Rents have been increased many times in the last six months, with some estimates suggesting that they have increased by about 1000 times their July 1999 value. Their mission is to assess the 2000 budget and to deal with the delay in releasing the second phase of Romania's stand-by loan. Remes reported that both the second and third phase loans will be released simultaneously when the visit ends on 25 January. He went on to suggest that the Romanian government would be seeking agreement for a further, more substantial loan, when the current arrangements are complete. Romania appears to have had no problems with the Y2K computer bug , even though it was slow in setting systems in place to combat the potential problem.
All major systems look fine.
Prodi is to visit Bucharest next week, prior to the commencement of EU accession talks. Creating his own team has taken time, however. On Wednesday, Is rescu dismissed all but one of the advisers attached to Radu Vasile's cabinet. His new advisory group will number about 25 - half the size of Vasile's team. The new cabinet ministers are busy creating their own teams, and often making major changes to the way their departments operate.