His political war against the Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the Constitutional Court's frequent interpretations of the Constitution have made the President of Romania Traian Basescu decide to establish a Comittee to Analyze the Political and Constitutional Regime in Romania. The structure is meant to provide him with a report on the main flaws of the Constitution and a plan on a new administrative structure of Romania. The head of state mentioned yesterday that the committee was made up of "unbiased experts" and it was to identify the main points to be revised in order to modernize the country. He argued: "It is of great importance that unbiased experts should analyze the Constitution and the political regime. I am interested in this committee members' point of view on what should be revised in the Constitution so that the state would become functional." He emphasized the committee was not supposed to elaborate a new Constitution, which was the Parliament's attribution. The President warned the committee was to draw the documents in "a reasonable time" so that they would be available for the Parliament and for public debate as well. Traian Basescu argued this was necessary because in the last three years there had come out substantial flaws of the Constitution. He concluded: "An analysis of the political regime in Romania would be of great public interest." Solution to settle crises Traian Basescu expressed his discontent with the country's present administrative structure, which he described as not meeting the needs of development. "I am more interested in an view on the country's territorial-administrative structure, which I think is behind the times, than in the means to settle crises of institutions." H added this was one reason for the difficulties with the assimilation of EU funds. Ioan Stanomir, a president of this new committee, argues in his turn that state modernization was possible only along with the modernization of the Constitution. The present Constitution of Romania was adopted in 1991 and it was revised once, in 2003. According to Article 150, the President may initiate a revision of it upon the government's request, with consent from at least one quarter of senators and deputies and from at least 500,000 Romanians with a right to vote.

Cristian ANDREI