Bucharest will have a new chief-architect, but the nominees are, this far, controversial, most of them being designers of the already too-blamed towers in the Capital. On the other hand, many old buildings that can't be consolidated may soon be torn down. In regional affairs, the trial designed to set the territorial controversy between Romania and Ukraine is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and expects a verdict in six months from now.
The new Bucharest mayor, Sorin Oprescu, nominated several architects for the future city planning commission. Gandul comments that most of them are responsible for the way Bucharest looks today, being the ones who introduced the "height accents" policy and deigned several of the controversial towers in the city.
The same Gandul also quotes the Development Minister, Laszlo Borbely, who declared on Monday that several important buildings in Bucharest may soon be demolished, due to high seismic risks and because rehabilitation funds are not available. The seismic risk national program begun 10 years ago, but only 10 out of 123 buildings were consolidated until now.
In international policy: the lawsuit between Romania and Ukraine will begin today in Hague. The International Court of Justice has to determine the property rights over the Serpents' Island and over 12,000 square kilometers of continental platform that host 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 10 billion tons of oil, Evenimentul Zilei notes.
Speaking about neighbors: Romania president Traian Basescu declared on Monday that he was assured by EU leaders that the matter of having Moldova included in EU will be discussed in the October reunion of the EU Foreign Ministers, Cotidianul informs.
Meanwhile, the problems with Russia are far from over, EU "dancing on a wire" in front of Moscow, as Evenimentul Zilei reporters
