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RADOR: News from Romania, 98-09-02
September 2, 1998
CONTENTS
[01] Senate Proceedings;
[02] Agriculture Minister's Report Before the Senate;
[03] Romania's Hungarian Language Teaching University under Debate;
[04] Restructuring of MApN's Directorate for Military Protection and
Security;
[05] Higher Wages for the Military;
[06] OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities on a Visit to Romania;
[07] IMF Chief Negociator for Romania on a Visit to Bucharest;
[08] Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile on a Visit to Lebanon;
[09] Closing Ceremony of "People and Religions" International Conference.
[01] Senate proceedings
With 104 votes for and 4 abstentions, the Romanian Senate has adopted the
draft law on concession regime. At the session on Tuesday, the senators
have approved the article #2 establishing the goods, activities and public
services subject to concession as previously stipulated in the additional
report submitted by the Senate's both legal and privatisation commissions.
According to the law, public transport, motorways, bridges and tunnels,
mail services, energy, oil and gas suppliers may be subject to concession.
The article #2 in the draft law also stipulates that goods, activities and
public services of no legal regulation or competition cannot be subject to
concession. The 49-year concession contract can be extended for no more
than a half of the period of time initially agreed.
With 103 votes for, 4 votes against and 13 abstentions, the Senate has also
passed on Tuesday the draft law on public property rights and its legal
framework. The main article in the draft law was about to block the debates
but it was finally adopted after the MP group leaders reached a consensus
over the matter. According to a last minute article in the law, in six
months the government should present a draft law allowing the retrocession
of properties confiscated between 1945 and 1989 and establishing
compensations in case such properties could not go back to their legal
owners. RADOR
[02] Agriculture minister's report before the Senate
The extraordinary session of the Senate has ended with a report by
Romania's Agriculture Minister Dinu Gavrilescu. The minister has presented
the senators with an updated report concerning his ministry's activity and
its future plans. He coplained about the heavy rains and the drought that
badly affected the crops this year. According to a first forecast, the
damages may have eaten up the agriculture's entire budget. Mr Gavrilescu
has pointed out however that the farmers were also to blame as they did not
show to much interest in farming. This is why more than 280,000 hectars of
land were actually wastes, the minister believes. Mr Gavrilescu has also
prepared a draft order allowing the financial support of seed purchase and
another one reconsidering the debts of loss-making economic agents in the
next five years. RADOR
[03] Romania's Hungarian language teaching university under debate
Following the Romanian Government Order 267/July 17 1998, the commission to
examine opportunities for the setting up of a Hungarian language teaching
university in Romania met on Tuesday. According to a communique issued by
the Department for national minority protection, the commission has
reviewed the main issues in the project concerning the setting up of a
Hungarian language teaching state university. According to the communique,
the commissioners have agreed that a final report over the matter was
expected to establish the institutional framework of the project according
to regulations generally accepted. RADOR
[04] Restructuring of MApN's Directorate for military protection and
security
A communique issued by the Press Office of Romania's Ministry of National
Defence (MApN) has announced that the Directorate for military protection
and security was subject to restructuring. The restructuring project will
be based on functional, professional and efficiency principles and it will
be submitted to the Romania's Supreme Council for Defence (CSAT) for
further debate. The department chief gen. Ion Dohotaru was dismissed
following the "Cigarette 2" scandal unvailed in the Romanian press this
spring. He was blamed for failing to prevent and examine such obvious
violations of military regulations at the air base in Otopeni, the
communique recalls. RADOR
[05] Higher wages for the military
The MApN Financial Directorate has announced that the reviewed budget was
expected to ensure the necessary funds allowing higher wages and salaries
for the military starting with October 1. A MApN Press Office communique
says that the reviewed budget will also allow the pay of compensations for
the dismissed personnel as stipulated in the Government Ordinance #7.
RADOR
[06] OSCE high commissioner for minorities on a visit to Romania
While at the Parliament Palace on Tuesday, the speaker of Romania's House
of Deputies, Ion Diaconescu, met Max van der Stoel, OSCE High Commissioner
for national minorities. The commissioner said his visit was expected to
provide more information about the progress Romania made in this respect.
