What the newspapers say: October 6, 2010 

The state became the chief mediator between banks and police officers who contracted credits in an attempt to resolve their crisis, most newspapers read today. In politics, a new party sprang out: the party formed by Senators and Deputies who left the Social Democrats was recognized as a political organization in the Parliament by the governing coalition. Romania and Bulgaria do not benefit from Skype offers.

A first in Romania: police chiefs received an order from the Interior minister to have talks with commercial bank directors and demand recalculations of credits contracted by police officers, Romania libera reads. The order comes from the Interior ministry and the idea from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. Police officers will meet with commercial bank directors to identify possible solutions to ease the financial burden from police officers.

The initiative follows consistent tensions within the police and the protest organized two weeks ago which lead to the resignation of Interior minister Vasile Blaga. At the protest police officers marched illegally towards the presidential headquarters.

The initiative, according to officials aims at helping police officers whose salaries were decreased by 25%. Authorities underlined that they have no way to push banks into taking such solutions, but they aim to talk to bank directors about the situation.

Bank representatives, on the other hand claim that each police officer should visit the bank for a renegotiation of the credit contract but a global solution is not possible.

Gandul quotes union leaders who expect the institutions to negotiate better deals for them, with the banks. They admit that one of the toughest effects of their salary decrease was on their credits.

Union leader Marin Gruia said that the idea came from them and was promoted as early as the government started to discuss austerity measures.

In politics today, Evenimentul Zilei reads that the independents, Senators and Deputies who left the Social Democratic Party became a Parliamentary party. UNPR, the newest political organization in the Parliament was recognized through a decision of the government coalition as a parliamentary group with full rights.

So far, this right was given only for Parliamentary groups who entered the Parliament after elections. Therefore, the opposition is against this measure and claim it is an abuse and a breach of the Romanian constitution. The opposition will contest at the Constitutional Court the decision. The newspaper reads that the main aim of this move was to offer the independents the right to be represented in the Chamber of Deputies leadership.

This would offer the governing coalition a majority in the permanent office of the Chamber of Deputies which would from now on, resolve many things: the governing coalition will be able to decide the agenda because of this newly formed majority.

The opposition, the Liberals and Social Democrats declared that they will contest the decision at the Constitutional Court, because the move is an abuse.

Romania libera reads that both Romania and Bulgaria were eliminated from the special offers put forward by Skype: a package which allowed users to make unlimited phone calls to 24 countries in Europe, for just 4.99 sterling pounds included Romania and Bulgaria.

However, Skype informed that the package will not include the two countries anymore and negotiations will start with telecom suppliers in the two countries to launch new services for Europe.