What the newspapers say: April 27, 2010

All newspapers on Tuesday read about the battle to revive the National Integrity Agency. Elsewhere in the news, the IMF wants to see concrete economic reforms one year after the agreement was signed. On a lighter tone, After five years of modernization works and investments worth over 500 million euro, those wishing to mark May 1st at the seaside, should know that trains to the seaside will still take 4 hours.

Romania libera reads about the battle to revive the National Integrity Agency. The government adopted yesterday a draft law meant to allow the Agency to check the wealth of politicians and publish their wealth declarations.

The project is the executive’s answer to the decision of the Constitutional Court who cut the essential attributions of the agency.

However, the Parliament has other solutions than those proposed by the government.

According to the Constitutional Court decision, integrity inspectors break the fundamental law when they find out that there are differences between the wealth gained by politicians and their revenues and urge the court to confiscate the difference.

However, the government’s plan is for the Agency to check the wealth of politicians and fill up analysis reports for the prosecutors who take the process further to the court. Parliamentarians consider other solutions for the Agency to work without touching the fundamental law.

Former Justice Minister Tudor Chiuariu declared that the Agency might evaluate contraventions and could operate fines. Other measures it would dispose of, according to Chiuariu is to confiscate part of the wealth or other interdictions.

The government proposed two types of wealth declarations: one public and another confidential. According to the plan, the public ones do not contain the exact addresses of the politicians’ houses or the names of the banks where they have accounts. In other words, the number of accounts, their value will be offered but no other identification data will be released.

On this matter, Gandul reads that the President realized that he is one of the beneficiaries of the new law project regarding the National Integrity Agency. At consultations with the government, Basescu realized that he can hide the fact that he owns an apartment on Mihaileanu street.

His house on Mihaileanu street triggered a great scandal as Basescu’s Presidential mandate just started in 2005 after authorities realized that he obtained the house during his mandate as Bucharest mayor.

Gandul reads that after five years of modernization works and over 500 million euro worth of investments, the road to seaside, a May 1st tradition will last four hours. The main reason is that the project did not include the bridges on the road.

Authorities declared that next year, another investment will be made to cover the bridges. Things are not brighter with the car, either because the highway ends at Cernavoda where traffic continues on only one lane.

However, authorities claim that by next year trains to the seaside will not make more than 2 hours and a half. In 2005, before the investment was started, the trains took 2 hours and a half.

An improvement will be noticed only in 2015, when the two bridges, at Fetesti and Cernavoda will be modernized. The investment, worth 67 million euro will start in November this year and is 85% financed from EU funds.