The Minister of Public Projects and Investments, Dragoş Pîslaru, announced at the end of the Government session, in a press briefing, that Romania has resumed discussions with the European Commission for the unblocking of European funds, following the CCR decision that eliminates the special pensions of magistrates.
“We announced that we will redo and retransmit in the cover note system, the official document exchange system with the European Commission, the milestone fulfillment document. We are waiting for the promulgation and the number in the Official Gazette, to conclude that document. We will have a letter in which we will explain all the steps and shed new light on payment request 3 in terms of how Romania has fulfilled this milestone”. said Minister Dragoș Pîslaru during a press briefing at the end of Thursday’s government meeting.
The analysis of payment request 3 will take into account the arguments that the Romanian Executive will submit, the minister explained, and the European Commission’s response “it cannot be later than the first half of March.”
“A communication error”
Regarding the fact that he initially announced, last week, that Romania officially lost the money related to the pension milestone, the 231 million euros, the minister specified that it was about “a communication error”.
“It was a communication error that I assume. The idea behind it is like this: at the time of the meeting in Brussels, the European Commission had informed us that at that time, in the absence of evidence regarding the promulgation of these laws, from your perspective the subject is closed and Romania loses that money. At the time of that postponement, it was a communication error in the team I have in this regard and somehow I corrected it in the public space, it is only official when you receive the letter I made this correction in less than half an hour“, explained the minister.
At the same time, the minister assured that the governing act is done in the interest of the citizens, despite the tensions in the public space regarding the relationship of the governing coalition, as evidenced even by “the fact that the government has scored a super important victory related to the special pensions project”.
“Justice has been done. The world was waiting for this, it is the first crucial reform, at a crucial turning point, to show that we can make the reforms expected by society. I think that from this point of view you have indisputable proof that the government works in the interest of Romanians and that things are moving forward well”he added.
