[Teralogos News] Romanian President Calls for "Independence"

[webmaster@sjgames.com]

Romanian President Calls for "Independence"

   
BUCHAREST, Romania/TERALOGOS	April 28, 2101   
   
President Alexamdru Berca of Romania issued a statement threatening the withdrawal of his country from the European Union, unless a number of outstanding disputes can be resolved.   
   
"The Romanian economy is being strangled by the Union's regulation of artificial labor," said President Berca. "We increasingly find that membership in the Union is more of a liability than an advantage."   
   
Romania has been struggling for decades with chronic labor shortages, the result of one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. Since the 2050s, successive governments have tried to encourage immigration to make up the difference, with little success due to internal instability and a low standard of living. President Berca swept to power in the last elections on a platform that promised to repeal legislation forbidding the manufacture of bioroids and bioshells. However, since beginning his term of office he has been unable to evade the European Union's strict restrictions on such manufacture, despite intense - and increasingly heated - negotiations with senior E.U. officials.   
   
In a hastily-convened press conference this morning, Quebec's Pierre Landry, the chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Pan-Sapient Rights, responded angrily to President Berca's stance.    
   
"Artificial labor indeed!," Landry responded. "Let us be quite clear, the Berca government is planning to begin the wholesale manufacture of slaves. Should Romania repudiate its treaties with the Union and engage in such an inhumane practice, there will be very serious consequences indeed."    
   
- filed by Jon F. Zeigler