What the newspapers say: November 16, 2007

The incident in Italy, where a Romanian actress was mistaken for a child trafficking suspect, makes most of the headlines on Friday, along with the scandal burst between the US ambassador in Bucharest, Nicholas Taubman, and the speaker in the House of Deputies, Bodgan Olteanu.

After the US ambassador drew the attention towards some problematic amendments in the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, Olteanu reacted violently, asking him to „stay within the diplomacy statute boundaries”. Later in the evening, Nicholas Taubman explained he only spoke as a „friend of Romania”.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution for the Italian decree enabling authorities to expel EU citizens guilty of crimes committed on Italian soil. According to the resolution, which has the value of a recommendation towards the European Commission, the Italian decree must be modified in order to meet the European regulations on free circulation.

„The resolution recommends the monitoring of the way the decree is applied in Italy. An European Parliament Commission will do the same thing. From the information I have, it seems that the Italian Interior Minister, Giuliano Amato, said that he accepts the EP resolution”, said Romanian Socialist Adrian Severin, according to Evenimentul Zilei.

But the EP resolution is far from being the news of the day. Romanian actress Laura Vasiliu was mistaken for a child trafficking suspect and therefore had its hotel room broke in and searched by the Italian Police at 2:00 AM.

While Evenimentul Zilei writes about „an embarrassing incident”, in an article called: „Italy breaks through our door!”, Gandul – the newspaper that first published an article on the affair – quotes the Romanian consul in Turin: „The Police did their job”.

Returning to the Romanian – US quarrel: Olteanu’s violent outburst is cynically described as „Olteanu fights the American corruption” in Evenimentul Zilei.

„Olteanu lights a red code for Romania’s relation with the US and the UK”, Romania Libera comments, reminding that the US invested 4.6 million euro in Romania’s Justice system reform.

„Olteanu declares verbal war on America”, is the headline in Cotidianul, where Olteanu’s blunder is doubled by a similar attitude of the High Court of Justice judges towards European officials.