Romanian Ruling Coalition Fails To Agree On Administrative Reorganization Plan

People close to the matter said leaders of the Hungarian minority party UDMR, part of the ruling coalition, did not agree with the reorganization plan put forward by democrat liberals, saying the party found no support on this issue from local authorities.

Sources from the Parliament told MEDIAFAX some democrat liberals consider that seeking lawmakers’ confidence vote on the bill would be a mistake, as a likely no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition might this time overthrow the Government.

Prime Minister Emil Boc said Saturday the final format of the Democratic Liberal Party’s proposition on the country’s administrative reorganization would be decided by the ruling coalition.

Democrat liberal general secretary Ioan Oltean announced in a news conference Friday the Government would seek a confidence vote in Parliament to adopt the act.

The ruling party’s proposal is to reorganize the country into eight counties, from the current 41. The new county seats would be Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Timisoara, Craiova, Constanta, Iasi, Ploiesti and Bucharest.

The Government’s decentralized services would have eight local offices, instead of 41, bringing the authorities closer to the citizen, according to Oltean. He added that many matters handled by these services and by county councils would be transferred to commune, town and city halls.

Deputy Prime Minister Marko Bela said Friday UDMR leaders want the country to be reorganized into 16 administrative structures, adding that the ruling coalition has no coherent administrative reorganization plan.