What the newspapers say: September 12, 2006

Romanian newspapers on Tuesday deal with the troubles of Bucharest as the city prepares for a Francophone Summit, with unprecedentedly low prices that are expected to rise once the country joins the EU, with political dealings that may threaten the terms of accession and with a huge scandal within the Defense structures.

Evenimentul Zilei celebrates a piece of news delivered by the National Statistics Institute yesterday: for the first time since 1989, consumer goods reported a fall in prices in August this year, as they were 0.07% under the level of July.

It comes after prices rose 2.7% in the period of January-August and it prompted authorities to predict a 5.8% inflation for 2006.

But the current low prices are not enough for celebration, as Cotidianul puts it. The newspaper reports that Romanians will feel the EU accession with their stomachs and wallets first, as experts announce a price increase for most basic food products.

The price boost is even more probable when one considers that in Romania producers and retailers use every opportunity to apply higher prices.

The same Cotidianul provides another approach to EU accession today: the European Commission, it reports, prepares to apply a safeguard clause by which judicial orders in Romania would not be recognized in the EU.

That is because officials in Brussels have shown their “concern and disappointment” about what politicians do with the fight against corruption.

According to the newspaper, Romanian political parties do not seem to worry much about this trend at the Commission.

The leaders of two junior governmental coalition members, which helped the opposition in preventing a series of legislative measures supporting checks of officials’ wealth, maintained their position yesterday despite two top EU commissioners addressed them a letter to voice their concern about the situation.

And the two senior members of the coalition, the Liberals and the Democrats, did not seem too bothered about the commissioners’ intervention either, as the newspaper writes.

For its part, Gandul reports that the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, getting ready to take over the reins of power from PM Tony Blair next year, has offered details about his future agenda that does not forget the issue of Romanian and Bulgaria immigrants.

He already promised to stop the access of Romanians on the British market once the two countries join the UK, as British media reported, quoted by Gandul.

Meanwhile, newspapers focus on the troubles the Romanian capital will face later this month when it hosts the Francophone Summit.

The event, due to be attended by top officials from dozens of countries, will turn Bucharest into a military objective, mobilizing some 17,000 troops and guards in anti-terror and protection operations, Adevarul reports.

Cotidianul tries to let residents know how to “dodge the francophones”, quoting a police recommendations for those that plan to move around during the three-day summit: don’t get into your cars, as traffic chaos should be expected.

Gandul turns its eye on the domestic issues and writes of a huge scandal that affected the Romanian Defense structures.

It quotes the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, General Eugen Badalan, who said in a press conference yesterday that “It’s September 11, the day when five years ago the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers occurred. I believe that we now witness an attack on the Romanians’ symbolic Twin Towers: the Army and the Church”.

His statement came as he dismissed call for his resignation as he was subjected to a criminal, ant-corruption investigation related to a contract between the Army and a Romanian business group. The media has claimed that the reason of moves against Badalan may stand in an alleged conflict between him and Defense minister Teodor Atanasiu, whom President Traian Basescu wants dismissed.