Patriot missile systems purchase greenlighted in Chamber's Defence Committee

Chamber of Deputies Defence Committee greenlighted on Tuesday the government's Army endowment bill providing for the purchase of seven Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, Defence Minister Mihai Fifor said. 

The Committee's report is due to enter the plenary sitting on Tuesday. 

The Chamber of Deputies is a decision-making forum in this case. 

According to Defence Minister Mihai Fifor, once past this stage, the bill's legislative part is at a closure point, the next step being for the Romanian party to sign the contract with the United States' Government, most likely until 1 December this year. 

"The bill is due for the Chamber of deputies' plenary sitting. Mr. Speaker of the Deputies' Chamber, Mr. Dragnea, has provided his full support for this project. (...) Or, this only helps us close the legislative part of the Patriot project this week, so that we can sign the contract with the U.S. Government and proceed with the payment. Thus, alongside the other programmes being conducted, we comply with the 2 percent allocated this year to MApN [the National Defence Ministry - ed.n.]. Specifically, until 1 December we want to be able to sign the acceptance letter with the U.S. Government which also constitutes the actual contract for the first system, the payment for the contract being consequently due within two weeks' time. Payment for the first system. There was an amendment lodged by one of my colleagues - it is a purely legislative matter, without any consequences," the Defence Minister showed. AGERPRES .