What the newspapers say: January 3, 2008

The new year makes its debut without any breaking news. After a few days of balances of what happened in 2007, most newspapers try to make a portrait of the year to come. In brief: all things will cost more, but the president lives well on just a 1,000 euro per month wage. We shall have more fine live music this year, but food and tobacco will cost a lot more. Sibiu will no longer be an European cultural capital, but the experience this year makes authorities think about new plans to maintain the tourists wave unchanged.

Food, fuel, car insurance, natural gas and postal services saw prices growing on January 1, 2008, but Romanians have salaries, pensions and child support funds higher than last year, while contributions for social insurance decrease.

The US Dollar will lose strength in 2008, analysts say, making European authorities search for measures to stop the euro from strengthening.

In Romanian politics, local and Parliament elections will make 2008 a decisive year for establishing the balance of forces on the political stage.

In sports, the Romanian national football team will have a difficult rundown, playing against Italy, France and Holland. The Beijing Olympics will be the main event of the year, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

After Alice Cooper, Prodigy, Marilyn Manson and Rolling Stones made the music sound loud in Bucharest in 2007, Kylie Minogue, Lenny Kravitz and Iron Maiden are bound for 2008, while negotiations are almost complete to bring Aerosmith.

President Traian Basescu was the first dignitary to declare his wealth status in 2008. According to his statements, the presidential family lives quite well on just 1,000 euro per month, even getting to save some of the money, Gandul reads.

A bit of quarrel is about to start again in Transylvania, where Hungarian minority leaders are about to learn and act according to the future resolutions on the Kosovo situation. Hungarian minority deputy Antal Arpad Andras says that the main target in 2008 is to efficiently use the way the Kosovo situation is handled by the main powers, same Gandul informs.

After being one of the European culture capitals in 2007, the city of Sibiu drew the line and added: 2,000 events, over one million foreign tourists in 2007, turning the town in Romania’s main tourism destination, with expenses of only 13 million euro. Officials say they want to develop similar programs in the near future, according to Cotidianul.