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Hello ! Friends & Visitors

Starting next Monday the Daily NEWS & COMMENTS will be presentet in a NEW format !!!
This new improvement will gave to any reader the opportynity to select his/her preffered article by simply pushing the right-link added.
Here bellow we illustrate with an sample the NEW presentation formula

EDITORIALS

“President X said this” – here -
“President X said yesterday that him….“

“Parliament has addopted the Law of…“ – here -
“Yesterday, the Romanian Parliament has addopted the Law of…“

And so on….

COMMENTARIES

“War & Peace between Cotroceni and Victoria Palaces” – here -
“Yesterday, the War between Cotroceni and Victoria Palaces has become…“

“Democrat PMs wants initiate a new bill against Government” – here -
“The Democrats says they want to initiate a new bill against Government…“

And so on….

We hope that this NEW formula will gain Your accept so we wish to All of U: ENJOY IT !!!


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Romanian President: It is impossible it should have come from me

Yesterday the President of Romania Traian Basescu demanded PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu to urgently appoint a competent person to head the Ministry of Agriculture and he warned the PM publicly that the dismemberment of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department) would lead to the application of the safeguard clause on Romanian Justice. The government denied such intention at once. The President also announced that he had just signed the decree to suspend agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes.
President Basescu warned: "It is essential that neither the Romanians nor the authorities in Brussels should take the PM for a politician deadlocking Justice. I am warning him publicly that a measure such as the dismemberment of the DNA may lead to the activation of the safeguard clause on Justice". He mentioned he was expressing such warning because of information claiming the government was intending to do it by means of an emergency ordinance. The President added: "The government is certainly taking efforts to protect present ministers under suspicion". But he apologized, in case the information was not true.
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".
Cozmin Gusa, a leader of the National Initiative Party, commented yesterday: "The government is plotting something very serious these days: an emergency ordinance to pass next week and stipulate the unification of the activities performed by the DNA, the Department to Prevent Organized Criminality and Terrorism and the General Information Department in the Ministry of Defense into one single department, to be headed by someone close to the Liberal government, at present an adviser of the interior minister Cristian David".
Camelia Spataru, a spokeswoman for the Romanian government, announced at once that the government had no intention to dismember the DNA, like the President was claiming. She mentioned the government had already denied all press rumor on a "so-called emergency ordinance to dismember the DNA before the President's statement yesterday". The spokeswoman just added: "PM Tariceanu is accepting Traian Basescu's apologizes for releasing untrue information. The sources misinformed him, unfortunately".

Anca Hriban
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Source and evidence

By trying to put the blame for a very severe misdeed on someone else, Daniel Morar, a head of DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), actually put the blame on Traian Basescu. In fact, he pointed to the President as the source that unveiled in the open the recording allegedly incriminating minister Remes and ex minister Muresan. While Robert Turcescu, host of the TV talk show, was pressing him, Daniel Morar kept on denying that the documents had leaked to the Romanian Public Television from the prosecutor handling the case or from himself. And this is how the head of the DNA made it plain that the respective document had reached Cotroceni Palace. It is common logic that shows the guilty must be sought for in Cotroceni Palace, at the highest level, since it was not prosecutors who plotted the fake.
According to the law, the release of materials thought to be evidence is sanctioned because the law bans such a practice. There are at least two reasons for it. The unveiling of information is risky for the success of the inquiry and it may jeopardize the prosecutor's work. On the other hand, until the respective information turns into relevant evidence, meaning judicial proves, until the proves become part of an indictment to reach court after the accused has learned about the indictment, to release such information to the public means to break the presumption of innocence, to nail to the wall people who may prove innocent and compromise their honor and public credibility.
In the first case, if the person under watch is indeed guilty, he gets away with it because of procedure break. Therefore the law protects both the progress of investigations and citizens' basic rights. This is why law breaks are severely punished, no matter who commits them. Since the President keeps silent, we can only admit that Daniel Morar is right. Therefore it was from Cotroceni Palace that the information leaked to the Romanian Public Television.
But how come the recording broadcast on this channel last Wednesday had reached Cotroceni Palace ? Why did Daniel Morar send it there and to whom ? We know that the so-called evidence against Remes and Muresan was recorded in the last week of September. And this was the last time the members of the commission established to decide whether certain officials should be investigated or not got together. The commission was suspended because of minister Chiuariu's argument that several commission members were in a conflict of interests. Secondly, the commission was simply dismembered by means of the government's emergency ordinance. Therefore the recording couldn't have been meant for a ghost commission in Cotroceni Palace. Than for whom ?
The answer to this question is the key to several mysteries of the recent past. It was Traian Basescu who started the trend of investigations made on TV, of disclosing information from cases in progress, not part of indictments. While browsing the information he used to get at Cotroceni Palace as head of state, the President broke both the rule of the game and the law several times, by releasing via some press mercenaries information true or faked in order to compromise people he took for adversaries. It has been a kind of ritualistic exercise. Sometimes Traian Basescu made use of such information overtly, in his own statements.
This time it is as clear as daylight that Traian Basescu is the source of this disclosing. And he must be sanctioned for it. But Daniel Morar is guilty too. He too broke the law when providing the President with such documents, since the President hasn't got the constitutional right to stick his nose in criminal cases.
As for the public television, an institution we pay for, it had no right to participate in obvious manipulation originating from an illegal deed, even if it was the head of state himself who had done it.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Suspect no. 1

