The replacement of the Ungureanu government by the Ponta government  “and the handover of power during the electoral cycle is an unprecedented development in Romanian politics”, remarks Adevărul. Four months after the first anti-austerity demonstrations, Ponta’s programme will include measures that have “a populist potential”, explains the daily. These include civil service pay rises and pension increases. However the new prime minister’s mission will remain –

… the same as the brief for the Ungureanu government: management of day-to-day problems, the organisation of elections, and, of course, boosting the electoral appeal of the parties that put him in power.

"Romanians have gained confidence in themselves, because the fall actually began in January," when Romanian "indignados"  began to protest against austerity measures, notes the Bucharest-based news website.

Neither the president nor the former ruling coalition have understood that Romanians were not simply looking for a change of people [a reshuffle took place on February 6]. But instead, a change of direction for Romania, and its economic policies". [...] The status quo in which those people who have power can do anything without accountability, has increased.

Vox Publica warns that ahead of the parliamentary elections due in November, "all mistakes can rebound against Ponta." For the new head of the government, the main risk is the creation of a "shorter term government: in which capable people will not want to take control with such a short mandate, and those of the socialist old guard will want to finally quench their thirst for power."

The main measures of this plan are: complete opening up of labour markets, both private and public, to all European citizens – including Romanians and Bulgarians – “appropriate minimum wages” that will let employees live off their labour, mutual recognition of degrees, and lower labour taxes.

The Commission hopes the most potential lies in the health sectors, services for the elderly, development of a sustainable climate-friendly economy, and in IT, though it remains to be seen whether states will allow interference in their social affairs. The plan will be discussed at the EU summit in June.

in the near future, Turkish tourists (but also, in the same package of measures, those from the Arabian Gulf or China) will no longer have to wait for months in never-ending queues to obtain a visa for Romania.

Bucharest also hopes to create a five-year visa for Turkish business executives. Quoting the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, România liberă notes that Turkey is the only country having signed a customs agreement with the EU whose citizens are forced to get a visa to enter the Union. From this perspective, "Romania represents a solution for Turks wishing to obtain visas," but it is only a partial solution as long as Romania is not part of the Schengen Area. Baring a veto from the Netherlands, this could change in September.

First declared unconstitutional in 2010, the law was revised in February 2012 at the request of the ruling Democrat-Liberal Party. The proposed bill was then approved by parliament.

"Demanded insistantly by civil society, supported by politicians in election campaigns, the law now risks being buried for good," regrets România Liberă. This is not surprising, because in its new incarnation the law included former prosecutors. "With, among them, perhaps some judges on the constitutional court," the paper suggests.

"Thank you Interpol for bringing back the fugitive from Kenya!" announces an exultant Adevărul, while rival daily România Liberă regrets the damage that the affair will do to Romania’s image: "It is as though we were living in a village at the end of the world", writes the newspaper, which remarks that “the country, which is covered in shame,” is hardly ready to join the Schengen Area.

The Netherlands, one of the main opponents of Romania’s entry into the free movement area, has demanded that Bucharest obtain two consecutive positive reports from the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification for its efforts in the fight against corruption and organised crime by 2013: “We can already see the Dutch smiling… Bye bye Schengen!"

Finally, Adevărul notes that "the evaporation" of the MP, who took advantage of parliamentary immunity, is proof that –

... the corrupt will always find ways to get around the law. We have a National Integrity Agency, but we are short on integrity. We have an Anti-Corruption Department, but we are overloaded with corruption. One thing is clear: the links between corruption, smuggling and the world of politics are still very tight.

Bulgaria’s foreign minister, Nikolai Mladenov, stresses that the two countries have been discussing the territorial delimitation of the Black Sea for over 20 years. "The subject does not constitute any problem in bilateral relations between the two countries," he said, as quoted by the Bulgarian press, which nevertheless expresses "surprise" that the dispute should suddenly crop up.

On the other side of the Danube, this "timing" comes as no surprise to Adevărul -

The part of the continental shelf in dispute is that which is expected to carry the South Stream pipeline [project led by Russia]. If the outcome is favourable for Bucharest, Romania would gain a few square metres of the Turkish continental shelf, which would be an advantage in the event that the Nabucco project [the rival South Stream pipeline, supported by the EU] is decided on.

Romania’s chief diplomat, Cristian Diaconescu, wants to calm things down -

Nobody should get upset or angry. These are areas of national interest for both states, and these issues have to be resolved, because problems of exploitation and concessions may suddenly come up.

Adopting it now that it cannot produce significant results is akin to someone trying to commit suicide by jumping on the tracks after the train has already passed.

