Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Friday that the government will take responsibility before Parliament for a first legislative package that includes amendments to justice legislation, repealing a controversial emergency ordinance (OUG No.51/2019) and to law on spending caps.
“Allow me to officially inform you of the decision we have discussed with each minister, namely that of taking responsibility before Parliament for two packages of laws. The first responsibility taking is for a bill that will include amendments in two areas and the law on spending caps. (…) The first responsibility taking will be to extend the terms contained in justice legislation regarding the early retirement of magistrates, regarding the transition from two-judge to three-judge panels and extending the deadline for the entry into force of increasing the seniority required to join the judiciary from two to four years. We have set to abrogate these provisions next year, so that they will no longer exist, they will not put us in a position to extend the deadline at the end of the year,” said Orban at the beginning of a government meeting.
He added that, with the extension of the deadline for the entry into force of the three terms in the field of Justice, Ordinance No.51/2019 will also be repealed, in order to allow the reimbursement of commuting to and from school.
“You should know that there are places right now where children, because they cannot afford to pay the full cost of the transport fare, do not go to school. Ordinance 51 pursued, in my opinion, two perverse purposes namely: at the pressure of the county barons of the PSD, they no longer have to cover the transport fares for the children’s commute by abolishing the public service status of the intra-county transport and, at the same time, the ordinance extends the intra-county transport licences by another four years, ignoring the obligation to tender the intra-county transport routes,” said Orban.
He added that the legislative package includes a bill on spending caps which is necessary for the subsequent adoption of the law of the national budget.
“The bill for which we will take responsibility first also includes a bill on spending caps, which is necessary for the subsequent adoption of the law on the national budget. (…) At this meeting , we will discuss the text in a first reading, we will not pass it. I have said that I will call a meeting of the government on Tuesday so that we can pass and start the responsibility taking procedure on Tuesday,” said Orban.
Gov’t to take responsibility for abrogation of “catastrophic provisions” of GEO No.114
The Government will take responsibility for the abrogation of “all the catastrophic provisions” of the GEO No. 114 in the next interval, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban stated on Friday.
“We will take responsibility for the abrogation of all the catastrophic provisions for the Romanian economy included in the Government Emergency Ordinance 114. I hoped that we will be able to abrogate all those damaging provisions in Parliament – for you know the Ordinance is being debated by the Deputies Chamber at this point – which provisions brought inestimable damage to the Romanian economy, in my opinion. I don’t know if we will be able to do it. On the contrary, based on what I hear from the various committees in Parliament, it seems like some want to make the provisions of the GEO 114 even worse,” Ludovic Orban said in the opening of the Government meeting.
The PM added that the “last stunt” I heard of is ‘that of increasing cap for the ghostly FDI up to 15 billion.”
“This is so dumbfounding, you cannot imagine. Which is why, in my opinion, we are forced, if we really want to return to normality again and stop the effects of GEO 114 on the economy, to take responsibility at a future meeting, not on Tuesday, but at the next government meeting, so that we can launch the taking responsibility procedure including for the abrogation of the toxic provisions of GEO 114,” said Orban.