The President of Romania Traian Basescu told the nation that the recording released on the Public Television didn't originate in the presidential safe. Still all the clues show it was him who ordered the plot.
Yesterday morning the President commented that, to the entire political class, he was the "suspect on duty". In the evening he said the evidence had reached his presidential safe, but that it was not him who had disclosed it. Daniel Morar, a head of the Anti-Corruption Department, also claimed that the evidence had not originated from the institution he ruled and he blamed the progress of the inquiry on his employees. Prosecutors Claudiu Dumitrescu and Lucian Papici had the legal means to search and arrest the agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes, but they didn't do it, which is unexplainable. They preferred the media show, a political strike for Traian Basescu, to Justice. The result followed at once: minister Remes resigned.
The Superior Council of Magistracy started investigations to detect the source of the leaking information. On the other hand, Rodica Culcer, a coordinator of the News Department in the Romanian Public Television, says everything was legal and she mentions the Public Television is in the habit of censoring materials.
The National Council for Audio and Visual Media addressed the Prosecutor's Office on the break of human rights and of the Criminal Procedure Code.
As for the international press, there are commentaries on this latest high level corruption case in Romania and on the European Commission's warning about the state of Romanian agriculture. (...)

Razvan Savaliuc
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Evidence case had reached Cotroceni Palace

According to Daniel Morar, a head of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), the recording showing the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes taking bribe had not come from the DNA. Last Wednesday the official claimed he didn't know how come the images filmed had reached the Romanian Public Television. He didn't deny that Presidency could be a source, since Presidency had been provided with all the evidence on the case.
The DNA head argued: "I don't know how these images got to the Romanian Public Television. The intercepting was done on grounds of warrants from a judge. To arrange a flagrant is allowed during the preliminary stages too. The case together with all the evidence reached the President of Romania, according to the law". It is to be noticed that he didn't even confirm the images were authentic. He announced there would follow inquiry on the recording broadcast by the Romanian Public Television.
Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania's general attorney, said yesterday that the opening checks on the way the recording showing minister Remes taking bribe leaked was very important. She mentioned she had asked the DNA head for an account on it. The general attorney commented: "I haven't got all the clues to tell if that recording is authentic or not, if it is part of a criminal case or not".
She claimed she might not give an opinion on the source of the leak, which would become clear after the inquiry was over. As for the idea that one prosecutor might have provided the information and the measures to be taken, Kovesi answered: "In criminal terms, there are no sanctions".

