What the newspapers say: November 16, 2006

With less news than usual, Romanian newspapers focus today on two major subjects: the criminal files opened for the former prime minister Adrian Nastase and the national and international problems in the oil and gas area.

Between all these major problems, E! comes to Romania to bring relief for tensed shoulders and Qaddafi is once again a friend for Romanians.

Former PM Nastase got the file that was supposed to prove that he never had anything to do with Ceausescu’s political police, Securitate. Being such a nice person, he only published 8 files out of 100, with the officers in charge with his surveillance having the name covered in black ink.

“They may be still part of the system… Anyway, I’m not a judge”, said Nastase, trying in vain to explain why he’s still protecting the officers, as quoted in Evenimentul Zilei.

An unofficial explanation is that the entire affair may have something to do with scratching one another’s back. Nastase needs some help from the ones “who may still be in the system”. Why?

Most newspapers found out that Nastase tried to influence, then blackmail the main witness in the case of his Chinese artwork smuggling. And the only evidence consists in his very own phone discussions. And who has all the tapes? The Intelligence officers who may or may not be crumbs of the Securitate system.

Octavian Cretu tells how Ioan Paun, Romanian consul in China, had to handle Dana Nastase’s shopping spree in Cotidianul

Now, about gas and oil. As almost everyone knows, the Petrom and Distrigaz Sud privatization became a subject for the National Supreme Defense Council.

A good opportunity for president Basescu to demand the people in charge not to rush things with the energy companies privatization, specially in the case of Romgaz, Adevarul reads.

While Romanians are generally upset with the gas price growth approved by the Gas Regulation Authority, the Economy Ministry praises its unprecedented negotiation skills: OMV representatives demanded a price growth higher than 8.5%, Gandul found out.

President Basescu can’t leave the subject on its own, so he makes peace with an Arab leader forgotten by Romanians for 21 years: the “great leader” (he has no public function) Moammar al-Qaddafi.

Without any trace of his (in)famous female bodyguards in sight, Qaddafi said that he also wants to be friends with Romania. Of course, Basescu wants a collaboration in oil extraction and equipment, in exchange for water drills and IT aid, according to Gandul

Mother Russia is probably wondering what the fuss is all about and, after almost two weeks of courageous and outrageous statements made by Basescu, finally answers: “Black Sea countries don’t even have a common policy.

Romania and Bulgaria want an internationalized Black Sea, Turkey wants to continue the Turkish-Russian domination”, an analysis in “Nezavisimaia Gazeta” reads, quoted by Adevarul

The good news is that the Romanian economy is still working, some might say even that its working well. The privatization for the largest popular bank, CEC, is about to end before January 1st, with the National Bank of Greece (NBG) and OTP Bank (Hungary) as last competitors (Romania Libera).

The most valuable 100 companies in Romania add up to a total value of 75 billion euros, with Petrom, the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) and Orange Romania as the top three. 14 companies are worth over a billion euros each, but only 20% of the top 100 are listed on the stock market, Gandul reads.

And, since entertainment is the oil that keeps things going smoothly, US based TV E!, owned by Comcast and Walt Disney, will enter the Romanian market, focusing on music and celebrities, fully subtitled, according to Cotidianul.