PNL leader Orban: Some points, such as money for local authorities, up for discussion

The governing coalition approved on Tuesday the broad outlines of the budget revision, leaving a few points up for discussion, including the funds allocated to the local authorities, National Liberal Party (PNL) leader Ludovic Orban stated. After the coalition meeting he declared that the budget revision was broadly discussed, namely the need to allocate additional funds for the main authorizing officers. "There are a few points left for discussion that will be clarified," Orban said. Asked about the criteria on which the money will be granted to local authorities, he said the discussion is ongoing. "There is still an ongoing discussion on this topic. What is certain is that the total amount provided is 3 billion, which is divided into several categories - reserve fund, supplementation of local budgets, either by using a formula or by another mechanism. This point will therefore be clarified in detail. Normally, ensuring the expenses, operating resources need to be taken into account, co-financing must be ensured, especially for the operation of projects that are financed from European funds for the localities that have problems, (...) It follows that there will be another discussion for expatiating both with the Minister of Development and with the officials of the representative associations of the local authorities - namely UNCJR [the National Union of County Councils of Romania], the Association of Municipalities and the others. But this is a general amount, and the way of allocating the money is yet to be established with precision," the PNL leader explained. Another topic discussed in the coalition was related to the National Local Development Programme (PNDL) 3, namely the launch of a new investment plan, worth approximately 50 billion lei, in a multi-annual plan, the legislative act of the ordinance to be issued this year. Ludovic Orban added that Minister of Development Cseke Attila, prepared, together with a team, a draft Government Emergency Ordinance on the indexation of contracts as a result of the increase in prices for construction materials with a formula that applies to each settlement of works and considers a formula to quantify both the increases and the decreases of prices in different construction materials. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Florin Marin; EN - editor: Simona Iacob)