PSD's Ciolacu: The social chapter will certainly close tomorrow; royalties, small budget impact

National leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday, at the end of discussions on a governing agenda with the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and representatives of the national minorities in Parliament, that the negotiations on the social chapter are to be concluded on Wednesday.

According to the Social-Democratic leader, royalties have a small impact on the national budget, at 1.6 billion lei, and these aspects have to be regulated.

"The social chapter will certainly close tomorrow, after all the impacts are brought to us. We looked for areas where the government does not have enough receipts, for example royalties, and the impact was removed from the Ministry of Finance and we will see in a law how we can regulate things compared with other countries in Europe. At the moment [royalties] have a very small impact on the national budget in terms of receipts (...) We want to see what the laws are all around Europe and to adapt them in Romania as well," he explained.

Asked if PSD had given up on a surcharge on large fortunes, Ciolacu denied, mentioning that the impact of such a measure is under scrutiny.