Deputy PM Barna: Through Romexpo land, state offers 400 million euro gift

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna, co-chair of the Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity (USR PLUS), stated on Monday that the session of the National Bureau saw the reiteration of the point of view according to which, by transferring for free the land around Romexpo to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), the Romanian state is "offering a gift of at least" 400 million euro. "I reiterate a position that the National Bureau confirmed again today: the development of Romania cannot be done by robbing the state. We must stop with this mechanism of offering gifts. We cannot offer 400 million euro - at least - as a gift, to a private institution, for the perspective of a development project, probably necessary and useful for Romania, but there needs to be a capitalization, a benefit for the Romanian state," he showed in a press statement at the Palace of the Parliament. According to the USR PLUS leader, transferring for free to the property of CCIR the lands that are the private property of the state, in the free use of the CCIR and which are unclaimed, represent "a real estate Santa Claus." "It's unacceptable for the Romanian state to not receive any money and to offer from its own property a 400 million gift, at least, in Bucharest and other buildings - which are not even inventoried at this time - through the effect of this law, practically all the buildings in the use of the chambers of commerce, in the entire country, will become the property of these chambers of commerce," said Barna. He mentioned that USR PLUS is "open to dialogue", but a solution must be found by which the state would benefit from the buildings it has, showing that such situations can be found not only in the case of the chambers of commerce, but also in the case of various religious denominations. "It's a mechanism USR PLUS does not support. The state must capitalize on its buildings," he said. On March 31st, President Klaus Iohannis requested Parliament to re-examine the law that regards the transfer, for free, to the property of the Chamber of Commerce the lands which are the private property of the state, up to the entry into force of the normative act, used for free by the CCIR and which have not been claimed. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)