According to the report, Bucharest and Sofia have made progress but the fight against corruption at the highest levels of the administration is still sluggish, especially in Romania, the paper notes. The report calls on Romania to make magistrates more accountable and to discourage corruption through the application of exemplary punishments and the confiscation of ill-gotten gains. The CVM also suggests the implementation of a national anti-corruption strategy and the exclusion from parliament of MPs or senators convicted of corruption. In spite of the progress achieved, Romanian Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban, told the paper that the Netherlands, the main opponent to the entry of Romania or Bulgaria into the Schengen Area, will not change its position until the CVM presents its final report this summer.

In Bulgaria, the release of the CVM report was overshadowed by reports on the inclement weather and the declaration of a day of national mourning to honnour the eight victims of flooding in the village of Bisser in southern Bulgaria. Nonetheless, on-line news site Medipool says the report is "very critical" of Bulgaria and highlights that, for the first time, there is no mention in the report of Sofia's "political will" to fight corruption and to implement the necessary judicial reforms.

Băsescu is gambling with the fate of the political right in Romania, because if there was one thing that undermined the credibility of the Boc government, it was not the austerity measures and the sporadic demonstrations, but the impression of weakness and endless compromise. That said, few things are more ridiculous than the opposition’s TV declaration to the effect that “we are now being governed by the Securitate”. They have no understanding of the functioning of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) or of the role of its director. They are simply projecting their own experience of former agents of the Securitate. The SIE has a very different role, which it conducts in close collaboration with the CIA. Espionage is not about sexy girls and sports cars, but about the clear definition of missions and their efficient execution.

For Jurnalul National, however, Ungureanu is a secret service “golden-boy”, whose appointment marks the conclusion of “a cycle of national disintegration” and the realisation -

… of the president’s dream: the creation of a Euro-Balkan military junta, that is capable of using fear to rein in an impoverished population. What is a regime supported by the secret services, if not a military one? The President wanted to show that he is the boss of a police state so as to silence his partners and his adversaries.

In Adevărul, political analyst Cristian Pârvulescu also takes issue with the appointment “of a spy as Prime Minister” -

That an active spy has been able to take over as government leader says a great deal about the level of democracy in Romania. It is just one more step towards the presidentialisation of the regime. Moreover, given the fact that in 1989 he was a deputy member of the Central Committee of the Union of Young Communists, it is clear that he lacks the moral qualities required for the post. He is one of the nomenklatura. If the lustration law [purge of former communist party cadres] was in force, he would not be allowed to take on such an important role for the state.

This assertion is contradicted by România Liberă, which points out that Ungureanu “was not a member of the Securitate” or secret service under Ceaușescu -

… he was a civil servant who was politically appointed to manage a difficult institution, and he made an honourable success of this task. Five years after he was forced by the prime minister of the time to give up his post as foreign minister, it is ironic to see that he has now been mandated to form a government.

“Is the boss of the SIE the right solution for our country?” wonders the weekly Revista 22 -

It is unlikely. What is the message sent by [the appointment] of a secret service chief to lead the government in an election year? How will he cope with the jigsaw of political interests and corruption in the party [the ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L)] and in cabinet? How will he deal with the barons of the PD-L and the issue of election campaign financing, so as to ensure the holding of regular elections? Lets have no illusions about the grim legacy that Boc has left behind him.

"However, the political horizon is on red alert," writes the daily, because his nomination “will not calm the population and put an end to the political crisis," which entered a new phase on 30 January, when the left-wing opposition announced a parliamentary strike, amid anti-austerity protests that have been ongoing fro three weeks.

“It is unacceptable that Romania once again be run by a man who has been directly brought in from the secret service,” insisted Crin Antonescu, president of the National Liberal Party (opposition), who is quoted by Jurnalul naţional. Like much of the Romanian press, the daily notes that the President’s decision will not change much but will mean “more of the same.” In the meantime, reports Jurnalul naţional, the demonstrators who have once again gathered in University Square are chanting “Băsescu nu e trist, a numit un securist!" [Băsescu isn’t sad, he’s appointed a Securitate agent].”

The Prime Minister criticised Baconschi for some "questionable" writings on his blog, explains leader writer Mircea Vasilescu in Romanian daily Adevărul. Baconschi wrote that the demonstrators were "issued from derelict neighbourhoods, violent, stupid people similar to the miners of yore who supported the heirs of the Securitate," the Communist-era secret police.

The manner in which the minister was fired, the paper says, is an "uncivilised gesture, it is non-European; the Prime Minister has thus shamed us all, at the highest level".

Demonstrations have accompanied each of the austerity measures adopted by the Romanian government: a VAT hike, lower wages for civil servants, a 60-hour working week... Each time, the group affected has come out into the streets. But the discontent of recent days, which erupted following the resignation of the highly popular Under-secretary of State Raed Arafat in protest against the privatisation of the public health system, has touched all Romanians, and both right and left have flooded into the streets to take on the entire political class. They have, it seems, reached the limits of their proverbial ability to put up with the sacrifices. The government remains unmoved.

