MP Laurentiu Dan Leoreanu of the National Liberal Party (PNL), a member on the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Budget and Financial Affairs, is asking for Finance Minister Viorel Stefan to come before a joint session of Parliament’s budget and financial affairs committees to say whether or not the current public pay bill is sustainable.
“The European Commission has confirmed what PNL has been constantly saying about the uniform public pay bill drawn up by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Grindeanu Cabinet: the government deficit will surge because of tax cuts and increased public spending, with the public pay bill will generate significant risks to fiscal projections. The PSD and [its national leader] Liviu Dragnea seem to know that much, given that they have come up with cynical and desperate measures that would entail capping child-rearing benefits or surcharging part-time revenue, as written in the convergence programme,” Leoreanu said Sunday in a press statement.
He claims that PSD and Dragnea want to fast forward the bill so that it may pass by the start of the parliamentary recess.
“That is why my proposal is that Finance Minister Viorel Stefan should be invited to a joint meeting of the committees on budget and financial affairs to explain to the entire public opinion how he considers applying the uniform pay law responsibly. It is useless to pass a uniform pay bill that will only satisfy Dragnea’s ego for some months, but that entire generations later on will have to pay for with pay cuts and tax raises,” added Leoreanu.
He went on to say that there is a rumour that Stefan will be replaced for not supporting the bill.
“The only people having so far communicated about the uniform pay law are Liviu Dragnea and [Labour Minister] Lia Olguta Vasilescu and timidly Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu. Finance Minister Viorel Stefan has been conspicuously silent about the topic. Moreover, there is a public rumour that Stefan would be replaced also because of allegedly having expressed disagreement with the bill. That is why I believe we have to call Mr Viorel Stefan before a joint meeting of the budget and financial affairs committees to tell us in person whether or not he believes the uniform pay bill in its current form will not lead to Romania’s collapse,”Leoreanu concluded.
PNL submits to the Constitutional Court a referral regarding the Law on the Centenary of the Great Union
The deputies of the National Liberal Party (NL) submitted to the Constitutional Court a referral regarding the unconstitutionality of the Law on the Centenary of the Great Union of December 1, 1918, claiming, among others, that the principle of the bicameralism wasn’t considered, and that the parliamentary majority imposed legislative solutions breaching constitutional provision related to the Romanian President’s power to grant decorations.
“The original form of the legislative proposal, made by the PNL parliamentarians, was subject to major amendments brought in the second Chamber notified by the parliamentary majority, breaching the principle of the bicameralism embodied stated in the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence. Thus, regulations that change the meaning of the legislative initiative have not been subject of the decision of the first notified Chamber in this case, namely the Senate” reads a press release issued by PNL.
Liberals also state that “the financing sources and the budget allotments needed to cover the activities conducted on the occasion of the Centenary, are not indicated”.
“Besides, the parliamentary majority imposed legislative solutions that breach constitutional regulations regarding the power of the Romanian President to grant decorations and titles of honor in the name of the Romanian state. By the form of the law adopted in the Chamber of Deputies, the institution of the President of Romania is circumvented in this constitutional mechanism, while other types of medals and distinctions are created in the occasion of the anniversary of the Great Union, to be granted by Parliament decision or by Government decision”, PNL concluded.
PNL MP Florin Roman entered on Tuesday on a Japanese strike; he will wear a white band on his arm and a small tricolor flag on his chest, as a protest over the fact that the parliamentary majority rejected in block, in the administration and culture committees, all his amendments to the draft regarding “The Law on the Centenary of the Great Union of December 1, 1918″. The parliamentarian warns to go on hunger strike in the autumn, if the Government does not allocate money for the projects prepared by the Alba Iulia municipality for the year 2018 when the Centenary is celebrated.
The draft law on the Centenary of the War for the Wholeness of the Nation (1916-1918) and the Centenary of the Great Union was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies as the decisional body, with 204 “pros” and 33 abstentions.
