Romanian Govt To Take Responsibility For Law Packs In Three Stages

Nica said that, in the Central Coordination Political Office of the government coalition, prime minister Emil Boc presented a note on the intention to commit government responsibility to the three packs of laws.

The deputy prime minister said the decision to commit government responsibility "is the prerogative of the prime minister and cannot be censored in any way", adding the government will send the Parliament, on September 2, a letter of intent on the assumption of responsibility.

Nica said that, after receiving the letter of intent, the Parliament will decide the calendar for the actual assumption of government responsibility. The official added that, since three law packs are in question, there will be three Parliament meetings, for an assumption of responsibility in three stages.

Nica explained the three-stage procedure through the fact that some of the measures in these laws have fixed application deadlines, agreed with the IMF, which need to be observed. On the other hand, he added, the education laws cannot include such fixed deadlines, thus Parliament debates can be extended on these laws.

The three law packs involved refer to economic measures, the unitary wage law and the education laws.

The economic measures pack will include, among others, the measures included in the anti-crisis plan designed by the democrat liberals and social democrats, such as the tax exemption of reinvested profits, which should become effective on October 1, as well as measures stated in the agreement with the IMF.

As for the unitary wage law, Nica said this pack will be complete following talks between the government and unionists in justice and education, but the 1/12 ratio between the minimum and the maximum wage in the public sector will not be changed.