Under a new bill signed into law by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, public sector salaries will grow by 10%, while salaries in the healthcare sector will grow by 25%.
The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has signed into law a bill to raise the salaries of state employees and the healthcare staff. According to the president, Romania's 2016 state budget should consider a long-term strategy for development, so that reforms could begin in critical domains in the following months.
The Romanian prime minister Dacian Cioloş has given assurances that the rise in public sector salaries will not affect the budget deficit target for 2016. He also said that, to avoid cutting down on investments, the government would focus on attracting European funds. The prime minister has also pointed out that, besides these pay rises, which are important and justified, Romania should also work out a programme for investments, so that the country's economic growth should not be based on consumption alone. Dacian Cioloş:
"There will be no cuts. We will focus instead on investments. The ministries with budgets for investments, including the development and transport ministries, we will try to absorb more European funds to carry out our investment programmes, as planned. According to our estimates, we will manage to maintain the budget deficit target under 3%."
In the first half of November, the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill to raise public sector salaries with 319 yes, 7 abstentions and 1 no vote. MPs say all state employees should benefit from pay rises, not only public sector education and healthcare employees. The bill was tabled by the Social Democratic Party. Its initiator, Adrian Solomon, explained that it was necessary for the bill to be passed as part of an emergency procedure because 2016 is an election year and the fiscal responsibility law forbids pay rises in an election year. Although at first they opposed the pay rise, the Liberals have eventually voted in favour of the bill. In exchange, they asked for an impact study to be made, to make sure the budget has enough resources to cover the additional expenses.
According to the new government in Bucharest, the principles underlying its programme will be transparency in the decision-making process, responsibility and openness to dialogue. The government programme includes, among other things, the revision of the major investment projects, reforms in the field of education and healthcare, the consolidation of the rule of law and the organisation of next year's legislative and local elections in a fair and transparent manner.
(Translated by: L. Simion; edited by: C. Mateescu)
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