The budget situation must be unblocked, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said on Wednesday, noting that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was informed about the situation in Parliament.
“The situation must be unblocked. It is important to say that we have had discussions with each authorizing officer in these months. There have been countless meetings in the coalition in which we have had the same type of pressure, but we must all understand at once that the way we build budgets is extremely important. If you allow me, it is extremely important and important to say: we have made concessions. It is not correct to say that there is no money for vulnerable categories in the budget. As long as there is 1.7 billion, it is not correct. The money is there, maybe it is not in the amount we would have liked, it is true, but 1.7 out of 2.7 billion (lei n.r.) are already in this budget, it is the money that is trapped”, declared Alexandru Nazare, after the reunited budget-finance committees decided on Wednesday evening to suspend debates on the budgets of the authorizing officers.
He added that he explained to his colleagues that they should also find funding through European programs, so that the solution “is not taken in haste”, according to Agerpres.
“We have also made efforts to explain to my colleagues that they should find the possibility of financing children’s programs through European programs. It is possible to finance the respective children’s programs from the resizing of some projects with European funds. We also want this, it is more work, it is true, it is more complicated, it is more elaborate, but it can be done precisely to save this fiscal space. I would not want the solution we choose to be a solution taken in haste, after an hour here and there”, Nazare specified.
Asked by journalists whether Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was informed and whether he would find a compromise solution, the Minister of Finance claimed that the Prime Minister had every willingness, in all the coalition meetings he attended, to reach a compromise formula.
“I listed earlier, beyond the limits that were granted in the budget. We have transferred additional amounts. We are talking about almost 5 billion for Transport, we are talking about 3 billion for Development, we are talking about 600 million for the Ministry of Agriculture. These are just a few examples and indeed, we have reached a point. We have secured the 1.7 million for the one-off payment on pensions at the level of last year and we have reached the point where we said that it is not safe to go further and it would not be good. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has been informed of everything that happened here today and I hope that all the parties involved, all the parties, the coalition leaders, this evening, based on the data that we provide, will reach a conclusion that will be a good conclusion for Romania”, Nazare emphasized.
The joint budget-finance committees decided on Wednesday to suspend debates, after the work resumed around 6:00 p.m., but without reaching an agreement in the governing coalition on the 1.1 billion lei amendment, commitment credits and budget credits, to supplement the budget of the Ministry of Labor, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity.