Romania risks being excluded from the European Council because of the European Court of Human Rights. Elsewhere in the news, the shame of the country: national roads made of plain soil. Last but not least, the country that does not inspire safety: how Romania scares away foreign tourists.

Romania risks being excluded from the European Council because of the European Court of Human Rights, Evenimentul Zilei reads. If Romania is not going to fix stressed issues it could be excluded from the EC. The ECHR is bored with dealing with cases addressing nationalised houses retrocession, for which the country has been taken to court, and it threatens with pilot-decisions.

Romania can also face a pilot-decision for disrespecting the right to an equitable trial, namely excessive length, not enforcing the court's final decisions and breaching the right of not being subjected to torture, the newspaper goes on. ECHR accuses the lack of a coherent mechanism for retrocession or compensation, constant breaching of fundamental laws, confusing and heavy bureaucracy and legislation and delays.

The ECHR gives Romania a deadline - usually between six months and one year - to fix the problems through administrative, legislative and budgetary means, or else face sanctions. The European Court clerk's office said that the pilot-decisions are to be enforced on Romania for the first time in the cases of returning houses confiscated by ex-communist authorities to their rightful owners. Romania has been sued by nearly 1,000 house owners.

Poland, Moldavia and Russia have been facing similar pilot-decisions. Poland managed to correct the deficiencies underlined by ECHR. It took four years, though. The last two countries are not EU members. Romania's Government agent at ECHR Răzvan-Horaţiu Radu, representing the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the exclusi