What the newspapers say: July 3, 2008

Romanians could have surgical interventions in other EU member countries, based on the health insurance paid home, one newspaper reads on Thursday. Elsewhere in the news, Bucharest District 5 mayor Marian Vanghelie approved 101,137 supplementary hours for his employees to receive bonuses. Last but not least, the Danube Delta is a failed tourist project, as one newspaper claims.

Cotidianul reads about a new European directive which would allow people from all member states to undergo surgical interventions in any EU member state based on their home health insurance. The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it set up the project of a European directive which rules that a patient can make use of his national health insurance to have a surgical intervention in other EU member state.

Thus, the patient will only pay the price difference between his national health insurance and the foreign country’s health insurance. The announcement was made in all 27 member states, at the same time.

Romania’s National Health Insurance president Vasile Ciurchea declared that people could do this already. However, he added that so far there was a chance that Romanians could be refused in other European hospitals. He declared that this directive would offer everybody a chance to receive medical treatment anywhere, without the fear of rejection.

Elsewhere in the news, Bucharest District 5 mayor Marian Vanghelie offered his employees 101,137 supplementary hours, that equal 12 years of life, Gandul reads. The newspaper reads that Vanghelie declared that there was no breach of legislation and he had to make decisions, since he was a leader of the District 5 town hall.

Nonetheless, the Court of Accounts was not convinced about Vanghelie’s good deeds and forwarded the file to the Bucharest Court. At his turn, Vanghelie sued the institution, on grounds that the existing law can be interpreted in many other ways.

Experts argue that Vanghelie’s employees officially motivated their supplementary hours arguing that they cannot finish up the workload otherwise. Vanghelie declares that he lacks 300 persons and the 6,000 city hall employees had to be paid for doing the extra work.

Last but not least, Romania Libera reads about the Danube Delta and its failed tourism project. The newspaper makes the comment despite authorities make efforts to emphasize the value of the place. Thus, authorities allocated some 20 million euro to improve the local infrastructure but the money are blocked due to local divergences.

Local authorities have already spent some 40 million euro on tourism projects which double existing ones or which are not needed. Instead of concentrating on infrastructure, authorities build up tourism sites.

There are hundreds of private investments in the area that risk to fall apart due to the fact that local authorities do not assure the necessary infrastructure. The newspaper reads that the main problem is basically the lack of a master development strategy for the area.