“First and foremost, we respect the commitments to the European Commission” VIDEO

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Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the Minister of Finance, Tanczos Barna, held a press conference today, January 15, in which the two Government officials clarified the current state of the Budget structure, which is to be approved in the first week of February.

The Minister of Finance pointed out that “a pro-European government must first and foremost respect its commitments to the European Commission and to European partners. Here, too, Romania has committed itself to falling within a deficit of 7% by the end of the year in 2025. It is the main challenge for me as Minister of Finance and I will make sure that this commitment of Romania is respected.

We build the prudent budget on the revenue side, without exaggerating and without including unrealizable or very difficult to achieve revenues, so that the deficit is based on a prudent analysis of revenues and on the expenditure side, on as rigorous a control as possible. I once again welcome the Government’s decision from December, through the Multisectoral Adjustment Ordinance, which was the cornerstone of the construction of the budget, the premises for the preparation of the Budget for the year 2025 were built. The medium-term structured budget fiscal plan assumed by Romania, provides for the year this 7% for the next seven years, a progressive reduction of the budget deficit to 3% and this commitment must not be respected just now. What we are building today, what we are building for 2025, must also have an impact for the following years, so that on the investment side we do not reduce the amounts allocated for investments, we constantly increase these amounts and ensure, at least at the level of the deficit, the financing of investments in Romania, Mr. Prime Minister has also mentioned this, on the other hand, let’s not exaggerate on the part of unattainable revenues and not end up in a situation where the difference has to be covered by loans.”

What percentages of the Budget go to Health, Defense and Education

The minister confirmed that the investments will exceed 130 billion lei, “they can approach 140, today we are finalizing the calculations based on the discussions we had and we will come to the Government with the indicators, with the limits that must be approved before the presentation the budget. The budget ensures consistent funding for education and we ensure the payment of salaries at the level of 2024”, pointed out Tanczos Barna.

For Health, the Executive officials stated that they ensure the financing of the Health Center in order to have medical services provided all year round and salaries paid at the level assumed by the Government. “At Defense we ensure the minimum of 2% of the GDP and we also ensure strategic investments in the defense industry sector, because on the one hand, Romania has contracts already signed, commitments made, and we must respect these commitments. Agriculture and the economy are not forgotten,” said the minister

“Agriculture has funding for the programs just mentioned and so does the economy. The Ministry of Economy has funding for the programs they want to implement. Once again: it is a frugal budget.

We started by cutting the State’s expenses and we can ensure the 7% deficit. The year 2025 is a year of solidarity also from the point of view of the administrative-territorial units. There we will have a solidarity fund at the national level, not only at the county level, to which everyone will contribute to help the small communes to meet their minimum objectives at the level of administrative-territorial units and to be able to offer the services they need offer

At some point, we will probably also discuss the reorganization and rethinking of public services at the level of administrative-territorial units. It is premature to go into the details, what we have to do now, to keep the expenses under control, to ensure the income at the minimum level to ensure these services”.