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RADOR: News from Romania, 98-07-10
July 10, 1998
CONTENTS
[01] Senate Proceedings;
[02] House of Deputies Proceedings;
[03] Minister for Relations with Parliament Dissatisfied with Extraordinary
Session's Results;
[04] A Report of Interior Ministry's Activity;
[05] PNL Press Conference;
[06] Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile on a Visit to Italy;
[07] Bucharest: International Seminar on Balkan Security;
[08] MP Lobby for Romanian-US Strategic Partnership;
[09] Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu Met US General Wesley Clark;
[10] German Delegation on a Visit to Timisoara;
[11] German Embassy Counsellor on a Visit to the SRR;
[12] Romania Signed the Convention on Artists' and Performers' Protection.
[01] Senate proceedings
The Senate's four-day extraordinary session has allowed the adoption of
several laws of major importance such as the law on regional development,
the law providing funds for farming works between 1998-2000, amendments to
Law 70 on local elections and to Law 54/1993 on organising military courts
and military attorney's offices. At a joint session on Wednesday, the
Romanian Television's Administration Council was sworn in. According to
senator Cristian Dumitrescu, vicepresident of the ruling Democratic Party
(PD), the session's main failure was the delay in adopting the law on
public property rights and their legal framework. Mr Dumitrescu has accused
the Senate's Judicial Commission of lacking the political will to draw up
the report of an essential law for the restructuring of autonomous
utilities. Chief commissioner Rasvan Dobrescu replied that the law was too
important for only one-hour debate. Following a second round of voting on
Thursday, Kozsokar Gabor, a senator representing the ruling Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), was appointed as judge in the
Constitutional Court for a nine-year mandate. RADOR
[02] House of Deputies proceedings
The deputies have adopted the draft law allowing an extraordinary session
of school-leaving exams. The new session will allow school-leavers in the
12-th and the 13-th form to pass their exams in August 18-25. The deputies
have also adopted on Thursday two draft laws on economic cooperation
agreements with Japan: the first document refers to ways of modernising the
Romanian port of Constantza while the second is aimed at restoring
Romania's national routes. The draft law amending and completing the law on
organising the Supreme Court of Justice. The speaker of the House of
Deputies, Ion Diaconescu, has announced that the next session of the
Chambre would open on September 2 unless everything was alright by then.
RADOR
[03] Minister for relations with parliament dissatisfied with extraordinary
session's results
At a PD press conference on Thursday, the Romanian Minister for Relations
with Parliament, Alexandru Sassu, said one could not say that recent
results of the extraordinary session in parliament were positive. Mr Sassu
said he was dessatisfied with the number of laws adopted and warned that
economic restructuring would be delayed. He accused the MPs of failing to
pass many essential laws the government thought as priorities such as the
law on public property rights and their legal framework, the law on local
public financing and the law on concessions. The PD leader has denied
speculations about an alleged alliance between his party and the opposition
Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR). He said that political
stability was his party's top priority. RADOR
[04] A report of Interior Ministry's activity
Romania's Interior Ministry (MI) hosted a press conference on Thursday. MI
State Secretary division general Teodor Zaharia has presented the
journalists with a report of the ministry's activity in the first six
months of the year. He announced that an Institute for Studies and
Prevention of Crime was created as part of the Inspectorate General of
Police. New police stations opened in Ploiesti, Pitesti and Brasov and
another one was to open in Constantza shortly. Another success was the
setting up of the Police Inspectorate in the county of Ilfov. Interior
Minister Gavril Dejeu has announced a 10% cut in the personnel of
departments resulted from UM 0215 closedown. Answering concerns of growing
criminality in the country, the minister assured that the situation was
under control. RADOR
[05] PNL press conference
The leader of the National Liberal Party, Mircea Ionescu Quintus, believes
that the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) did not break the law when it
answered the Romanian President's request to investigate and clear all the
members in his Defence Supreme Council (CSAT) of any accusation concerning
their alleged links with the former communist secret police, the
Securitate. At the PNL press conference on Thursday, Justice Minister
Valeriu Stoica and PNL deputy Vasile Mandroviceanu, commissioner for the
SRI monitoring, have shared Mr Quintus' opinion. Referring to the PNL
Permanent Central Bureau's recent decision to sanction the party's
vicepresident Viorel Catarama by limiting his attributions, Mr Quintus
pointed out that the Bureau was entitled to make such a decision and more,
Mr Catarama was banned to speak in the name of the party. According to Mr
Quitus, the party leadership believes that Mr Catarama's accusations are
unjustified. RADOR
[06] Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile on a visit to Italy
While in Turin on Thursday, Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile has
attended the seminar on "Italy: Romania's No. 1 Economic Partner. Business
Opportunities in Romania". Addressing the audience, the prime minister said
his government was trying hard to improve the legislation encouraging
foreign investments though he admitted that existing bureaucracy and recent
political developments badly affected the foreign investments. Mr Radu
Vasile said the situation would have been changed if Romania had some more
partners as Italy was. He expressed the regret that no Italian bank was
operating in Romania, and mentioned that Italy topped third among Romania's
foreign investors (6,000 Italian participating in 300 million dollar
investments). The Romanian prime minister visited the FIAT car manufacturer
in Turin where he put forward some cooperation projects. According to such
projects, Romania may purchase or produce spare parts for HSTs or
underground trains and purchase 200 ambulances. RADOR
[07] Bucharest: international seminar on Balkan security
An international seminar on "Balkan Insecurity Sources. Threats and
Conflicts" opened in Bucharest on Thursday. Hosts include the Romanian
National Defence Ministry's Institute for Political and Defence Studies and
Military History, the US National Defence University's Institute for
National Strategic Studies and NATO's Information and Press Office.
