romania is to be found in no European country.

As many as 700 policemen and gendarmes will provide security to British pop singer George Michael who is to perform in Bucharest on Thursday, Evenimentul zilei announces. The two-hour show is the artist’s first in Romania and it is to begin only when getting dark, i.e. at about 9 p.m. ROMPRES