The OSCE High Commissioner Max van der Stoel met Romania's Education
Minister Andrei Marga on Tuesday. In his statement, Mr Marga said that the
meeting was aimed at providing more information about the recent measures
the National Education Ministry (MEN) adopted to improve the education
system. The commissioner wanted to get more information about recent
developments in the educational process for young Rroma and about the
debates over the Hungarian language teaching higher education system in
Romania as well as the mutual recognition of graduating diplomas between
Romania and Hungary. Other MEN initiatives also include the publishing of
textbooks in cooperation with European institutions, Romanian textbooks
translated into minority languages, textbooks written by intelectuals
representing the national minorities and translations of foreign textbooks
authorised by the MEN. The discussions have also focused on issues
concerning the restructuring of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca
as a multicultural university. RADOR
[07] IMF chief negociator for Romania on a visit to Bucharest
The IMF chief negociator for Romania, Poul Thomsen, has arrived in
Bucharest on Tuesday. The unexpected visit is due to recent concerns with
the deteriorating financial situation in Russia. Mr Thomsen's visit is not
part of the usual IMF official missions to the country. He is expected to
discuss with the Romanian officials the recent developments in the
country's economy, the reviewing of the Budget and the way the Russian
financial crisis may affect Romania's currency and financial markets. Mr
Thomsen is expected to meet Prime Minister Radu Vasile, Finance Minister
Daniel Daianu and Mugur Isarescu, the Governor of Romania's National Bank
(BNR). The IMF official was expected to visit Romania later in September
for a new round of negotiations as no loan agreement was now operating
between the two sides. RADOR
[08] Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile on a visit to Lebanon
The last day of Rpmania's Prime Minister Radu Vasile to Lebanon included
the reconstruction plants in the capital Beirut where he had talks with
senior representatives of the leading building company in the country. The
Lebanese would like growing exports of building materials from Romania
while the Romanian side, who signed an emergency ordinance to help restore
the old Bucharest centre last week, was interested in getting Lebanese
assistance in the project, Romanian State Secretary Laszlo Borbely
declared. At a meeting with Lebanese businessmen and industrialists,
Romania's Privatisation Minister Sorin Dimitriu has presented the Lebanese
investors with Romania's offer in the field such as telecommunications,
tourism, agriculture and oil. Prime Minister Vasile said Lebanon should get
involved in the Caspian oil transport routes linking Constantza and Trieste
along with the other countries in the region. While at the Otopeni Airport
on Tuesday, Prime Minister Radu Vasile said his two-day visit to Lebanon
was mainly due to economic reasons and it actually launched the
negotiations over a Romanian-Lebanese free trade agreement. Mr Vasile
announced that the Oil National Company in Romania was soon to run two oil
extracting plants in Kazakhstan. The prime minister recalled that Romania
has made its appearence on the oil market for the first time since 1984.
"As far as politics are concerned, I may say that the Lebanese prime
minister has accepted an invitation to visit Romania maybe early next year",
the prime minister said in a statement to the RRA. RADOR
[09] Closing ceremony of "People and Religions" international conference
The third and last session of the "People and Religions" international
conference has ended in Bucharest on Tuesday. Processions and prayers were
reported in Romania's capital while the reunion's closing ceremony has been
organised in the Piata Universitatii (ed.n. University Plaza) at 6:00 PM
the same day. In his closing speech, Romanian President Emil Constantinescu
said that, in a regional context, the meeting proved that dialogue was the
only efficient way to promote closer relations between nations around the
world. The dialogue also proved that politics ansd religion could cooperate
on the verge of the third millenium and serve the world's common interests,
the president added. In his opinion, there is a need for an unconventional
thinking, a need of insitutional and educational reform all over the world
in order to get large religious communities closer and, as he put it, new
legal instruments should be ratified to eliminate the existing economic
gaps and promote technological progress. RADOR
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