What the newspapers say: April 20, 2011

Romanian fugitive Mihai Necolaiciuc arrives in Romania today, after five years since he fled the country to escape indictment by anti-graft prosecutors. Elsewhere in the news, Romania risks losing 360 million euro from the EU Social European Fund. A Romanian is on Playboy Italia’s cover. Romania is on third, globally, as the country with most new retail brands in 2010. A humanitarian expedition in Romania donates 18 tons of food to an isolated village in the Danube Delta.

Evenimentul Zilei informs its readers that Mihai Necolaiciuc, former director of the railway state company, who fled the country in 2005 to escape anti graft indictment will arrive in Romania today. The total prejudice, according to anti-graft prosecutors amounts to about 55 million euro.

Necolaiciuc was indicted in three files that were ruled in his absence. In all three files, he is accused of prejudices to the company. In the US, Necolaiciuc has been living in Miami where he bought three apartments worth 1.3 million euro. When arrested by US police forces, he hired the same lawyer that defended in the past Nicaraguan dictator Manuel Noriega.

In an interview for Romania libera, Peter Stub Jorgensen, DG Director for Social Affairs in the European Commission warns that Romania might lose 360 million euro from the EU Social Fund unless it finds ways to spend it until the end of 2012. The EU official announces EU’s strategy for the integration of the Roma that will be released this week.

About the situation of the Roma in Romania, Jorgensen says that the Commission is well aware of most of the problems organizations that seek funds are having. He says that the Commission will try, with the collaboration of the Romanian authorities to deal with the problems. In terms of Roma integration, the EU official says that the Romanian state was not well prepared from the start to address such issues which is why it needs to improve the management of programs, the quality of public servants.

Elsewhere in the news, a 25 year old Romania made it on the cover of Playboy Italy Gandul reads. Romanian Marina Emanuela Saia has been living for 12 years at Verona and was chosen for the cover of the April issue of Playboy Italy, Corriere del Veneto reads.

The quoted source writes that the young woman is a sexy bomb who likes to study and hopes to play in a movie. Marina claims she has other qualities: she speaks five foreign languages and has a diploma in Journalism.

Gandul reads Romania is on third, globally, in a top of countries with most new retail brands in 2010. India attracted 8 new retailers, Turkey seven while in Romania there were 6 retails, a CB Richard Ellis study concludes. Other new brands are expected in Romania like Leroy Merlin and Subway.

Countries like UAE, Kuwait, Ireland or Belgium are on similar positions, company representatives said. Other new brands present in Romania as D’S Damat, iStyle, Manufaktura, Salomon.

Romania libera reads about the humanitarian campaign of the organization Off Road Adventure Romania, a sports club that for 11 years has been helping Romanians living in the most isolated places in the country. In two weeks, the organization managed to gather 200,000 lei with which they bought 18 tons worth of food for people isolated in a village in the Danube Delta. Representatives of the organization say that they money came from ordinary people.