A deal looms between the Bucharest government and Austrian company OMV do deal with still higher natural gas prices on the Romanian market. Reconciliation efforts within the governing Liberal Party fail miserably and may lead to further strife. The death of late dictator Ceausescu’s daughter makes waves as the story of her life is brought to life.

And the troubles related religious symbols in European schools might repeat in Romania. All in the newspapers today.

Cotidianul states for certain that the Romanian government compelled Austrian company OMV, the majority shareholder in Romania’s biggest oil company Petrom, to contribute to a fund that would cover part of the energy bill Romanian citizens will have to pay as prices may spiral rapidly in the near future.

An announcement in this regard came from PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu following talks with OMV head Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer yesterday, a day before the Supreme Defense Council in Bucharest debates the energy security in the country and discusses the privatization contracts in the Romanian energy sector.

Gandul is less certain about the OMV contribution to the fund aimed at subsidizing Romanians’ energy bills as the deal was only reached “in principle” and would be further discussed.

The same Gandul shows special interest in the future of the governing alliance, after failed talks between the leadership of the Liberal Party-PNL, a senior member of the government, and a dissident Liberal group seen as close to President Traian Basescu’s Democratic Party-PD.

But the newspaper does not discuss the talks yesterday, instead quoting a tape broadcast by Antena 1 TV, which shows there is a hypothesis among the dissident Liberals that their PD friends leave the government in January.

For Cotidianul, the reconciliation efforts between the two Liberal groups ended in bitter war yesterday as the parties exchanged heavy words during talks over the “unification of the Romanian Right”.

Meanwhile, newspapers focus on various issues related to Romania’s accession in the EU next year.

In a correspondence from London, Evenimentul Zilei reports that Romanians are no longer leading in terms of number of beggars on the banks of Thames, but reports in tabloid media there that Romanians are stealing heavily from cash machines in Britain are unfortunately true.

Gandul quotes Bulgarian website SofiaEcho.com according to whom “anti-Romanian” articles in The Sun have disturbed an English Lord.

Lord Alan Watson of Richmond has jumped in defense of Romanians and Bulgarians who are “unfairly” accused of brining the HIV virus to Britain, while also sayng that the British FCO should react to such denigrating reports.

Also in Evenimentul Zilei, Romanian Labour minister Gheorghe Barbu is quoted suggesting that the country should apply restrictions to foreigners willing to work in Romania as many EU states have announced they would like Romanian workers to stay away from them after the January 2007 accession.

For its part, Adevarul says the Romanian nominee for a seat in the European Commission, Leonard Orban, is preparing for key European Parliament hearings on November 27. He would have his presentation half in English and half in French, while answering MEP’s questions in Romanian.

But just like in Europe, there are more troublesome faces of diversity in Romania.

According to Adevarul, Orthodox symbols may be removed from Romanian schools, as the National Council against Discrimination has admitted a petition from a teacher that argues the presence of religious symbols in schools is a form of pressure on students.

So, the Council forwarded a recommendation in this regard to the Education Ministry, which may decide that icons and crosses may be removed from the walls of Romanian schools, excepting religion classes. According to Evenimentul Zilei, the Romanian Orthodox Church sees the move as unconstitutional as it breaches religious freedom.

The death of late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s daughter yesterday is also tackled extensively in today’s newspapers.

Zoe Ceausescu “died in discretion”, Cotidianul reports, announcing the she left behind a trial in which she had asked for the exhumation of her parents, to check whether the ex-dictator and his wife Elena were truly buried in a Bucharest cemetery, a thing that she has challenged for years.

According to Evenimentul Zilei, the death of Zoe Ceausescu, 57, who’s been suffering of lung cancer, marks another tragic episode in her family, after the execution of her parents and the death of her brother Nicu ten years ago.

And while Evenimentul Zilei names Romanian football star Lacatus as one of the most affected by her death, Gandul reports that Romanian MP Madalin Voicu and a top football official, Gino Iorgulescu, were among the ones who came to see Zoe for one last time before she is cremated today.