D.E.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Democrats work on new bill against government

The PD (Democrat Party) and the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party) are said to be working on a new bill against the ruling government, the Mediafax informs, invoking sources from both parties. The main reason for it is the corruption within the government and the main targets are the Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the labor minister Paul Pacuraru, the Justice minister Tudor Chiuariu and the now ex agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes.
In order to reach the Parliament a bill against the government needs support from at least a quarter of the Romanian MPs. Therefore the Democrats and the Liberal-Democrats will find it difficult to collect the number of signatures needed, because the Social-Democrat parliamentarians, authors of the last bill against the government, have no longer got the right to sign for support for one more such bill this parliamentary term. Sill the PD leaders are hopeful they will manage to persuade into it the independent MPs and those representing the "Greater Romania" Party and the Conservative Party.

D.I.
Ziua friday 12 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

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Traian Basescu and the political prosecutors

Traian Basescu is between the sea and the devil, meaning between the political prosecutors he unbound and the Superior Council of Magistracy who reached a decision. The Council came up with a real indictment against the National Anti-Corruption Department in general and against those prosecutors collaborating best with Cotroceni Palace in particular. Since he is 'a president-player' making use of his ambition to confiscate the whole power, Traian Basescu has got to defend his protegees. Due to these prosecutors of state who serve the President's personal interests instead of serving Justice and national interests Traian Basescu can keep his political adversaries in the cramp and break their spines by election time. On the other hand, as he is a head of state, he must obey the Constitution, meaning state institutions and their independence. And he must also serve citizens and see that their fundamental rights are respected. It is just that the report by the Superior Council of Magistracy, the supreme instance in matters of Justice, shows it as clearly as possible that the prosecutors working for the National Anti-Corruption Department broke procedures and therefore human rights too. But a question such as "What will Basescu do in the end and how will he settle the above-mentioned dilemma ?" is just rhetorical.
Traian Basescu made a choice. A short time ago he dared express a too early opinion on the scandal in Chishinau, with a Romanian diplomat accused of visa trafficking. He had actually claimed the diplomat was innocent before there was any inquiry. But the diplomat was presently accused. In this case too the President praised the political prosecutors just a few days before the Superior Council of Magistracy reached verdict. The Romanian President tried not only to influence a decision up to the supreme Justice institution, but also to humiliate the members of the above-mentioned Council. In other words, he managed to defile Justice independence, which is why he is as silent as a fish now, because there is no other way he can explain it.
Justice can't possibly continue as the black sheep among the powers in the Romanian State and it can neither be some politicians' whore. The idea of fight against corruption has been enough compromised by political vendettas. Together with the very insufficient budget, this is why people's distrust in Justice has reached as low as ever in a democratic state. It is no wonder that Romanian and foreign analysts think Justice is running out of credibility reserves. So what is left of a state where this power is knocked out by the very constitutionally elected President ?
Take your hands off Justice, Mr. Basescu ! Out with the political prosecutors at once ! Each of them must be under investigations and we must return to citizens' agenda. Romanian courthouses are crowded with people asking for their rights, mostly in civil trials, thousand times more numerous and some of them more painful than the criminal ones. Prosecutors were turned into state lawyers, some of them against their will, to serve government and Presidency. As for judges, the only magistrates still pleading for fair Justice, they can't work normally because of having no facilities, although it is them who do away with as much as can be done away with from the shame of Justice, trying to deadlock the political prosecutors' abuses, among others.
Now they are working on the 2008 budget. If political parties have got the slightest respect for citizens and the slightest consideration for Justice, supposed to be a truly independent power in state, it is time for these institutions to get the necessary funds. Justice needs to drive away the incompetent ones, just as it needs money and management.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua thursday 11 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Plot against minister Remes

The assemblage of the images showing the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes caught red-handed while taking so-called bribe from ex minister Muresan, broadcast in the News on TVR, the public television channel, shows the offensive comes from Cotroceni Palace.
The effects of the decision to dismember the Cotroceni commission are proving devastating for the Tariceanu Cabinet's credibility. The 'flagrant' leads to the conclusion that the Ordinance on the ministerial responsibility law was released so that President Basescu would no longer get to ministers.
The recording images show ex minister Muresan telling denouncer Ciorba: "They have expected... the guy to attack. You know, BASESCU... And they dissolved that commission through which he summons ministers to the COMMISSION ! So he has got no place to summon them to !"
Theoretically speaking, the leak may come from the National Anti-Corruption Department, the Prosecutor's Office, the Bucharest Courthouse or Court of Appeal or even Cotroceni Palace. The Prosecutor's Office claims not unsealing the evidence. Muresan says the courts showed no recording. Therefore the recording could have been produced only by Cotroceni Palace or the National Anti-Corruption Department at the President's request.
The Romanian Justice minister Tudor Chiuariu wants criminal investigations on the leaking information. The Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu intends to ask agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes to resign, but he also wants to watch the recording broadcast by TVR.
As for the minister allegedly caught red-handed, he made no comments. On the other hand Avram Muresan didn't admit he had talked about some envelope, but the images recorded show the opposite. (...)

