What the newspapers say: June 28, 2010

​The VAT goes up 5%, triggering a price increase in everything and possibly unemployment. Elsewhere in the news,the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) accepted special pensions to be recalculated, with the exception of theirs. Last but not least, Ford Romania intends to produce 1,000 cars per day at the plant in Craiova (South), but the necessary infrastructure to get the cars to clients lacks.

Adevarul focuses on the Government’s plan B to impoverish the population: once the VAT goes up 5%, the leu will be weaker, products will be more expensive and the unemployment will go higher. The same money will buy less. Those with an average and a small income are going to struggle with the new prices. Starting with the daily bread, all the way to holiday tickets, everything is expected to go up 10%. From the beginning of the year, the average salary in Romania dropped 3% and prices went up 2.5%. Specialists claim up to 25% of the companies selling food might go out of business.

Romania Libera reads that the Constitutional Court accepted, eventually, to have special pensions recalculated as an austerity measure, with one exception: theirs. Judge Ion Pradescu claims there is „a fundamental difference between the magistrates and the others: they have a constitutional status”, while the other categories receiving special pensions have a legal status, which can me modified anytime. Defence Ministry or intelligence services ex-employees are part of the category of retired receiving a special pension.

Gandul informs that Ford Romania intends to produce 1,000 cars per day at the plant in Craiova (South), but the necessary infrastructure to get the cars to clients lacks, US ambassador Mark Gitenstein declared in an interview for Mediafax. 1,000 cars per day equals the production of an American plant. The route Gitenstein would like to use is Craiova – Pitesti (122 km), which the Romanian authorities pledge to finish by 2010. Transport minister Radu Berceanu announced last year he was giving up this project because it would cost more than 1.1 billion Euros.