privatizations

Romanian President Traian Basescu on Thursday said, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Romania will start a large privatization process, involving thermal power producers Turceni, Rovinari and Craiova, as well as railroad freight transporter CFR Marfa.

Romania will sell state-owned companies in the energy sector between 2010 and 2011, to get the money it needs for investments in the sector, according to consultancy firm Horvath & Partners.

The trial in which Romania’s former economy minister Codrut Seres and former communications minister Zsolt Nagy are accused of organized crime along four others in a file regarding shady privatizations was put off Monday until June 29, as some of the accused do not have lawyers to represent them.

Romania’s privatization authority AVAS plans to put up for sale this year large companies in which it holds majority stakes, AVAS head Teodor Atanasiu said Sunday.

Romanian anticorruption prosecutors heard Wednesday state adviser Dorinel Mucea with the country’s former Ministry of Economy and Commerce in a file concerning shady privatizations in the Romanian energy sector.

The prosecution office within the Romanian High Court of Justice requested approval to prosecute former economy minister Codrut Seres, who is targeted in a case regarding the privatization of several important companies in the energy sector.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals on Friday decided Bulgarian Bulgarian businessman Stamen Stanchev, detained in Romania on corruption charges, is free to leave the country.