George Tarata
Ziua thursday 11 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Budget to rejoice

The Romanian government passed yesterday the law draft on the 2008 budget, described as a budget for Romania's development. Therefore the government met the October 15 deadline set in the public finance law, according to which the government is now to provide the Parliament with the budget projects by October 15. The MPs are to consent by December 15.
No extra taxes and fees
According to the government, one main target of the budget is to stick to a stimulating fiscal policy. It is to be mentioned that it settles no tax or fee raise and no new taxes, the Romanian PM explained. The income to the general consolidated budget is to reach 174,2 billion RON, which is 39,6% of the gross domestic product. The consolidated budget deficit is estimated to reach 2,7% of the GDP, as in 2007.
According to the figures the Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu presented yesterday, the GDP is to go up to 440 billion RON (138 billion Euro) next year, meaning 7,000 Euro per 1 Romanian. They estimate the economic growth will reach 6,5% and inflation is evaluated to 3,8%. As for the current account deficit, it is 13,3%. (...)
Enough for everybody
The PM argued: "It is a budget for Romania's development. The main ideas are that it meets the interests of all social categories and the requirements on Romania's development". He also announced the priority fields: education, transportation, infrastructure, research, health, agriculture and pensions. The PM said education would get 6% of the GDP, 27% than this year, research would be granted 0,7% of the GDP and 4% of the GDP was meant for transportation, which is 14% more than in 2007. (...)

Corina Scarlat
Ziua thursday 11 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

European Commission's last warning for Romania

The European Commission has announced Romania that the EU will apply the safeguard clause and Romanians will lose 443 million Euro, unless the state settles the severe deficiencies in agriculture in one month's time.
As predictable, Romania has got into trouble in Brussels again. A letter by the European Commission reached the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes yesterday, warning the safeguard clause was a threat. If applied, it would mean a 25% cut on the EU subventions for Romanian agriculture, reaching 443 million Euro in 2008. Unless Romania remedies certain severe deficiencies in its fund management and control system, the Commission will meet in late November and decide to apply the safeguard clause, which doesn't go for Bulgaria too, because the officials have concluded everything is working perfectly in the latter country.
The European Commission mentions in the release those persisting flaws in Romania, as noticed by the audit teams who visited the country in June and September: the IT system allowing the outcome of checks to enter the system and the calculation of sums to be paid. There are also mentioned deficiencies persisting in administrative checks and more.
The statement made by the European Commission's spokesman makes it obvious that Brussels officials are now waiting for a miracle to bring very fast action and guarantee for more checks on the spot. One more problem may consist in their intention to continue the audit controls and to check on the system's solvency with help from an international company. EU officials are little or not at all confident in national authorities' ability to achieve it.
In his interview to ZIUA, Michael Mann, a spokesman for the European Commission, explains this is a last warning for Romania. He advises the country to start work at once, hurry up and make the IT system operative. The EU official mentions the first deadline is November 9, when Romanian authorities are to present the updated state of computer systems. The spokesman adds that, in case they decide not to apply the safeguard clause, they will have to proceed to audit controls in the first months of 2008 and he claims that EU officials are neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but just hopeful.

