Deadlock over budget adjustment

The Countrys Supreme Defence Council has blocked the Governments budget adjustment bill.

Bogdan Matei, 05.09.2018, 11:43

Tuesday’s meeting of the country’s
Supreme Defence Council was called off again, with President Klaus Iohannis
saying the ruling coalition, made up of the Social Democratic Party and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, must come up with a new draft law on the
budget adjustment. Previously, Council members disagreed over giving the
go-ahead for this bill, condemning the Government’s plans to curb the funding
of certain institutions operating in the field of national defence, a point the
president himself has picked up on. Klaus Iohannis finds it inadmissible that
Romania’s security should be endangered, considering the Government’s purported
adjustment is meant to be positive. Klaus Iohannis:

By calling off the meeting, I have
allowed the Government to come up with a new adjustment bill, to discard any
budget cuts in the field of national security, which serve only as political
shenanigans. As soon as the situation is corrected, the Council will be able to
give its approval.

The President had decided to call a
meeting of the country’s Supreme Defence Council after the Government said the
President was blocking the first budget adjustment of the year, which has to do
with salary rights, social welfare spending, measures to help combat the
African swine fever virus as well as settling Romania’s contribution to the EU
budget. The Social Democrat Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said there was
no legal basis for calling off the Council meeting and the Government has an
obligation to demand an approval. Teodorovici says the president’s decision
will delay the payment of salaries in certain institutions and will block
investments and compensations paid to farmers affected by the African swine
fever virus. Eugden Teodorovici.

The adjustment provides additional
sums of money to ensure pig farmers are compensated for their losses.
Additionally, the procurement of disinfectants, mobile incinerators, the
transport of the culled animals and other related activities that require
immediate action will be affected. In the agriculture sector, delays will be
reported in terms of ensuring the funding of the harvesting season and
investment in husbandry regarding poultry and other farm animals.

Some voices within the Social Democratic
Party claim the president has already started his campaign for the presidential
election next year, in a desperate attempt to secure a second term in office.
The President responded that the Government could have already implemented the
budget adjustment by discarding any measures affecting national security. Klaus
Iohannis went on to say the budget conceived by the Social Democrats is
reckless and impossible to implement. Some pundits agree with the president,
arguing that the ruling coalition is trying to settle its debts towards the
various parties that have helped them win a landslide victory in the
legislative election of 2016.