Parliament - Gov't investiture/ PM-designate Orban: This Cabinet is one with a limited mandate;urgent measures to be taken

Prime Minister-designate Ludovic Orban has stated on Monday in the joint plenary meeting of Parliament that the mandate of his Executive is a limited one, namely of one year, underscoring that certain measures should be urgently taken. "This Government is a Government with a limited mandate, the maximum duration of exercising the executive power of this Government is one year and, practically, everything which we included in the governing programme starts from this constraint, which is provided by exercising power during an extremely short period. We have urgent measure, which can only be taken by a legitimate Government. Look at what is happening with the barricade of over 100 miners in the underground of Paroseni and Uricani coal mines, people are putting their lives, health in danger because, for nine months, the Government failed to extend the emergency ordinance which would give them the possibility to have an income, after the mines close, and put something on their families' table," Orban explained. He highlighted that the revision of the state budget is necessary, showing that many public institutions and local authorities don't have resources in order to close the budget exercise and risk leaving their employees without their salaries. Furthermore, Orban argued that, at the moment, there are delays in the payment of entitlements of persons with disabilities, the entitlements of personal assistants of people with disabilities, indicating that this situation cannot be tolerated. "The adoption of a OUG [Government Emergency Ordinance] for the state budget revision is fundamental, which can ensure all the vital payments in all the activity areas, in all the public institutions and for all the local authorities," the National Liberal Party (PNL) leader stated. According to him, the situation regarding the preparations for winter is also "disastrous" in terms of energy and the ability to clear the transport networks. "The transport Minister is too busy to rehire famous Narcis Neaga at the CNAIR [the National Road Infrastructure Administration Corporation], through a flawed procedure based on Law No.115, while the regional roads have almost nothing from that is required to ensure the removal of snow," the PM-designate argued. Moreover, he indicated that a legitimate Government would be able to propose a European Commissioner and added that another emergency is represented by the drafting of the state budget for 2020. "There is the necessity of drawing up the state budget draft for 2020. In accordance with the law, the deadline stipulated for submitting the state budget draft and the state social insurance draft is 15 November. (...) A budget, which can stand up, which can be based on some well-grounded economic indicators, which can redirect the public spending toward the real priorities of Romania - investments in infrastructure, education, healthcare and in all the vital areas, should be drawn up as quickly as possible. Without a Government, this deadline cannot be observed and the budget will be once again drafted as it has been over the past years, through fake money, invented incomes and generating expenditures for which there is no coverage in real revenues," Ludovic Orban argued. He said that another urgent issue is related to the early retirement of magistrates. "Only a Government invested by Parliament, a legitimate Government can solve the issue of the Prosecutor's Offices' management," Orban added. The PM-designate indicated that another priority is adopting the measures to avoid the risk of EU funds disengagement, pointing out that in 2019 the amount stands at 600 million euro. "Next year, there is a disengagement risk of 3.2 billion euro, especially, because of the fact that no contract of the large transport infrastructure projects has been signed on the POIM, which benefited from funding on the 2014-2020 multiannual financial exercise," Orban said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)