Romanian President Discusses Govt Reshuffle With Democrat Liberal Leaders

The staff of the Presidential Administration did not officially announce Basescu's attendance at the Sunday meeting.

Party vice-president Valeriu Stoica said Saturday that the party would decide Sunday whether to reshuffle the Cabinet or leave it as it is for another six months.

People close to the matter said that Basescu does not want to reshuffle the Government before fall and that he has given the Cabinet 60 days to prove its efficiency by enforcing the austerity plan.

Also, the President allegedly asked that the number of ministers' personal advisers be limited to two and that Government agencies with no corresponding structure within the EU be suppressed. According to the same source, Basescu said merging ministries would be a risky move at present, since it would require another parliamentary ballot, after the close result of the recent vote on the no-confidence motion. Basescu also purportedly wants to cut the budget funding of certain inefficient NGOs.

A similar informal meeting took place two weeks ago. Early last week, Parliament rejected the opposition's no-confidence motion.

Democrat liberal vice-president Ioan Oltean first spoke about a possible Cabinet reshuffle on June 4. At the time, Oltean said that Prime-Minister Emil Boc would have to reshuffle the Government after enforcing the austerity plan. Oltean later recanted, saying a Government reshuffle or restructuring would only be discussed if Romanian opposition social democrats file another no-confidence motion.

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