Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said Tuesday that endemic poverty is the result of corruption and the way the public resources are allocated.
“As far as I am concerned, endemic poverty is first of all the result of corruption, of our way of using and steering public or private resources when they are steered by public administrations to generate sustainable development. When I say sustainable development, I do not mean necessarily the environment, but the consistency of the measures we take,” Ciolos told a debate on an anti-poverty legislative package at the Government House.
He said that in order to alleviate poverty, citizens’ behaviour will have to change.
“When we say we want to alleviate poverty we must first of all think about our behaviour as well, the fact that as long as we cannot overcome a behaviour that nourishes corruption we cannot alleviate poverty in a structured manner. As long as we contemplate social policies only that allow the chronically poor to barely meet both ends meet from social security benefits that are almost bidden during the election campaign – as who gives more – as long as we live with the impression that only by social security benefits can we solve problems, we cannot talk about viable solutions. (…) Unfortunately, changing mentalities cannot be achieved by issuing an emergency ordinance of a law, as it takes a lot of hardworking, but I believe our attitude, the attitude of those committed to changing the attitude of the entire society, is important,” said Ciolos.
Ciolos attended a conference on social inclusion and an anti-poverty package.
Ciolos launches platform for corruption-free, poverty-free Romania
A corruption-free Romania, with a responsible political class, governed by common sense, counting to the European Union and the NATO is the proposal of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos launched on Monday evening and called ‘Romania 100’ platform.
At the basis of this platform lie 10 principles assumed by the premier.
A “Romania without corruption” is firstly backed by PM Ciolos, who says that no political force in Romania should thwart the fight against corruption, weaken the judiciary and the rule of law. Corruption means poverty, corruption sentences us to underdevelopment. Therefore, he adds, the fight against corruption must be assumed by each and every one, individually, with the feeling that when one of us gives or receives bribe, asks for or offers an unfair advantage they become part of the system that corrupts and kills Romania. At its centenary, Romania needs a powerful, independent justice, says Ciolos.
The PM also advocates a Romania with a ‘responsible political class’ and a Romania ‘governed with common sense.’
“Following the 11 December elections, Romania will be risking to have its first lines ruled by people who are criminally investigated, with criminal sentences, who can no longer represent the future. One hundred years since the Greater Union, Romania deserves a decent political class, capable to become model of ethics and honesty and not of populism and demagoguery (…) The short tenure of the current government showed the limits of the change under an opaque, highly politicized, unreformed administration. The Romanians deserve a strong, reformed state, with a competitive, professional, open, for the people administration,” stresses Ciolos.
The head of government emphasizes the importance of a country where “each and every one works and is fairly paid” and a “Romania with no poverty.”
“The healthy economic growth and the living standard could be maintained should we create more jobs. The salary, pension rises are possible only if enough people work. (…). We need investors, consolidated domestic capital and foreign capital as well (…). One child out of three abandons school. We have one of the most inefficient social care systems in Europe. Instead of being supported, the poorest of us are made fun, they are used as mass electoral maneuver. Romania needs a new concept of social inclusion,” explains Ciolos.
Another principle of the premier refers to “a Romania with a competitive economy,” since Romania has no speedway to cross its mountains and we “enjoy” the poverty pole of Europe, with huge development imbalances among regions. All this are the result of inconsistency, inability to carry through projects and have strategic approach, the arbitrary systems to share the public money with the purpose to “buy” mayors for the electoral campaign (…) Romania needs a vision of multiannual development, to unite the national budget resources with the European funds,” adds Ciolos.
The premier also stresses the importance of education and health care system.
“Today in Romania we have an education system partly discredited by party interests and non-values, an underfinanced system. We have a system that excludes the poor and the ones of the rural areas, where the technical and agricultural high schools were neglected, where many universities became diplomas manufacturers. (…). Too many physicians leave Romania. No new hospitals were erected in Romania, a development plan, of modernizing the hospital infrastructure lacks in the past 26 years,” says Ciolos.
The premier is for “a Romania that counts in the European Union and in the NATO” and “a Romania of all Romanians.”
“In 2019, the centennial Romania will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. (…) We have the strength to become the Eastern anchor of the united Europe. We have the strength to remain the most reliable partner of the United States of America in Eastern Europe. Also, we have the historic, moral duty to keep close to us, on an European path the Romanians from the Republic of Moldova, to prepare our nation retrieval in any form the next generations would want from here and from across the Prut River. (…) Most of the Romanians who have left the country to work abroad are doing this because they lost faith that they could do better at home. We have a duty to respect their decision, to protect them and support them wherever they’ve chosen to live, but we also have the obligation to not estrange them from the country and encourage them to return home (…),” the premier concludes his platform.
