Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Tuesday that measures affecting local administration should have been adopted earlier, in order to allow sufficient time for possible adjustments.
His remarks came after the president of the Association of Communes of Romania, Emil Draghici, warned that the measures adopted by the government would "once again drive young people out" of Romania and said decisions on taxes and duties had been taken too hastily, arguing that local administrations were being "put in a bind, one by one", by each of the proposed measures.
"Continuing with that line of thought, it is reality - and the citizens - that have already put us in this position. The reality is that we are facing budgetary figures that no longer allow us to do certain things. If we do not acknowledge this, believe me, I understand the arguments - that this must be done and that must be done - but we also have to look at where the money comes from, because our country no longer has these funds; we are borrowing them. And whenever we take action, we must consider the cost of the borrowing involved," Bolojan replied.
He noted that budgetary adjustment measures are unpopular and have a contractionary effect on the economy, an effect that cannot be avoided in other countries either.
"Think of a family as well: at some point, when it spends far more than it can afford and then has to repay its debts - because no one will lend to it anymore - it has no choice but to tighten their belt. That is the reality, and we cannot escape it. No one has yet found a way, anywhere, to correct such deficits while keeping everyone happy," the prime minister said.
Bolojan added that it would have been preferable for the adjustment measures to have been adopted earlier, based on simulations that would also have allowed for the necessary corrections.
"When measures sound appealing, they can be adopted overnight. When measures require corrections that affect specific interests, you know how difficult it is to get them through, because everyone will rightly argue that they are an exception or face a particular problem. And yes, you are right: if we had adopted them one, two or three months earlier, we would have had time to review and refine them. Any decision made at central level finds it very hard to address all the specific situations across the 3,300 administrative units we have, because circumstances vary greatly," Prime Minister Bolojan specified.
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