The 2022 budget, endorsed by Parliament
The Romanian Parliament has passed the 2022 state budget.
Leyla Cheamil, 24.12.2021, 14:00
The 2022 state budget and social security budget were passed by the Bucharest Parliament with by a large majority and a few amendments. Politicians want the budget law to take effect at the start of the New Year, after debates in the plenary sitting were held at a fast pace so that, in four days alone, the two laws were green lighted by the expert committees and the plenary sitting. The budget was built on a 4.6% economic growth rate, a GDP of around 260 billion euros, an average inflation rate of 6.5% and a gross minimum average salary of about 1,200 euros per month. 7.7% of the GDP is for the social security budget.
A number of ministries will receive additional funds as of next year, such as the Transport Ministry, for infrastructure development and for the European projects and investment, for conducting of the programmes included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Social-Democrat senator Radu Oprea has said that investment will be covered both at the Transport Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry, and the business environment will receive 12.2 billion euros.
The Labour Ministry will also receive additional funds, to cover the increase in pensions, child allowances and subsidies for the people with disabilities starting the beginning of next year. Liberal deputy Gabriela Horga says that the pension is a right and not a social measure. ˮWe have a duty to pensioners, because they were productive citizens who, in their turn, contributed with a lifetime of work and have paid their pensions throughout their lives,ˮ Gabriela Horga said. Deputy with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), Éva Csép, said that unemployment must be reduced and the new jobs must be stabile and predictable.
From the opposition, the leader of the ultranationalist party AUR, George Simion, says that pensions should be increased by a set amount, in order to eliminate major differences. In spite of the fact that the national budget and social security laws were passed by a large majority, Dan Barna, the vice president of the Save Romania Union (USR), in the opposition, has said that the Constitutional Court will be notified. According to Barna, the 2022 budget is a budget that passed the amendments of extremists and not a single amendment of USR, a discriminatory budget that only supports the majority that passed it, PSD and PNL. The main dissatisfaction of the Save Romania Union is that the 2022 state budget does not cover the funds needed by the local administrations headed by mayors from USR. (EE)
