Gov’t might take responsibility over property restitution law

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Premier Victor Ponta said Monday that a first form of the law on the restitution of properties will be discussed in the Cabinet meeting of Wednesday, as the Executive will take responsibility over the draft law. “This week we will finalise in the government the draft law on the restitution of properties, this draft which we discuss in first reading during the Cabinet meeting, Monday I will present it to the leadership of USL, because the adoption modality I want as prime minister is the government taking responsibility for it,” PM Victor Ponta said.The premier explained that he eagerly awaits a no-confidence motion initiated by the opposition over the taking of responsibility on the law that refers to compensations. “They are the far-right now, the communists and ex-Securitate are the far-right of PDL. So, if they are the right, let them come and start a no-confidence motion, so we do not give people their money and the ECHR condemns us to pay EUR 8 bln, I can’t hardly wait,” Ponta added.The premier added that the government will maintain the principles of “restitution in kind, rescheduling, taxing those who have litigious rights.” “I understand that we must give the owners, but to those who did a business out of it… I believe that it is a business, and in business one cannot win 100 pc,” Ponta explained.In his turn, PNL leader Crin Antonescu was asked if there is no consensus in USL over the property restitution law. “The prime minister respectfully announced you, since the very beginning of this press conference, that he will submit this project of the government to a political decision in the USL. This is not about divergences, it is about the fact that we have not established yet a final form which we would make public,” Antonescu explained.The delegate minister for Budget, Liviu Voinea announced on January 23, at the Victoria Palace, that by April the government will take responsibility over a draft law on the legal regime of the restitution of properties. “By April, the government will take responsibility over a draft law on the legal regime of the restitution of properties,” Liviu Voinea announced at that moment.He only explained that, in order to compensate the former owners, the draft budget for this year provides only the sums pertaining to definitive and executory court orders, worth approximately RON 500 M.According to data recently presented by the government, Romania already paid a total sum of EUR 5 bln as compensations for nationalised lands and buildings and there are requests for EUR 8 bln more. The National Authority for the Restitution of Properties estimates the total compensations at EUR 8.7 – 9 bln. The big stake of the process is not represented by the houses and lands nationalised from the population, which account only for a small part of the sums to be paid, but the damages which the state could pay to cults and minorities.Only hours after the premier’s announcement, the president of the Civic Force (FC), Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said that the parliamentarians of FC will initiate today in Parliament a draft law on the restitution of properties seized by the communist regime, under the principle that it is mandatory to either return the property or pay compensation. He said that other principles of this initiative are that the owner may choose which variant of righting the wrong he prefers, along with deadlines and sanctions for the persons and institutions in the restitution process, the transparency of calculating the compensations.