What the newspapers say: January 13, 2009

Romanians trust sport and music stars, instead of priests or politicians. Being a country of paradoxes, salaries grow in Romania, but the unpaid debts grow faster. And, as usual, the car tax – changed for countless times since its first shape, a couple of years ago – once again comes against the European regulations.

Gymnastics star Nadia Comaneci and a series of actors in their sixties and seventies are the people Romanians trust the most. Firemen and music stars also fill in the Top 100 put up by the Romanian edition of Readers’ Digest, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

The tripled car tax is against European regulations, the European Affairs Department head, Vasile Puscas, announced on Monday. The car tax increased three times for new cars with engines over 2 liters and for second-hand cars. At the same time, the tax for Euro-5 and electric cars was cancelled, Evenimentul Zilei reminds.

In the most important scandal of the moment – the natural gas provisions – Gandul informs that deliveries of Russia gas are supposed to be reopened this morning, at 10:00 AM (Romanian time), after Russia and Ukraine decided to sign a new transit agreement.

Meanwhile, Romania sees its own interior scandal: the new Government is already starting to shake, with Interior Minster Gabriel Oprea being thrown out by his own party, Social Democrats (PSD), under the suspicion that he play the game of president Traian Basescu, Cotidianul and most other newspapers read. Same Cotidianul adds, in another article, that „Basescu lost one intelligence service, but there are still other six services”.

The only good news for today comes in Evenimentul Zilei: the average wage in Romania increased 2.6% in November 2008. Still, Romania Libera adds that the debts of Romanians exploded at a much higher rate, during the past months of 2008, mainly in paying private rates to banks and in payments between companies.

Elsewhere in the news, Prime Minster Emil Boc promises to shorten the procedures for projects involving European funds. Bids for highways, environment projects and regional development projects will see their winners in one to three months, Boc said during his visit in Brussels, after meeting the EC president, Jose Manuel Barroso, Evenimentul Zilei reads.