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RADOR: News from Romania, 00-01-20
20 January, 2000
CONTENTS
[01] Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu Met Representatives of PNTCD
[02] Legislative Initiative Put Forward by PNL
[03] Festivity Marking Ten Years since PNL Re-entered the Political Arena
[04] Symposium on UDMR's Role in Romania's Political Life
[05] PNL Is in Favour of Holding the Local Elections as Scheduled
[06] Ion Iliescu Is Decided to Run Again for Romania's Presidency
[07] Extraordinary Press Conference Called by Foreign Affairs Minister
Petre Roman
[08] Official Talks Between the Romanian and Ukrainian Defense Ministers
[09] Romanian-Greek Talks
[10] Tourism Still Benefits of Tax Facilities
[11] Statements Made by Finance Minister Decebal Traian Remes
[12] President Emil Constantinescu Is Concerned With the Social Problems in
Valea Jiului
[01] Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu Met Representatives of PNTCD
Prime minister Mugur Isarescu decided to meet representatives of the
governing and oposition political parties to discuss the mid-term
development strategy, RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI informs. On Wednesday
Isarescu met a delegation of the National Peasants Christian-Democratic
Party headed by the party president, Ion Diaconescu. The issues tackled
regarded the privatization of the former state-owned farms and other
problems related to agriculture, and the speeding up of the privatization
and restructuring processes. The prime minister asked the PNTCD
representatives to politically support a radical process of public
administration simplification and reduction of bureaucracy. The PNTCD
leader assured the prime minister his party would support all measures
conferring the Government the credibility needed for the negotiations in
view of joining the European Union. RADOR
[02] Legislative Initiative Put Forward by PNL
The National Liberal Party forwarded the Chamber of Deputies a legislative
initiative regarding the amendment of article 41 in the Constitution, to
that it guarantees private property. The present wording of the article
provides the protection of this kind of property. The legislative
initiative is supported by 690,000 citizens from Bucharest and 22 counties,
RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI mentions. RADOR
[03] Festivity Marking Ten Years since PNL Re-entered the Political Arena
The Parliament Palace hosted a festivity marking ten years since the
National Liberal Party re-entered the Romanian political arena. In his
speech, Romanian president Emil Constantinescu, quoted by RADIO ROMANIA
ACTUALITATI, said PNL was one of the landmarks of the Romanian political
life, enabling the democratic edification of the country, and highly
apprciated the fact that, after coming to power, the party succeeded in
reuniting all liberal parties and factions. RADOR
[04] Symposium on UDMR's Role in Romania's Political Life
On Wednesday morning, the Democratic Union of Magyars in Romania organized
a symposium on its rol in Romania's political life, to mark ten years since
the Union's creation, RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI reports. UDMR president
Marko Bela said the Union's place and role should be analysed, as they were
contested both from inside and outside the Union. In Marko Bela's opinion,
during its ten years of existance, UDMR proved to be an important actor on
the Romanian political arena, and a factor of political stability.
