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PM Ciolacu: A 7-year agreement to re-enter the 3% deficit target to be negotiated with new European Commission
Romania will negotiate with the new European Commission a seven-year agreement to re-enter the 3% deficit target, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday, claiming that our country is in a period of "accelerated" development and it is very important that investments continue.
"What I can tell you is, for example, that the World Bank gave us a loan to cover the deficit. I suppose that the World Bank saw the pace of Romania's development and did not consider it a risk for an investment in Romania," Ciolacu said, when asked what measures to reduce spending were discussed by the coalition on Monday in order to reduce the budget deficit.
According to him, the government should be allowed to negotiate with the European Commission regarding the budget deficit.
"We have to decide, do you want to enter the logic in which, in two months, if you want, I stop any investment and we have a 3% deficit? I don't have a problem. With all the expenses that have increased in salaries and you know well that the expenses in salaries have increased last year in education and health, after a social crisis and after the biggest strike in the education system. (...) I repeat, I prefer you to ask me daily about the deficit and to continue the investments. I don't stop investments in Romania. (...) Let us negotiate with the Commission. These things are not publicly negotiated," Marcel Ciolacu pointed out, adding that other European states also have to manage the problem of excessive budget deficit.
He also pointed out that in the discussions that took place in the coalition meeting on Monday it was agreed that the VAT will not be increased.
The prime minister participated on Tuesday in the Business Forum organized at the Palace of Parliament, on the occasion of the meeting of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation.