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RADOR: News from Romania, 98-12-07
December 7, 1998
CONTENTS
[01] Meeting at Cotroceni Between the President and Cabinet Ministers;
[02] PNL Believes the Coalition Parties in Parliament Should Support the
Government;
[03] Nicolae Vacaroiu Says the Governing Programme Is Not Expected to Solve
Economic Crisis;
[04] Health minister's Press Conference;
[05] First Informal Meeting of Integration Ministers in EU Applicant
States;
[06] Romania's Chances to Join NATO.
[01] Meeting at Cotroceni between the president and Cabinet ministers
The ministers of the main economic ministries and Prime Minister Radu
Vasile have asked President Emil Constantinescu to suppoer their short term
economic programme. Participants in the meeting at the Cotroceni Palace on
Saturday included Prime Minister Radu Vasile, Justice Minister Valeriu
Stoica, Transport Minister Traian Basescu, Finance Minister Decebal Traian
Remes, Industry and Trade Minister Radu Berceanu, Agriculture Minister Ioan
Muresan, Labour Minister Alexandru Athanasiu and the president of the State
Ownership Found (FPS) Adminsitration Council Radu Sarbu. They asked the
president to call on the parties in the governing coalition to express
their support of the short term measures the government was expected to
take in its efforts to restore the credibility of the reform. The president
was provided with information about the measures agreed by the government
on November 5 in its efforts to accelerate the restructuring and
privatisation and achieve the economic recovery. Pointing out that such
measures should be urgently implemented, the ministers have presented a
series of development programmes mainly supporting the SMEs and emerging
economic regions. The talks also focused on social measures designed to
reintegrate the people set free following the restructuring amnd support
the difavoured and poor families having many children. RADOR
[02] PNL believes the coalition parties in parliament should support the
government
The president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Mircea Ionescu Quintus,
said the coalition parties in parliament should support the government's
short term economic programme. Consequently, the government should assume
before parliament its full resposibility for the anti-crisis programme.
Rejecting the request of the Christian Democrat National Peasant Party
(PNTCD), the PNL believes however that the government should not assume any
responsibility for the laws on returning confisctaed properties. Mr Quintus
believes it is too risky to make such demand as long as the commission the
coalition appointed to solve the problem did not come to any conclusion.
RADOR
[03] Nicolae Vacaroiu says the governing programme is not expected to solve
economic crisis
The vicepresident of the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR),
Nicolae Vacaroiu, said the Opposition was not supposed to support the
government's pledge before parliament. He believes its programme is not
supposed to solve the economic crisis but, on the contrary, it may lead to
further deterioration. Mr Vacaroiu added that the Opposition could submit a
censure motion following the government's pledge, but a final decision over
the issue was still to be made. He announced that, on Monday morning,
before the meeting of parliamentary party leaders designed to put an end to
the crisis in parliament, the PDSR Executive Bureau is expected to meet and
consider the recent developments in the country's politics. RADOR
[04] Health minister's press conference
Romanian Health Minister Hajdu Gabor has attended a press conference at his
ministry recently. He said the conference was expected to be a response to
the communique issued by the National Council of Medical Doctors in Romania
who blamed the Health Ministry, and minister Hajdu Gabor personally, for
"the collapse and the multi-billion debt with no chance of pay-back as well
as for blocking the health reform and destroying the insurance system by
dividing it into smaller systems dedicated to privileged social
categories". The minister pointed out the finacial, material, technical and
moral hardships the health system was facing and mentioned that the Health
Commission in the Senate was the only one who made every effort to help.
Hajdu Gabor said that, despite difficulties, he was going to take further
action to put the government's health programme into practice. RADOR
[05] First informal meeting of integration ministers in EU Applicant States
The first informal meeting of integration ministers in EU Applicant States
has been taking place at Victoria Palace on Sunday. The meeting was hold a
year after the Luxembourg summit and proceded the EU enlarged summit
planned in Vienna on December 10-12. Participants included ministers and
state secretaries in all the 11 EU Applicant States, representatives of the
Austrian EU Presidency and along with officials of the European Commission
Delegation to Bucharest. It is for the first time, since the EU enlargement
to Central and Eastern Europe began, when all the Applicant States met for
mutual information and consultation concerning their future EU membership.
The speakers pointed out that the integration process stood open to all EU
Applicant States. RADOR
It is for the first time when representatives of all the 11 EU Applicant
States met in Bucharest. The main topics included foreign policy and
security issues as well as issues concerning the SMEs, education, research,
telecommunications, culture and audiovisuals. The Slovakian representative
proposed his country to be the host of the meeting next year. RADOR
"For the time being, the accession negotiations concern only seven fields,
and Romania's position is rather good in six of them. In some of the fields,
Romania is getting even better than the countries who already started the
negotiations". In a statement on television, Romanian Integration Minister
Alexandru Herlea has admitted however that Romania's industrial position
was rather difficult and the problem of entry visas was putting the country
in a rather embarrassing position. RADOR
The first informal meeting of EU Applicant States representatives and
European integration authorities has ended on Sunday evening. A joint press
conference organised by Romania's Integration Minister Alexandru Herlea and
the Austrian ambassador to Romania, Karl von der Lillie, also representing
the Austrian EU Presidency, pointed out the need to reduce the existing
handicap between the candidates by encouraging the progress in the
countries left behind. Karl von der Lillie has also mentioned the issue of
entry visas for Romanians wishing to visit Austria. He said the problem
included two aspects: firstly, the problem of third world citizens crossing
Romania on their way to Western Europe - a problem to be solved by the laws
the Government in Bucharest was expected to adopt in the attempt to prevent
illegal immigration - and secondly, Romania's exclusion from the "black
list" following the government efforts to improve the Romanians' standard
of living. "When the difference between the standards of living will
approximate, the problem will be solved", Mr Lillie assured. The ambassador
also announced that his country bought a new building to avoid the queues
of people waiting in front of the Austrian consulate. RADOR
[06] Romania's chances to join NATO
In an interview shortly before the meeting in Brussels of NATO's Council of
Ministers, Wolfgang Ischinger, German Foreign Ministry's State Secretary,
has mentioned some issues concerning the future of NATO's expansion. He
said that, at the Washington summit in April 1999, Germany was expected to
reiterate its wish to co-operate with all the countries wishing to join the
Alliance, but one could not expect the Washington summit to make a concrete
decision on the matter. Wolfgang Ischinger pointed out that "it would be a
terrible mistake to presume that NATO's "open door" policy would depend on
Russia's position on the matter" and added that the Alliance developed a
multilateral and constructive relationship with Russia. The German official
explained that the membership of new candidates depended on their progress
in meeting the accession criteria - a stable democratic regime and economic
progress. He said "there was no doubt that Romania, along with Slovakia and
Bulgaria, were part of the group to consider when a future NATO expansion
would be decided. These candidates have the best chances", Mr Ischinger
said, "and Romania's chances are good considering the fact that the country
was directly mentioned as NATO candidate at the summit in Madrid". However,
Mr Ischinger stopped short of making any prediction about the date when the
expansion's new round was expected to start. RADOR
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