Cristian Unteanu, Brussels
Ziua thursday 11 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

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Another failure of Traian Basescu's

Another plan plotted by the President reached a deadlock yesterday and turned to dust in the Parliament of Romania, where his presidential party, accompanied by the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party) and together with Geoana's wing in the PSD (Social-Democrat Party), had just managed to establish majority. The organic law voted yesterday forbids the President to arrange a referendum to take place at the same time with the local or parliamentary elections. This is a commentary on the defeat Traian Basescu suffered yesterday, because it is not just one failure among others, but the start of a disaster, if we consider the highly important political consequences of the most recent parliamentary decision.
Politicians together with the press and the other components of civil society have lately been taking real interest in the various versions of the uninominal vote law. The possibility to achieve an intensified reform of Romanian politics lies ahead of this vote system. It may be achieved due to substantial changes in the behaviour and structure of parties. It will be illusionary to think that the adoption of the uninominal vote system, according to which people matter more than the lists drawn by parties, could have positive effects on the elections due next autumn. On the contrary, haste may turn this important political project, which all parties embraced before Traian Basescu got to pretend to author it, into real remarkable failure. If politicians were elected on grounds of a uninominal mechanism starting with tomorrow, parties would find it impossible to proceed to prestidigitation and simply invent new people, different from those in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, people to guarantee a more efficient, more modern and cleaner Parliament. How could parties produce such people in just a few months ? Parties should make such people, especially in their youth branches.
Therefore the 2012 election would be a prospect more realistic than the 2008 ones. Except for the PD (Democrat Party), an expert in presidential karaoke, all the parties are aware of this now. But neither the President nor the PD is interested in the contents, in the real substance of the uninominal vote. They only care about the momentary propaganda and electoral effects of an action such as taking over this initiative. It is not the denouement that matters to Traian Basescu, in fact. He is pursuing the exceptional opportunity to make propaganda for his credibility and for the PD's credibility, although a President, and get no sanction because of the Constitution. The referendum is the vehicle to be used. Could he decide to hold a referendum, he could speak freely, claiming he informs people about it at times when the electoral campaign is progressing. It is the very reason why the President has announced his firm intention to have the referendum take place at the same time with early elections.
The government, assailed from all sides, is trying to counter this move. Government members have insinuated that, in order to avoid a referendum, they are ready to take responsibility for a uninominal vote law to be applied starting with 2012. Seemingly, it is one more opportunity to overthrow the government. Parties would have all reasons to vote for the latter version and the government would thus go the safe way. The government would be wrong not to take responsibility for the law and the other way around: the government would be right to take responsibility for it. And hence the defeat the President suffered yesterday may make room for one more defeat the coming days.
And the scandal on the political prosecutors has been intensifying. The National Anti-Corruption Department has lost its credibility because of wasting too much fuel on political abuses. The other department in the Prosecutor's Office has lost credibility too. Traian Basescu's two political weapons are running out of bullets.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua wednesday 10 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

SRI swears there was no political police action

The SRI (Romanian Secret Service) report on the information uncovered by Mugur Ciuvica, a head of the Group for Political Investigations, admits the documents' authenticity, still claiming the documents are the outcome of common mass-media monitoring, an ordinary activity of the SRI.
Parliamentary sources say the report argues that those SRI documents on some activities of the PNL (National Liberal Party), of Liberal senator Norica Nicolai and of Social-Democrat Victor Ponta are just ordinary, "unclassified" pieces of information. But, they add, these pieces are not to be found in the SRI archive, as they were destroyed, because of their insignificance. Sources explain: "The interior regulation of the department authoring these reports goes that unclassified documents are to be destroyed once a year. And therefore the SRI is claiming the documents Mugur Ciuvica produced are authentic, but they no longer exist in the SRI archive because they were destroyed".
The same sources argue as well: "According to the SRI report, the SRI is in the habit of drawing such reports from open sources such as TV and radio shows and newspapers and sending them in a synthesized version to some higher authorities". Sources mention the conclusion goes as follows: "The SRI has never taken part in political police action. The information on Norica Nicolai, Victor Ponta and the PNL did not effect from intelligence operative action by the SRI". The SRI representatives also provided the parliamentary committee to control the institution with an annex consisting in unclassified information on various public persons, drawn in the course of time. (...)
MPs are enraged
Some MPs in the committee to control the SRI expressed their dissatisfaction with the explanations given by the SRI officials. One committee member argued: "We don't believe that an entire department in the SRI watches TV, listens to the radio and reads newspapers just to draw common, unclassified reports. We need more explanations from the SRI and we hope the SRI chief George Maior will explain things to us during the hearings". The senators and deputies in this committee are meeting today too and they intend to reach consensus and inform the press.

