Prime Minister Holds Talks With Municipality Mayors Regarding State Budget Dispute

Due to the talks, the cabinet meeting initially scheduled for 14.00 local time was delayed, and had yet to begin as of 15.30 local time.

The meeting was attended by a delegation of mayors formed out of Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea, Arad Mayor Gheorghe Falca, Cluj Mayor Emil Boc and Bucharest Sector 3 Mayor Robert Negoita – the latter as president of the Association of Romanian Municipalities (AMR).

The capital’s general mayor announced before the meeting that the Government had proposed earlier in the day, during an informal meeting, a reduction of the city’s budget by about EUR70-80 million compared to last year, which she says would block key infrastructure projects and the purchase of hundreds of new buses.

“These cuts will be directly reflected in the lives of citizens. I am convinced that, also in other municipalities, there will be situations where investments in schools, hospitals, and infrastructure will be scrapped, which is not ideal,” Firea said before the meeting with the prime minister.

On Wednesday morning, the mayors threatened with protests if local administration do not receive one third of the country’s budget for the year.

In a letter sent to the Government, the mayor’s association also criticized the fact that the draft budget for 2019 was not made available for debate, adding that they found out from the press that it will be passed by Thursday.

“It is for the first time in AMR history when our requests for dialogue with Romanian Government, on issues directly regarding the functioning of public local administration are refused, so that none of our requests were answered,” the association stated in its letter.

The prime minister’s economic counsellor, Darius Valcov, previously announced that budget project would be made available for public debate on Tuesday, with another ruling coalition meeting on the subject to take place on Monday.

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