PM Citu: Next Wednesday, Gov't sitting - measures to combat negative effects of pandemic, among priorities

Prime Minister Florin Citu announced on Wednesday evening, during the first meeting of the new Cabinet, that next week, on Wednesday, they will have their first government sitting and asked ministers to prepare a series of drafts to combat the negative effects generated by the pandemic and to support the business environment. "This evening we won't have a government sitting. There are only a few things that we are to prepare for the next sitting, which will be next week. There are some priorities, especially for combating the negative effects generated by the pandemic and some necessary to support the business environment and the finalization of the budget construction for 2021. (...) Tomorrow, when the transfer will be made at the ministries - there are already materials prepared there and we should start approving, to enter the approving procedure, so that we have all necessary endorsements, including from the Legislative Council for the government sitting next week," Citu said. The PM requested the Labor Minister, Raluca Turcan, to promote the draft emergency ordinance to prolong active measures until June 30, 2021, showing that they should be ready by next week. "The promotion of the draft emergency ordinance regarding the prolongation of the applicability deadline of the IMM Invest government program until June 30, 2021, and the approval of the new subprogram Agro IMM Invest, with applicability until the same term, immediately after receiving the authorization decision from the European Commission, by December 24. The decision to authorize will be issued by the European Commission, we have this decision, so we must move forward. Also regarding state aid schemes, the European Commission decided to prolong by six months the functioning period of the state aid scheme for large companies, the afferent financing and guaranteeing norms have been approved and are forwarded for publication in the Official Journal," were other priorities announced by the PM. Citu also referred to the draft emergency ordinance by which the state aid scheme for enterprises in the HoReCa [Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes] domain is established. "We have the promotion of the draft emergency ordinance that institutes the state aid scheme regarding some measures to grant financial support to enterprises in the HoReCa domain - tourism, accommodation units, food preparation units and tourism agencies, the activity of which was affected in the COVID-19 context. This is for Minister Claudiu Nasui - for next week we should be ready with all endorsements. This scheme was pre-notified at the European Commission. After all the necessary clarifications are sent, in view of checking the compatibility of the state aid scheme the official notification will follow," the Prime Minister said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Karina Olteanu; EN - editor: Razvan-Adrian Pandea)