Having endured the speeches of politicians who repeat the “austerity-solidarity” mantra and blame their failures on Europe instead of trying to combine austerity and growth, the Romanians have said “enough!"

The protests in Romania are nothing more or less than a reflection of a discontent that could engulf the entire European Union. In truth, Europeans’ support for the sacrifices being asked of them, without any clear perspective being outlined or the situation explained, is fading fast. “For the European project to stay alive, something else is needed,” wrote Luca Niculescu in Revista 22 following the December 9 EU summit. Making peoples already hit hard by the crisis understand that stability requires austerity remains a tough sell. “There will be more demonstrations,” Niculescu predicts. It's blindingly obvious.

To remedy the situation, leaders must change tack. They must stop calling a summit at every “critical” moment. They should just explain, patiently, that the disappearance of the single currency would mean much more than a return to the peseta, the franc or the mark, and understand, as the Dutch philosopher Paul Scheffer has emphasised, that citizens’ support cannot be won without solid arguments. For the death of the euro would mean, quite simply, the end of the Union.

Romanians' discontent has focused around the plan to privatise several social services including the SMURD, the emergency ambulance service. The proposal was withdrawn the following day, but the well-publicised resignation of SMURD head, Raed Arafat, revived the controversy. "The social trigger would have been pulled anyway," Adevărul argues. "Eight out of ten Romanians think that the country is headed in the wrong direction and that the austerity measures [demanded by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for financial aid] are the price to pay" for Băsescu's policies, the paper explains.

Romanians are taking the same path as the Indignados in the United States, Europe and Putin's Russia.

The leader writer of web site Gândul, on the other hand, argues that "what happened on Sunday night was inevitable but unacceptable":

I don't want to be represented in the street by such individuals, even if Băsescu gets on my nerves. He was not appointed by the Turks, the Russians or the Americans; he was elected by the citizens. He must leave in a democratic manner, adopting an approach in which we can all participate, and without any stone throwing.

Similar to other sites operated by the CIA in the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe, and used to interrogate alleged terrorists in the wake of 9/11, the Bucharest “prison” was hidden in a courtyard belonging to the “Romanian NSA,” an intelligence agency created in 2002 to prepare Romania’s accession to NATO.

It was this prospect that was the motivating force behind Romanian authorities’ collaboration with the CIA, explains Süddeutsche Zeitung. Romania has always officially denied the existence of the centre, while the deputy chief of the Romanian NSA, Adrian Cămărăşan, has insisted that no Islamic terrorists were ever detained by his organisation.

The measure has been announced at a time when Moody’s is re-evaluating its outlook for Austrian debt, which currently holds a precious AAA rating that Vienna is determined to keep. In its editorial, the Viennese daily worries about a possible “state bankruptcy caused by banks along the lines of the Irish model,” because, “in the wake of several gold-rush years,” Austrian banks have 300 billion euros – more than the country’s GDP – in Central and Eastern Europe, and an estimated 6% to 40% of this is invested in toxic assets.

“The National Bank of Austria’s decision will end one phase of the ongoing crisis and probably introduce another,” points out România libera in Bucharest:

The concrete effects will be severe – additional pressure on the leu, rising interest rates, and state borrowing difficulties – but these can be overcome. However, on a symbolic level it will be even more serious because we have been forced to acknowledge that Romania is now viewed as an emerging country offering significant profits associated with a high level of risk that is still a good destination for investors, but only if they already have a predefined exit strategy.

The Bucharest daily looks back on the high times of 2007, when “Greek and Austrian bankers were competing to be present in the Wild East,” which are now over: “Austria has sacrificed Romania, where it owns more than half of the banking system along with Greece, to save itself.” In short, this is “the tragic end of financial colonialism.”

In the Czech Republic, Respekt fears that –

... countries like Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine will be forced to contend with a sudden credit crunch, at least with regard to Austrian banks, who will be reluctant to lend.

The Prague daily notes that Czech Republic and Slovakia will also suffer, because the international press often overlooks the fact that their situation is very different to the one in other countries of the region: “there are a lot of savers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are both relatively under-leveraged. And this applies not only to major corporations […] but more importantly to the small business sector. For example, mortgage loans in these countries amount to 25% of GDP, whereas in Western Europe this figure stands at 55%, and at more than 100% of GDP in the UK.”

According to Adevărul, Martin Schultz, the leader of the socialist group in the European parliament, has spoken of the possible emergence of "an EU divided in three parts: France and Germany, the rest of the Eurozone and other states with their national currencies". In Bucharest, the Businessmen's Association of Romania (AOAR)  has already proposed that the government take the initiative to form such a "group".