Participants include experts and senior representatives of South-East
European countries. The Bulgarian delegates have expressed the hope that
their country was soon to become the centre of energy communications in the
Balkans. A Bulgarian Foreign Ministry official said that his country's
contribution to Balkan and European security might depend on the Caucasian
oil transport through its territory. A delegate representing Bulgaria's
Defence Ministry has expressed his support for a peace-keeping force around
the Albanian and Yugoslav borders and an enforced UN peace-keeping mission
in Macedonia or its replacement by NATO forces in order to prevent the
escalation of the Kosovo conflict to neighboring regions. The Bulgarian
delegation warned that new economic sanctions on Yugoslavia might threat
the political stability of neighbouring countries and have serious
consequences. RADOR
[08] MP lobby for Romanian-US Strategic Partnership
At its session on Thursday, the House of Deputies has announced the setting
up of an MP group lobbying for the Romanian-US Strategic Partnership. The
group includes 25 deputies led by Ion Ratiu, Adrian Nastase and Bogdan
Niculescu-Duvaz as co-presidents. According to a communique issued by the
House of Deputies' Press and Image Office, the US Congress has already
decided to lobby the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US.
RADOR
[09] Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu met US general Wesley Clark
Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu met US general Wesley Clark, chief
commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, on a visit to Romania following
an invitation by National Defence Minister Victor Babiuc. After their
meeting on Thursday, the American official said he believed Romania had a
leading role as source of stability in the region. Minister Plesu has
presented Romania's new strategic policy concerning the country's
integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures. He pointed out that
Bucharest believed the process was crucial, but he however indicated that
Romania should now exercise an active patience avoiding propaganda hard
lines. RADOR
[10] German delegation on a visit to Timisoara
A German delegation led by Gerhard Seiler, the mayor of Karlsruhe, and
Christian-Democrat deputy Gunther Russel is expected in Timisoara on
Friday. The delegates will provide humanitarian aid for the Adam Muller
Gutenbrunn House while on Saturday, they are expected to meet
representatives of the City Hall and the Chamber of Industry, Commerce and
Agriculture in Timisoara. RADOR
[11] German embassy counsellor on a visit to the SRR
While on a visit to the Romanian Broadcasting Corporation (SRR) on Thursday,
Mr Walter von den Drisch, counsellor with the German Embassy in Bucharest,
met editors in the German Department of Minorities, the head of the SRR
Foreign Relations Directorate Dan Santa and RRA editor Doina Jalea. The
guest declared after the meeting that there was a very good relationship
between RADIO ROMANIA and DEUTSCHE WELLE and said he was amazed about how
fast the Romanian press was developing since the fall of the communist
regime. He said the SRR activity was an outstanding proof that the freedom
of the press was now guaranteed in Romania. The German cousellor said the
very intensive high level contacts between the two countries did nothing
but expressed the growing interest of Germany in Romania. RADOR
[12] Romania signed the Convention on artists and performers' protection
Romanian President Emil Constantinescu has ratified the document confirming
Romania as member in the International Convention protecting the rights of
artists, performers, recording and radio producers, adopted in Rome on
October 26, 1961. A Romanian Presidency communique says the new regulations
are expected to come into force as soon as the document will be submitted
to the UN Secretariate General. RADOR
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