President Emil Constantinescu, also present for a short while at the
symposium, said any objective observer of Romanian political life had to
admit UDMR had helped in the last ten years the edification of a democratic
system in Romania, and of stability at home and in the region. RADOR
[05] PNL Is in Favour of Holding the Local Elections as Scheduled
The National Liberal Party is in favour of holding the local elections as
scheduled, said the party's first vice-president, Valeriu Stoica, quoted by
RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI. In his opinion, any postponing would make the
local elections coincide with the general elections, which would confuse
the citizens. The liberals reaffirmed their support for Emil
Constantinescu's candidacy for Romania's Presidency, and were decided to
run in the general elections as part of the Democratic Convention. RADOR
[06] Ion Iliescu Is Decided to Run Again for Romania's Presidency
PDSR president Ion Iliescu considers the Constitutional Court has no
grounds to prevent him from running for a new mandate as Romania's
president. Iliescu said were he to give up the election race, this would be
a personal decision, adding he had no special reasons to take such a
decision. The PDSR leader said, quoted by RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI: "I
should be the first one to take such a step, if I a felt it was to the
party's advantage or if I knew we had a better or at least as good an
alternative". RADOR
[07] Extraordinary Press Conference Called by Foreign Affairs Minister
Petre Roman
On Wednesday, foreign affairs minister Petre Roman held an extraordinary
press conference, two days before the first ministerial meeting of the OSCE
troika this year. Romania is responsible with preparing the OSCE Economic
Forum to take plac in 2001, when the country would take over the
Organization's presidency. Petre Roman said the issues to be tackled during
the meeting in Viena would be the situation in Chechnya, Georgia, Nagornyi
Kharabakh, Kosovo and Montenegro. The head of the Romanian diplomacy
reaffirmed his country's strong support for a political solution of the
situation in Chechnya, for a compromise between the parties there and for
consensus on this issue within the OSCE. Roman added, quoted by RADIO
ROMANIA ACTUALITATI, Romania was asked, as member of the OSCE troika, to
assume the responsabilty of the dialogue with the Mediterranean cooperation
partners. RADOR
[08] Official Talks Between the Romanian and Ukrainian Defense Ministers
Romanian defense minister Victor Babiuc and his Ukrainian counterpart
Oleksandr Kuzmuk discussed in Bucharest about a possible cooperation
between the defense industries in the two countries, especially for the
production of crafts and armoured vehicles, about an exchange of experience
concerning the restructuring of the two armies and the equipping of troops,
especially the peacekeeping troops, and about an exchange of officers and
professors for military academies. The two defense ministers also
approached the issue of creating a joint engineers unit, made out of
Romanian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Slovac military, RADIO ROMANIA
ACTUALITATI informs. RADOR
[09] Romanian-Greek Talks
Greek deputy defense minister Dimitrios Apostolakis discussed in Bucharest
with Ioan Mircea Plangu, deputy minister for defense policy. The two
officials talked about the cooperation programs regarding both the defense
industry and the army as a whole. Ioan Mircea Plangu thanked Greece for its
support for Romania's Euro-Atlantic integration, especially concerning
interoperability. Apostolakis and Plangu also approached regional issues,
such as the European Initiative for Security and Defense, the Stability
Pact for the Balkans, the situation in Kosovo and in Serbia. The Romanian
position official considered security in the Balkans could only be reached
if Serbia was also part of it, and that Romania and Greece should cooperate
in order to establish peace in the region and avoid the spreading of
conflicts. Dimitrios Apostolakis said joint commissions of experts had been
set up in view of fostering the bilateral cooperation and of training the
military. He also said his country was interested in buying Romanian
helicopters and fighter planes IAR 99 Hawk. As for the situation in the
Balkans, the Greek official said, quoted by RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI, that
the issue of Kosovo should be solved by all possible political means, and
that Greek prime minister Costas Simitis suggested the stability in former
Yugoslavia and in the region should be achieved step by step. RADOR
[10] Tourism Still Benefits of Tax Facilities
The president of the National Tourism Administration, Sorin Frunzaverde,
said during a press conference on Wednesday tourism still benefited of tax
facilities, despite some negative comments in the press. RADIO ROMANIA
ACTUALITATI mentions that, according to the provisions of the new tax
regulations, almost 65% of the companies in tourism are exempted from the
added value tax, and the persons or family associations that went on
business in rural tourism by the end of 1999 are exempted from taxes on
profit. RADOR
[11] Statements Made by Finance Minister Decebal Traian Remes
Finance minister Decebal Traian Remes said on Wednesday, at the end of his
meeting with the members of the Senate's Economic Commission, that the
second package from the IMF loan agreement would be released in about three
weeks. He also said, quoted by RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI, the draft budget
for this year would be finalized in a few days, and forwarded to the
Parliament. RADOR
[12] President Emil Constantinescu Is Concerned With the Social Problems in
Valea Jiului
Romanian president Emil Constantinescu is concerned with the social
problems of the unemployed miners in Valea Jiului. The president's
spokesman told RADIO ROMANIA ACTUALITATI the president's counsellor for
social affairs went at the end of last week in Valea Jiului and learnt a
great number of miners would soon be left with no revenue. The Romanian
head of state asked the prime minister to analyse the situation of those
people and to adopt a special program meant to rehabilitate the mining
areas. RADOR
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