Razvan Gheorghe
Ziua wednesday 10 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Either referendum or election of MEPs

Romanian deputies passed yesterday an amendment authored by the Social-Democrat Party, disallowing the President of Romania Traian Basescu to arrange that the referendum on the uninominal vote system and the election of MEPs in Romania take place the same day.
Therefore if the national referendum gets to be held in the day when the election takes place, the latter will be postponed. And if President Basescu insists to have the referendum on the uninominal vote in November 25, when the Euro-elections are due, the latter will have to be postponed.
It is to be mentioned that the Chamber of Deputies is the institution in charge of this decision. As for the Romanian Democrats, they announced they would address the Constitutional Court against it. (...)

R.P.
Ziua wednesday 10 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Kurd extremists financed from Romania

The intelligence services in Turkey have warned the generality that the PKK organization finances terrorist action via several associations established in some European states, including Romania. The information is present in a report published by the electronic edition of The Journal of Turkish Weekly.
Marius Bercaru, a spokesman for the SRI (Romanian Secret Service), has replied that in the latest years the SRI has outlined the matter in every yearly report. He has mentioned that the contributions of such associations housed by some European states have been significantly diminishing in 2007.
The Turkish security services have listed in several reports those countries sheltering such associations: Romania, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Great Britain, apart from the US, the above-mentioned daily notices as well. Such associations provide the PKK with funds reaching $ 300 million the terrorist organization used to buy weapons. The final report reaching the Turkish military includes evidence on the PKK's involvement in drug and gun trafficking, warning that the terrorist organization has been expanding its activities in the Caucasus region as well. The drug trafficking affects mainly the Scandinavian states, the Turkish secret services have mentioned.

D.E.
Ziua wednesday 10 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

* ROMANIA's WONDERS *

The Fun Graveyard – Sapanta (Maramures) – This graveyard is unique in the World, for his funniest funeral inscriptions and naïve paintings maded by Stan Ion Patras on more than 1.000 funeral monuments.

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Ministers banned to use cell phones in government meetings

The Romanian PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu decided yesterday to ban Cabinet members to carry their cell phones in government meetings, as during such reunions there would be used special equipment for protection against "active interception". Furthermore, the employees of the Government's General Secretariat attending such meetings must have a certificate of access to classified information.
The decision also mentions that only those mass-media representatives allowed to attend government reunions may use audio and video recording devices.

R.I.P.
Ziua tuesday 9 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Verdict: Guilty

Prosecutors Department in the CSM (Superior Council of Magistracy) admitted yesterday the CSM Inspection's check report on the activity of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), after admitting 12 insignificant objections raised by the DNA head Daniel Morar. Right after the CSM reached verdict on grounds of the unveiled deficiencies, the Romanian Justice minister Tudor Chiuariu wrote a solicitation to revoke prosecutor Doru Tulus, a head of Department II in the DNA, pointing to poor management and inappropriate activity.
Surprisingly enough, the Justice minister didn't ask that the other DNA officials and head Daniel Morar should be revoked, despite the deficiencies in their activity. The revocation of prosecutor Doru Tulus is to be analyzed in a future meeting of the CSM, most likely next week.
Despite the severe dysfunctions unveiled in the report, the CSM has got no right to take measures. According to the law, it is only the President of Romania that may appoint or revoke the head of the DNA, if the Justice minister suggests it and if the CSM consents. Therefore the final decision is up to President Basescu, the official who appointed Doru Tulus at the suggestion of Monica Macovei, Romania's ex Justice minister. In case of no presidential decree, Doru Tulus may not be sacked.
The CSM prosecutors also decided to make new checks on the DNA in 6 months' time and see if the deficiencies were settled. (...)
Allowed to raise objections
Daniel Morar raised several objections against the CSM inspectors who had checked on the activity of the Department II in the DNA, headed by Doru Tulus. He accused them of amateurishness. His demonstration was skilful, meaning he avoided to take up the essential components of the checks and the deficiencies noticed. All he did was raise procedure matters and argue there were no norms that he had to do one thing or the other. He claimed the CSM inspectors had broken the check methodology and described their report as "inhomogeneous", "incomplete" and "unreliable". (...)
The DNA head also commented that the inspectors had "overpriced the relevance of the deficiencies discovered" and demanded that from the report they should eliminate all references to those criminal cases involving phone call recordings, claiming they were cases in progress and the references might jeopardize the inquiries.

