What the newspapers say: October 8, 2010 

President Basescu breaks the opposition’s plans for his suspension as he decided to send the law on pensions in the Parliament. Another newspaper reads about the success of the police officers in negotiations with banks. French Ambassador to Bucharest HE Henry Paul urges Romanians to use EU funds and integrate the Rroma.

President Basescu fragmented an alliance against him that became threatening, Evenimentul Zilei reads. Only two mogul and one politician call for Basescu’s suspension at the time. PSD leader Victor Ponta declared that he withdrew from this alliance when the President decided to return the law on pensions in the Parliament.

The first reaction came from media mogul Dan Voiculescu who declared that he will do whatever it takes to suspend the President. Liberals have the same stand as Voiculescu. They declared that the President took the decision fearing suspension.

PSD leader Ponta was the only one who was satisfied with the actions of the President. Even though he believes Basescu’s move was a sign of weakness, he declared that he managed to dissipate his adversaries.

Elsewhere in the news, Gandul reads that the deadline set by the Interior ministry for negotiations with the banks for credits contracted by police officers expired. Some county police stations confirm already better conditions to recalculate or refinance credits.

However, leader unions do not believe in this solution because thousands of police officers are on the verge of despair as they do not have money to pay their credits The newspaper reads about a police officer who, after paying his credit, is left with 50 RON, which is about 11 euro in his pocket.

On the other hand, each bank wants to have its credits paid one way or the other and police union leader Marian Gruia declared that bank representatives are open for talks and eager to find solutions.

In an interview for Romania libera, French Ambassador to Bucharest, HE Henry Paul urges Romanians to use EU funds and integrate the Rroma. For a Rroma populatin of 1,850,000 people, Romania can use about 3.7 billion euro for 2007 – 2013.

Of these, 2.25 billion are allocated by the European Commission for programs to integrate the Rroma. However, Romania managed to spend only 38 million of this available money so far. These data leaves room for accusations that Romanians do not do much to integrate the Rroma.

HE Henry Paul told the newspaper that the French government expelled about 9,000 non-European citizens from January to July 2010. Therefore, France did not only expel illegal Rroma citizens but also other nationalities.

France was the first country to treat the Rroma issue without hypocrisy, HE Henry Paul told the press. He underlined that he has extensive talks with Romanian authorities since 2007, when his mandate started, urging them to set up a national integration plan that would be coordinated with the efforts of the EU.

France thinks that Romania needs to cater for its citizens, just like France deals with its citizens. This is a position shared by the European Commission, HE Henry Paul said. He underlines that he believes it is incredible that France is accused of discrimination while Romanians claim it is not their problem but it is Europe’s problem to deal with its citizens.