What the newspapers say: May 27, 2011

What happens to Romania if Greece cracks now that the IMF decided not to give Greece more money? Hundreds of millions of euro worth of investments in oil explorations are blocked by the state. In an interview for one newspaper Interior minister Traian Igas talks about the Interior ministry intelligence service and the effects after the corruption scandal. Romania, the country with most illiterate people in Eastern Europe. Romanian film director Radu Muntean, appreciated by American critics.

Gandul wonders today what will happen with Romania if Greece cracks now that the IMF will not give more money to Greece. If Romania or any other emerging state in the region does their homework on reforms, they will not be affected by the downfall of Greece, economist Nouriel Roubini said.

Roubini is well known globally for predicting the credit crunch in the US back in 2007. Regarding the situation in Greece the economist said that the problem is not if but how to restructure Greece’s public debt. Local economists claim that the effects of the crisis in Greece over Romania are limited.

The only link between the two is the banking system but all Greek banks in Romania are independent which means that as long as they are solid in Romania there will be no notable problems. Greek banks own about 17% of the actives of the Romanian state including Alpha Bank and Bankpost, Banca Romaneasca and Pireus.

Elsewhere in the news, Evenimentul Zilei reads that the state blocked hundreds of millions of euro from investments in oil explorations. Oil companies are waiting for some legislative problems to be resolved. Several months after Romania won against Ukraine the continental plateau of the Black Sea at the Hague court, the state blocked investments in the area because it fails to appoint an authority to issue construction authorizations for operations in the Black Sea.

In 2009 the Parliament modified the legislation and imposed the need to obtain construction authorizations for explorations and underwater trials. On the other hand, no state institution considers itself able to offer such an authorization. An OMV Petrom and Exxon Mobil investment of 100 million euro is blocked, waiting for the state to take a stand.

In an interview for Romania libera, Interior minister Traian Igas talks about the situation at the Port of Constanta and the Interior ministry intelligence service. He said that the intelligence service cannot be shut down because it has internal protection attributions. However, the minister said that the service needs to be reformed, and is currently being reformed and modernized.

Those that are not working, are not efficient or correct will be left out. The minister said that he has fired the local branch of the Interior ministry intelligence service in Constanta and hopes that he will manage to reform the system in time.

Gandul reads that Romania is the country with most illiterate people in Eastern Europe. Statistics reveal that not less than 40% of Romanians read bad or cannot read at all, 150,000 Romanians did not go to school which makes Romania the country with most illiterate people in the region.

Most Romanian children are doomed to illiteracy by their parents who would rather teach them to help out than let them go to school.

Evenimentul Zilei reads that Romanian film director Radu Muntean’s latest movie, Tuesday after Christmas was well received by American critics. The New York Times reads that the movie is brutally honest but not cruel for nothing. The conclusion of the NYT critic, A.O. SCOTT is that the public was so absorbed by the contemplation of the human imperfection that it needs a second viewing to appreciate the lack of faults of the movie.

The critic also said that the formal economy of the movie is amazing and subtle, adding that nothing essential is missing from it.