site.btaRomanian PM-designate Marcel Ciolacu Presents Governance Programme

Social Democrats leader and prime minister-designate Marcel Ciolacu presented Tuesday evening his governance programme, which he called "the vision for the nation". He outlined five pillars: solving the problem of special pensions and adopting new law on the unified wage; stopping rising prices and restoring purchasing power; developing public education and health systems; economic development by increasing national production, attracting European money and budget funds; creating more and better paid jobs.

National Liberal Party’s Nicolae Ciuca stepped down as prime minister on Monday in order to pass the baton to Ciolacu, and to implement the rotation of power between the coalition partners, on which the they agreed upon when forming the cabinet in 2021. New government is expected to take office by the week’s end.

According to Ciolacu, Romania needs a new economic and social model. 

"At the end of my mandate of a year and a half, I want every employee to earn at least EUR 500 per month and the average net salary to reach EUR 1,000," he said and promised an increase in pensions and specified that low and middle-income earners would continue to be supported by the state. "All forms of assistance - food vouchers and payments for energy and gas bills - will continue," the Social Democratic Party leader stressed. 

He underlined that by the end of the year Romania should have economic growth of over 3% and inflation below 8% and touched on the need to reduce imports and speculation. Ciolacu informed that he and his colleagues have prepared a programme to stop the price rise of basic food products.

"Together with the ministers and the economic team, we have also developed new support schemes so that in two years we can allocate a total of more than RON 250 billion - money to stimulate all companies that produce in Romania. I am referring to state aid schemes to stimulate production and exports, public investment and public-private partnerships," Ciolacu explained. 

He expressed the view that the absorption of EU funds should be accelerated by simplifying procedures in order to shorten as much as possible the implementation time of EU-funded projects. The prime minister-designate's plans also include an increase in subsidies granted to farmers and financial incentives for setting up food processing and production factories in Romania. 

Marcel Ciolacu said that he wants to reduce labour taxation and prevent Romanians from leaving the country. "Today we have one of the highest tax burdens in the EU on low wages - twice as high as in Germany, for example. Moreover, we all know that Romania is still in the vicious circle of low wages. A third of Romanian employees now receive the minimum wage of RON 3,000  gross, i.e. less than RON 1,900 net. On the basis of a dialogue with trade unions and employers, we will raise the minimum wage," Ciolacu promised.

He also referred to the health system. "Romania still has a big problem in terms of unequal access to quality healthcare. We want to modernize and equip family medicine offices in small towns and rural areas," the future prime minister said.