Radio România Internațional

Tag: Boc

  • Local authorities ask for Government’s support

    Local authorities ask for Government’s support

    The representatives of Romanias County Council associations, of the Romanian municipalities, cities and communes have asked for support from the Government to ensure the co-financing of the projects run by the local communities and have also asked for solutions regarding the huge energy bills received by institutions. During a meeting with the Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, the local authorities representatives have expressed their availability to be co-opted in consultations related to the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, so that the funding should be adapted to the needs of the communities.



    They have warned that the failure to make the reforms needed to implement the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR will turn the local communities into victims. During the discussions, the mayor of Cluj-Napoca (northwest), Emil Boc, has proposed that the guidelines for implementing the Plan should be developed together with the local authorities, because they know best the problems of the communities. Moreover, he has pointed out that Romania will lose money from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR if it does not make the necessary reforms.



    Emil Boc: Romania risks losing money from the PNRR, if the ministers do not make the reforms required under the PNRR. The collateral victims will be the local administrations. These reforms are not made somewhere outside Romania. They are made by Romania for Romanians. The reforms will make this country much more functional, with benefits for every citizen.



    In turn, the mayor of Cugir (central Romania), Adrian Teban, has pointed out that, soon, smaller cities will no longer have money to pay energy bills, which have doubled and, in some cases, have even tripled.



    Adrian Teban: “In small and medium-sized cities, the pressure on local budgets is very high, with the rising energy prices. Larger municipalities can afford it. But small cities are facing more pressure.



    Regarding the communes’ problems, the local officials have also told the prime minister that in the future they will no longer have money to pay their employees, and the communes will be left without employees. On the other hand, the Government, through the Inter-ministerial Committee Coordinating the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, has promised to take steps to speed up reforms and continue efforts to implement the Plan.



    Romania needs balanced modernization and development, so that the investments available through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the other European and national funds, should benefit in a fair and integrated manner all communities and all citizens – the PM said during the meeting. At the same time, he has reviewed the measures taken by the Government to protect the population, the economic sectors and public institutions, such as the schools, hospitals and cultural institutions, from the effects of rising energy prices. (LS)

  • The problems of the medical system

    The problems of the medical system

    The Romanians, who conscientiously pay their health insurance contributions, hope to benefit in return from at least partially free-of-charge consultations, treatment and medicine, and quality medical services. In reality, however, this has not been the case for a good many years. Amid chronic problems caused by the under-funding of the healthcare system and an acute shortage of medical staff, on the very first day of the year, almost 2,000 family doctors refused to sign contracts with the health insurance houses, leaving almost 4 million people unable to benefit from free and subsidised medicines and referrals to consultants. The doctors who have resorted to this form of protest demand the elimination of red tape in the medical system and more funds for primary care medicine.



    The health ministry is also faced with an illegal anti-vaccination campaign carried out across the country. Public health directorates have been asked to inspect the billboards carrying messages against vaccination, despite the fact that vaccination saves almost 3 million lives every year. The measles epidemic Romania is currently faced with must be a wake-up call for everybody, including doctors, the authorities and parents, but these messages are an attack on children’s health, says the health minister Florian Bodog.



    Florian Bodog: “Putting up a billboard with the message that vaccination is unsafe is, in my opinion, a crime, apart from being illegal. I believe responsible parents must protect their children. Just as they make sure their children get baptised, regardless of their religion, so they should also make sure their children get vaccinated.”



    In other bad news, a reputed Romanian surgeon specialising in kidney transplant, Mihai Lucan, and who is suspected of embezzlement and creating an organised crime group, is under investigation for causing 1 million euros worth of damage to the state. He is believed to have illegally transferred to his private clinic medical equipment that belonged to the Renal Institute in Cluj Napoca, in the northwest. More than 150 patients were reportedly sent from the public hospital to the surgeon’s private clinic, where the cost of surgery varies between 3,000 and 6,000 euros.



    Here is MP Emanuel Ungureanu from the Save Romania Union who denounced the practices of doctor Lucan: “We are discovering these days that the country we live in is run by mafia-type groups that include doctors, prosecutors, judges, people from the Romanian Intelligence Service with the complicity of other doctors who know, for example, that in hundreds of clinics around Romania, the patients are channelled away from state hospitals to private clinics. Sick people are robbed of their money and then sent back to state hospitals, where the state is then robbed.”



    The health minister Florian Bodog and the mayor of Cluj Napoca Emil Boc have been called in for questioning in connection to the Mihai Lucan case.

  • Măsuri fiscale

    Măsuri fiscale

    Fără să aibă undă verde din partea creditorilor externi ai României– FMI, Comisia Europeană şi Banca Mondială -, măsura reducerii cu 5% a contribuţiilor asigurărilor sociale la angajator a intrat în ultimele etape, unele pur tehnice, ce preced intrarea sa în vigoare, la 1 octombrie. Guvernul a aprobat, miercuri, proiectul de lege privind reducerea CAS, al cărui traseu mai include două borne: aprobarea în Parlament, ce se anunţă o simplă formalitate, şi promulgarea de către şeful statului, Traian Băsescu, cel care, până acum, nu a dat de înteles că doreşte retuşuri.



    Premierul Victor Ponta detaliază: ”Senatul mi-a comunicat că aşteaptă proiectul, îl dezbate în procedura cea mai rapidă şi îl adoptă, iar Camera Deputaţilor, la începutul lunii iulie, va avea, oricum, o sesiune extraordinară şi atunci îl adoptă. Deci, poate pleca la preşedinte pentru promulgare. Am discutat clar cu instituţiile financiare internaţionale, ne încadăm în 2014 în toate obligaţiile pe care ni le-am asumat. Important este ca mai departe, prin toate măsurile fiscal-bugetare şi de combatare a evaziunii fiscale, să facem această măsură sustenabilă, pe termen lung”.



    Aplicarea măsurii printr-o lege, susţin observatorii, este menită să aducă un surplus de legitimitate politică, în condiţiile în care, deopotrivă, instituţiile financiare internaţionale, Opoziţia de centru-dreapta şi marile confederaţii sindicale nu au ascuns că au ceva semne de întrebare.



    Opoziţia, prin fostul premier democrat-liberal Emil Boc, reproşează guvernului că reducerea CAS va fi operată chiar în preajma prezidenţialelor din noiembrie. Emil Boc: ”O măsură extrem de importantă pentru economia românească devine, din nefericire, doar o măsură de propagandă electorală, pentru că ea este pregătită să intre în vigoare la începutul campaniei electorale, fără a avea acordul Fondului Monetar Internaţional”.



    La rându-i, una dintre cele mai importante confederaţii sindicale din ţară, Cartel ALFA, consideră că reducerea CAS la angajator va creşte, de fapt, profiturile nete ale companiilor, în special ale multinaţionalelor. Mai mult, aplicarea acestei măsuri – susţine organizaţia sindicală – reduce cu aproximativ 20% contribuţiile la sistemul de pensii, micşorând, astfel, bugetul asigurărilor sociale cu aproape şase miliarde lei, circa 1,35 miliarde de euro, pe an.



    De partea sa, premierul Ponta a declarat că măsura nu va provoca nicio gaură în bugetul asigurărilor sociale, fiindcă pierderile vor fi compensate prin recuperarea datoriilor de la contribuabilii aflaţi în insolvenţă.