Razvan Savaliuc
Ziua tuesday 9 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

The Kafkian reform of Justice

People's trust in the Romanian Justice system is about to reach lower than ever in history. It is no surprise, since the activity of the third power in state has never been more lamentable. The system has never behaved more aberrantly or incoherently. It has now reached a standstill because it is split due to the battle this system should be indifferent and impartial to. Never before has the reform of Justice promised during the campaign by the "Truth and Justice" Alliance seemed such a gloomy joke.
I admit I trusted Monica Macovei honestly. I trusted her good intentions. A long time I thought she was a victim of the mafia connections and of a diseased system's resistance. But it is the outcome that unveils a reform. And Justice is nowadays more dysfunctional than ever. Gone are the days when Rodica Stanoiu would complain that the case against the Traian Basescu hadn't been produced from the drawer on time ! The habits mentioned in the stenograms of the Social-Democrats' meetings enraged public opinion in 2004. But compared to what is going on now, they seem touching naivetes.
The ordinary war between Traian Basescu and Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has split magistrates in sides. Criminal cases have got to be a prevailing weapon for political battles. The great inquiries seem to be progressing only in front of TV cameras and they alter before being completed. The fight against corruption has lost any credibility, turning into a sort of Machiavellian game meant only to defile the adversary's reputation. Even if those asked to report against enemies are indeed guilty of coming severe crimes, no one is still confident that to learn the truth investigators' priority. Cases are no longer analyzed in terms of unbiased and indubitable evidence, but in terms of backstage interests.
Elementary procedure rules are serenely broken, out of stupidity or premeditation. It doesn't matter, nothing happens to anyone, anyway. God forbid someone should try to sanction a prosecutor or a judge ! He would denounce 'revenge' at once and he would remember that he was in charge of a 'hot' case once. To incompetent magistrates, such politically fueled pell mell is true manna.
The system has been growing more and more complicated and attributions have become more and more ambiguous. The harmonization of Romanian Justice with European practices looks like a blue joke. In which developed country is the head of state supposed to consent to the opening of criminal investigations against a former of present official ? What about the independence of Justice ? I thought the law was the same for everybody. But the Constitutional Court thinks it is not. The Constitutional Court threw one more ball for President Basescu to catch. The Court did the same during the referendum last April by changing the rules during the game and allowing for the validation of results, although more than 50% of Romanians didn't go voting. It was a valuable gift to the Democrat Party, who became more relaxed when starting campaigning.
Traian Basescu is now lamenting that it is the government who changes rules during games and modifies the components of the commission meant to advise the President before he decides which official may be under investigations and which may not. The government's action is in keeping with common sense, but it is not at all enough. It actually fails to reach the core of the problem: It is not the business of a politician, even if the most important one in state, to decide on the opening of a criminal inquiry. No constitutional law expert will ever persuade me into thinking the opposite. And no politician, anyway.

Miruna Munteanu
Ziua tuesday 9 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Most corrupted university top coming up

Several NGOs are going to release in 2008 a top of the most corrupted universities in Romania and inform the Prosecutor's Office about the severest crimes committed in universities. Such measures are part of the "Coalition for Clean Universities", a project launched yesterday.
It is meant to do away with corruption and flaws in universities, commented yesterday Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, a president of the Romanian Academic Society.
The authors are going to draw a list of habits in Romanian universities, such as clientele-based promotion and lack of transparency. They are going to be dismissed with every dean and contracts are going to be signed so that the deans would get committed to eliminate corruption from the universities they head. (...)
A group for monitoring is going to be established in every university, with both students and education staff as members. (...)

M.S.
Ziua tuesday 9 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english