Romania’s government adopted its proposal for next year’s budget on Monday and parliament plans to adopt it before the Christmas break but the rapid procedure was criticised by civil society, according to Euractiv.
PNL and PSD the two main parties that formed the government had reached a compromise on the budget for 2022.
Finance Minister Adrian Caciu said the budget is based on economic growth estimated at 4.6%, while the budget deficit is expected to narrow to 5.8% of GDP, according to Romania’s pledge to the European Commission.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca promised that the government will not increase taxes or levies, and will not put additional pressure on companies while keeping the current fiscal rules and the aid schemes in place.
However, former prime minister and current PNL leader Florin Cîțu is disappointed that the budget for investments is lower than the 7% of GDP included in the governing program adopted less than a month ago.
The opposition noted that the government delayed payments such as pension increases, salary increases for teachers, and other bonuses for public servants, which were voted on by the socialist party PSD.
“Not even the laws they voted for and the electoral promises they transformed into laws cannot be applied when they are forced to draft a realistic budget,” said Dacian Ciolos, the president of USR, the party that was in the coalition with PNL until September.
Ciolos said both PNL and PSD have made major promises, including those in the governing program recently adopted, that they now cannot keep.
Civil society groups also criticised how the budget was subject to public debate for just 24 hours, as it was only published on the Finance Ministry’s website on Sunday morning.