Fin Min To Assess Budget Resources, Situation Far Worse –Romanian Social Democrat Head

“(…) Our participation in the ruling coalition is a guarantee that those who have low incomes in Romania will not be sacrificed in a difficult economic and social period,” Geoana said.

He said the main social categories with low incomes are a priority to the Social Democratic Party.

The party “will fight and will see to it” that the resources in the budget for 2009 will be assigned properly, Geoana said.

"Our participation in the Government is motivated especially as we are called to defend our voters. They expressed their want to have the Social Democratic Party be part of the ruling, if the party supports financially the poorer categories. I’m talking about workers, teachers, medical staff, pensioners who get low pensions,” Geoana said.

He said the Finance Ministry is analyzing electoral promises.

“All these social promises are analyzed now together with the Finance Ministry, as that is where the money comes from, and I want to assure you of our will to guarantee society’s correct support conditions for all social categories, including young families and young mothers.

The head of the Senate deems the country’s financial situation “far worse” than it had been estimated.

The budget incomes sector and the budget deficit which is higher than the former Cabinet announced are among the problems Geoana mentioned.

"(…) in the last two months we’ve had a significant drop in the state budget incomes, Geoana said.

"The need to have a complete overview of the budget of the country is obvious, and we shall see what resources are at our disposal and we will assign them depending on the priorities of the governing agenda in the 2009 draft budget,” Geoana said.

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc confirmed Monday the government doesn’t have a clear assessment of the 2008 general consolidated budget and the data, along with forecasts for 2009, will be available in the first half of January.

"We don’t have the final data for the 2008 state budget. We’ll probably have it, together with the forecast for 2009, in the first part of January,” Boc said on Realitatea TV.

He also confirmed that the government will have another informal meeting Monday to discuss the 2009 state budget draft ahead of the government meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

People close to the matter told MEDIAFAX Saturday, after the Cabinet had a first informal meeting on the 2009 budget, that Boc asked ministers for new documents for a clear assessment of the country’s current financial situation.

The draft budget approved by the former government end October hasn’t yet received Parliament approval and will be pulled from the Parliament’s daily agenda.