UPDATE Iohannis calls 2019 national budget budget of national disgrace, vows to refer it to court

President Klaus Iohannis on Friday says he will refer the 2019 budget draft bill to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR). "There are, unfortunately, unconstitutionality aspects in this budget as well. The budget of national disgrace not only endangers the Romanian economy, but also it also contains clear unconstitutionality aspects. Romania's obligations towards the European Union, where it belongs, are not met; it violates some fundamental rights; the role of the Fiscal Council has been ignored, while the principle of decentralisation and the principle of subsidiarity are undermined. For all of this, I will refer today to the CCR the 2019 national budget, the budget of the national disgrace," Iohannis told journalists at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace. He specified that he would also refer to the CCR a law on the approval of the ceilings of some indicators specified in the 2019 fiscal and budgetary framework. Iohannis called the budget "unrealistic, overvalued and delayed." "With this budget, the PSD [Social Democratic Party, main at rule] is trying to paper over the multiple failures of its government so far. They have called it the investment budget and that's the first big lie therein," Iohannis said. He added that, under the law PSD had to put forth the budget on November 15, 2018. "I tell you why they are late: they do not want to conduct investment because they have no money, so they delayed the budget by three months," said Iohannis. He also criticised statements about regional hospitals. "Asked a few days ago about regional hospitals, the much discussed hospitals, the promised regional hospitals, the PSD minister responded in a stupefying manner. The PSD minister said they have money for design. Just so you know: three years into governance they only have money for design work! There is no way they want to complete the hospitals. They do not want to make public investments; they just promise and do nothing. But when it comes to them, they have the money. PSD took great care appropriating huge amounts to fund political parties: it will take out 150 million out of the 270 million proposed for party funding," Iohannis said. He argued that this amount is more than 20 times the amount for election year 2016. "PSD has put aside 20 times more money for itself," added Iohannis. According to him, "local administration is a sure victim of this budget." "Romania's local communities receive a billion lei less than last year. How can city halls work without this money? How to conduct their investment? Obviously they cannot do that. The city halls will have to abandon important local investment projects to cope with this budget," said Iohannis. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)