The daily remarks that the initiative would enable "countries that are not in the Eurozone to better protect their interests", but at the same time warns that ensuring "the unity of the zone" would not necessarily be easy. "The Nordic social model in Denmark and Sweden is not aligned with the neoliberal model in Eastern European countries, and London’s status as a net contributor to the EU budget is very different to the status of Eastern countries which are net beneficiaries of the EU’s cohesion policy", concludes Adevărul.

President Traian Băsescu did not honour the assembly with his presence. In June of this year, he referred to the king’s abdication “not as an act of patriotism, but as a betrayal of Romania’s national interest.” King Michael made no comment in response to the remark, which was widely criticised in the press.

Adevărul notes that “Romania, like its counterparts from the East, will receive more funding in the fiscal period 2014-2020. The new reform benefits these states, which will gain 30 percent more in subsidies, to the detriment of the countries of western Europe.”

The main changes made ​​to the CAP budget [55 billion euros per year, or 40 percent of the total EU budget] consist of simplifying individual payments, helping young farmers start up, and making the CAP simpler and more streamlined. The goal: to allow farmers to be more flexible and adapt better to markets.

Moreover, the Romanian daily continues, “the aid to large operators will be capped, grants will be given out based on the acreage actually farmed and not in terms of the total acreage or its production capacity. The budget for innovation and research will be doubled. Moreover, 30 percent of direct aid granted by the EU will be linked to measures to protect the environment,” writes Adevărul.

If Romania, which has the largest number of farms in the EU (32 percent of the EU total) welcomes this reform, the large landowners of Britain and Spain have something to worry about.

"The EU will cap aid to ‘sofa farmers’,” leads Público. The Madrid daily notes that the Commission has initiated “a special crusade to revolutionise agricultural subsidies.” In its view, the most novel element of the proposal is to control the subsidies to large landowners and farms whose owners do not engage in agriculture as their main activity. “This will directly affect the big landowners like the Queen of England or [Prince] Albert of Monaco, and in Spain, the symbolic case of the Duchess of Alba”, the newspaper writes.

"Investigators are not saying a word and people speak in fear," notes Evenimentul zilei. The investigation into the assassination revealed "a mafia-like system" composed of politicians, lawyers and civil servants," in a city in which violence is on the rise, the paper says. It further notes that the omerta, or law of silence, observed by the residents of Giurgiu sends the image of a city managed by a network of mafia bosses with access to the local administration and business circles.

“It is an area of corruption which has caused immense damage to the country in the form of biased verdicts that have already cost the [state] budget several billion euros,” notes the România liberă editorial, “and which is the subject of regular complaints from the EU and the United States.” As a result of corruption and a lack of professionalism in the judiciary, “businesses are choosing to open operations in other countries,” complains the newspaper, which adds that Romania "is a country where you cannot die innocent if you do not pay bribes to the judiciary."

“Steve Jobs has left us without jobs”, leads the Bucharest daily on its front page next to a photo of the boss of Apple. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, concurs: “The fundamental reason is the change in the market – people want smart phones now, not the conventional phones like those assembled near Cluj.” Nokia, Romania’s second largest exporter after the automaker Dacia, came to Romania three years ago from Germany, where it had just closed a plant in Bochum. Moving on, then and now, is the sign of the times.

Beyond the national perspective, however, everything today indicates that Europe has become a kind of labyrinth in which no one recognises his own borders. The external frontiers, the Schengen area, pressed hard on their Greek or Italian flanks, are reinforced on one side with barbed wire (between Greece and Turkey) or with increased sea patrols (in the Mediterranean) – all without any guidelines having been drawn up at European level.

Internal borders, which theoretically are now largely symbolic administrative lines, are in turn subject to manoeuvring that undermines the very principle of free movement throughout the area. Denmark has restored its border controls, ostensibly to fight cross-border crime, and France has done the same to prevent Tunisians from crossing over from Italy. Finally, other borders, these ones political, forced up by domestic issues, are popping up where they were not necessarily expected: in the Netherlands, in Finland and in Denmark, pushed for by Geert Wilders and his party, by the "True Finns", and by the Danish People's Party.  

“I blame Europe and Italy for being asleep, for not being aware of the nationalist and centrifugal forces that are tugging it apart. We have not remembered the lesson from the Balkans: it's enough simply to identify an enemy of the people for a people short of reference points to take it on as truth,” writes the Italian Paolo Rumiz in his book On the Frontiers of Europe (ed. Hoebeke, 2011). He might have added that it risks abandoning part of its soul to wander between these more or less shifting borders, and lose itself.