The impact of shady energy deals in Romania on the European market, an unprecedented statement by the leader of the Moldovan Republic on the “Moldovan minority in Romania”, the political power struggle in Bucharest and the performance of Romanian immigrants in Spain and the UK figure prominently on newspaper front pages on Monday.

Adevarul leads with an interview with European Energy Commissioner Andris Pielbags who stands up against energy scandals that have been affecting Romanian politics for weeks.

Pielbags says that during his talks with Romanian authorities in Bucharest this weekend he discussed the issue of preferential prices applied to and by certain companies.

And Pielbags says that people responsible for the situation must be dismissed and that one solution to the problem is the creation of an energy exchange market.

The same Adevarul reports that Vladimir Voronin, the President of the neighboring Moldovan Republic, met a delegation of the “Moldovan Community in Romania” in Chisinau this weekend and in an unprecedented move he stated in an interview that Romania has an “ethnic minority” of Moldovans, formed of about 10 million Romanian citizens (almost half of the country’s population!).

Voronin, who has been insisting on the differences between the Moldovan people - living in the Moldovan Republic, which he claims has nothing to do with Romania and Romanians despite their common history - is thus expanding his “vision” on Romania and its Moldavia province in the North-East.

According to Evenimentul Zilei, he goes even further and claims the “ethnic Moldovans” or Moldavians are “discriminated” in Romania as they’re not included in the law on ethnic groups.

That, according to Gandul, makes a huge difference between Romania and the Moldovan Republic - which he claims is a place where people can state their identity freely.

On the domestic politics front, Cotidianul reports that the small Conservative Party-PC is threatening with a motion against the current government unless the government reshuffling these days leads to a monocolor, Liberal government.

According to the newspaper, the maneuver has its chances of success given the complexity of opportunistic alliances in the Parliament these days.

Gandul writes that with the Democrats - who share power with the Liberals - removed from the government, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party said his group might support Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu to fulfill his term. But the conditions imposed by the Social Democrats are considerably more severe.

Meanwhile, Evenimentul Zilei reports that two former energy ministers who have had trouble with the law - Dan Ioan Popescu and Codrut Seres - are included among the candidates on the list of the Conservative Party for the coming European Parliament Elections.

According to Cotidianul, the May 13 EP elections themselves are a six-million euro business as the money for printing ballots may land in the pockets of political clients given than prefects would have the possibility to offer contracts without public tenders.

Elsewhere in the papers, Jurnalul National reports that Rroma immigrants of Romanian origin in Spain have sparked new troubles with the local community in a Barcelona neighborhood where not even Spanish gypsies can stand how their kin from Romania behave.

The same newspaper quotes The Independent in reporting problems in Britain as well, where Romanian prostitution rings are moving away from Spain and Italy and are getting ready to set their foot in the UK.