What the newspapers say: January 22, 2009

A new scandal burst in the newspapers on Thursday, after some statements made by a former presidential counselor led to the idea that the head of state and other politicians may benefit from illegal phone tapping. Elsewhere in the news, Romania becomes a country where higher studies are rather worthless, because of the extremely low employment rate.

Former presidential counselor Claudiu Saftoiu makes it to the first page of all newspapers, after admitting in a TV show that president Traian Basescu had knowledge about private conversations of other politicians. The next step took by the media was to suppose that the information came from illegal phone tapping. While Saftoiu tries to make a step back and say he never meant to unmask illegal activities, he confirms his statements, saying that the president was aware of such information, a fact that can be proven by some of his public speeches, but that the information was not necessarily illegally obtained. Saftoiu was also head of the Foreign Intelligence Service for a while.

Related to this scandal: Basescu will sue Saftoiu (Evenimentul Zilei, Cotidianul), Six institutions have the right to tap phones in Romania (Gandul).

Back to the usual problems in Romania: only 21% of faculty graduates find a suitable job in less than 18 months after graduation, a EU report indicates. And the figures were put up before the global economic crisis and the freezing of all jobs, same Evenimentul Zilei reads.

The good news is that the State will pay its debt towards companies, putting up a payment schedule for 3.05 billion RON until March for invoiced debts. Other 4.7 billions are ready for the works where the invoices were not yet issued by companies, but the works are in / have passed the reception stage, Evenimentul Zilei.

The bad news of the day : Romanian eco and bio products are three times more expensive than abroad. The reason: most producers export their products to Germany, in order to avoid stocking up and selling underpriced goods. The products then return, after many interims, burdened by commissions, Gandul reads.