What the newspapers say: June 26, 2009

EU urges Romania to cut budgetary expenses and adjust state salaries, one newspaper reads on Friday. President Basescu is watching unlicensed movies while traveling with the official plane, one newspaper reveals. Elsewhere in the news, chances to finish the new stadium for the European League 2012 are slim at the moment. Romania, through the foreigner’s lenses is a beautiful country with lousy toilet facilities, wild dogs and off license taxis.

European Commission urges Romanian authorities to cut budgetary expenses and salaries, as our economy became unpredictable, Cotidianul reads. If the GDP drop by 9% will be confirmed, and the IMF agreement will not be renegotiated, than personnel cut backs will be cut by another 1.2 billion lei.

An official press release of the Commission urges Bucharest authorities to hold on tight to the budgetary spending. Moreover, the Government should reach the budgetary deficit agreed by both the EU and the IMF for this year. One way to ensure a decrease in deficit is to adjust spending, cut salaries and restructure the pensions scheme.

Cotidianul reveals that President Basescu is usually watching downloaded movies from the internet while on board the official presidential plane. Journalists from the newspaper noticed, during their last travel with the President that at the end of the movie, the message „translated by veverita_bc” appeared, well known in the unlicensed movie market.

ROMAVIA General Director Dr. Ing. Iuliu Adrian Goleanu confirmed that they do not have the license to show the movies. He explained that these flights are not considered public and/or commercial activities. He added that ROMAVIA bought the movies presented on board from boutiques and not from special distribution companies.

Important organizations in the copyright area condemn the situation, which they consider as a serious breach of the law. Romania’s audio-visual authors’ society director, Mircea Muresan declared that a plan is a public place and that the law does not distinguish between official delegations traveling in trains, planes or cinemas.

The presidency declared that the plane does not pertain to the presidency and is rented from ROMAVIA.

Elsewhere in the news, Gandul reads that even though Romania is scheduled to host the European League finals in 2012, its stadium, Lia Manoliu is far from ready for it. What is more, there are serious inconsistencies between the construction authorization and the execution contract with constructors on site on whether the stadium should be covered entirely or not.

PM Emil Boc declared that he is still considering the issue while Bucharest mayor Oprescu declared that there is no final decision and talks are still open. Meanwhile, the constructor is left in the dark.

The new stadium is supposed to be the first five star stadium in the country but constructors so far covered only 35% even though UEFA officials are scheduled to visit the stadium in 2011 and works must be completed by then.

The newspaper reads about the main problem on site: whether the stadium will be covered partially or entirely. The execution project reads that the stadium will be entirely covered and constructors on site worked after this project. Bucharest deputy mayor Mircea Raicu declared that some 3 million euro will be lost if this version will be modified to project only a partial cover up for the stadium.

Also in Gandul, Romania is considered a beautiful country, but which lacks proper toilet facilities, has wild. stray dogs on its streets and off license cabs – at least this is what tripadvisor.com and lonelyplanet.com forums read.

The forums mostly include recommendations for beautiful sites, especially North Romania for the monasteries and Valea Prahovei for the castles in the area but also tips against pick pocketing, off license cabs in Bucharest or stray dogs.