20th april
2007
Romania MPs vote to suspend president
Romania was thrown into political uncertainty yesterday after its parliament voted
to suspend the president in the first step towards impeaching him.
Opponents have accused Traian Basescu of violating the constitution by fomenting
instability, spying on politicians and blackmailing the judiciary.
Yesterday parliament voted by 322 to 108 to suspend him. Politicians have 30 days
to hold a referendum, which is necessary for impeachment to follow.
"Traian Basescu is a political project that failed," Mircea Geona, head
of the leftist opposition party PSD, said during the parliamentary debate. "He
is incapable of pushing the country forward, of uniting it."
After yesterday's vote, dozens of supporters gathered in Bucharest. Mr Basescu
joined them. "I am still the president of Romania," he said. "The
time has come for justice to be done in Romania. I am the captain of the long-distance
voyage and this voyage ... will be long," he said, referring to his past
job as a sea captain.
It was thought likely the president, who has been in power since 2004, would try
to wrong-foot his opponents by resigning, thus prompting a snap presidential election.
As the country's most popular politician, he would be likely to win such a vote
and secure another five-year term.
The deepening crisis has already affected Romania's chances of benefiting fully
from its EU membership, analysts say. While it was seen as a remarkable achievement
that Romania, which has a population of 22 million, joined the union in January,
the European commission says it must not stall on reforms.
Mr Basescu, 55, has been accused of plunging Romania into a political crisis,
largely due to his criticism of the prime minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, with
whom he has had a long-running feud. It started when Mr Tariceanu said Romania
should pull troops out of Iraq and Mr Basescu disagreed.
Supporters of Romania's EU membership hope it will change the way politics is
practised. EU funding is dependent on how Romania tackles corruption.
Source: Guardian Unlimited.
Five EU members ask for tough monitoring of Romania,
Bulgaria
The European Union is becoming more concerned about the development of justice
reform in Romania and Bulgaria and the measures taken against corruption in the
two countries, ‘Realitatea TV’ reported, quoting BBC.
Thus, five members of the EU – Great Britain, France, Sweden, Finland and
the Netherlands have recently asked for a clearer and more consistent monitoring
of the two countries as regards their progress in legal system reform and the
fight against corruption. The initiative is likely to increase pressure on triggering
the safeguard clause for Romanian and Bulgaria.
According to the same source, the five countries’ ambassadors to the European
Union asked for a meeting at the middle of April with Catherine Day, the General
Secretary of the European Commission, who coordinates cooperation with Romania
and Bulgaria. The five envoys asked for increased transparency in the measures
taken by Sofia and Bucharest, saying that they “have the feeling that the
reform mechanism is not used properly and doesn’t have enough resources.”
During the meeting with Day, the five diplomats asked that all results of the
European Commission’s checks on Romania and Bulgaria progress be communicated
to other member states.
The five countries’ initiative is not de facto a request that the safeguard
clause be triggered, said BBC, but is more an attempt to increase pressure on
the two countries so that they take concrete measures in the monitored fields.
Source: Nine O'Clock
EBRD sign agreement with E.ON Gaz Romania
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed yesterday an
agreement thereby it takes over indirect participations of 5 per cent each in
the Romanian branches of E.ON Gaz Romania and electricity company E.ON Moldova.
The EBRD will pay EUR 43 M to acquire the stock. The likelihood for EBRD and the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) to take over minority packages in privatised
Romanian utility companies was established by contracts whereby the state yielded
its ownership right to the said investors. EBRD decided to exercise this option
in order to consolidate its Romanian operation and to help liberalise the market.
“E.ON will bring its experience and know-how in the Romanian energy sector,
this being one of the reasons of this partnership. This is the EBRD first partnership
in the natural gas sector in Romania,” Nandita Parshad, the EBRD Director
for Energy, told a press conference called for the signing of the contracts. The
EBRD director said there are plenty of measures to still be taken in the Romanian
energy system, with privatisation being the next priority. The E.ON Energie Vice-President,
Thomas Weber, said that the group is interested in new investments in Romania
and in privatisations of energy distributors in northern and southern Transylvania.
E. ON Moldova interested in buying thermal power plants in Suceava and Botosani
Electricity distributor and supplier E.ON Moldova plans to enter the electricity
generation segment by taking over the thermal power plants subordinated to local
authorities in Suceava and Botosani, the company’s Spokesman, Lucian Luca,
said. “We are interested in several objects, such as Termica Botosani and
Termica Suceava,” Luca said.
E.ON took over Electrica Moldova in 2005 for EUR 31.37 M, and made a fresh capital
injection of EUR 68.6 M by which it increased its stake to 51 per cent. E.ON Moldova
has a market share of 7.91 per cent and a customer base of 1.3 million.
EBRD envisages EUR 400 m worth of investments in Romania, this year
The EBRD has prepared for this year a number of 25 projects in Romania, with a
combined value of EUR 400 M, EBRD Director for Romania Hildegard Gacek said. “The
projects refer both to certain companies joining the shareholding structure and
a series of loans that the EBRD will give to certain Romanian companies,”
Gacek said. So far, the EBRD invested over EUR 3.5 bln in Romania, in over 190
projects. The largest of them involved the joint acquisition, with the International
Finance Corporation, of 25 per cent plus two shares in Banca Comerciala Romania
in 2004, for a total of USD 222 M, a package sold to Erste Bank as part of the
BCR privatisation process.
Source: Nine O'Clock
Private health insurance - EUR 10 M in 2006
The Romanian private health insurance market doubled in 2006 to approx. EUR 10
M, according to preliminary data.
“The private health insurance market is the most dynamic segment of the
market. According to estimated figures, since financial reports have not been
officially published, the market increased by 100 per cent in 2006 as compared
to 2005. The percentage is significant, but the starting point was very low,”
member of the Insurance Overseeing Commission (CSA) Board Dan Constantinescu stated
in a conference Thursday.
In his opinion, a successive doubling of private health insurance premiums for
several years would fill the gap between Romania and other European states in
this respect.
According to Constantinescu, the major hindrance to the development of private
health insurance was the incomplete legislative framework. The enforcement norms
were only recently passed, the package of healthcare services covered by the State
remained virtually unchanged, and complementary insurance mechanisms are still
being considered.
“The 2006 market growth was achieved without an adequate normative framework,
exclusively through insurers’ efforts to adjust the offer. The enforcement
of this law and the prospective improvements would increase the sector growth
rate,” the CSA official told Rompres.
Source: Nine O'Clock
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