PM Emil Boc attends a debate on Romania's economic situation: the toughest moments are yet to come and the following months are decisive 

PM Boc attends on Monday a political debate on the current evolution of Romania’s social and economic situation, organized by the Chamber of Deputies at the request of the Liberal Party.

The main declarations:

• the debate seems to have been based on solutions and proposals, I assisted to enough political demagogy 
• I cannot not ask former PM Tariceanu why he did not call for some answers during his time 
• Tariceanu now urges the government to pay for the same level of pensions and salaries as in 2008 but he forgets that the whole world is in crisis 
• the previous government did not take advantage of Romania’s benefits from the EU 
• The toughest period is yet to come and the next months will be decisive to consolidate reforms started 
• I assure you that any party at the government would have been compelled to take the measures we did 
• Romania will not exit the recession with populist measures and will not be able to enjoy economic increase
• this is not 2008 and everybody can feel it 
• Loans are not offered so easily and the country needs to be credible to get a credit 
• We cannot live with deficits 
• we are making efforts to release as many resources for investments 
• Ten measures that we considered to counter the crisis: maintain taxes to 16%, no taxes for reinvested profit, companies that hire unemployed do not pay unemployment contributions, the First House programs – allowing young people to access houses through advantageous credits, supporting small and medium sized enterprises, maintain the VAT to 5% for houses with a social character 
• We tried to maintain a balanced euro-leu exchange rate 
• 2011 budget: a 4.4% deficit, an increase of 1.5-2% and resources for finances 

the reform of the pensions system

• the country can only pay based on its resources available 
• we contribute with 31.3 and we pay 39.9 
• in 2011 we need 3 billion euro to sustain pensions as stipulated in the current law 
• if a new version is passed, we will need 5 billion euro 

budgetary reform

• we found there were too many employed, we found luxury salaries 
• we had to promote a law to balance things 
• the 2011 budget starts from the estimate of a maximum number of budgetary personnel of 1,290,000 and a budgetary mass of 39 billion lei 

the social assistance reform

• a 5% of GDP level for social assitance is too much 
• we plan to protect the vulnerale, but to those who are really in need 
• we need to encourage labor, social assitance will target those social groups in real need 
• health system 
• the introduction of the co-payments will represent a supplementary source for the system 
• in Romania, about 11 million people do not contribute to the health system 

economy

• we will rethink the system 
• we will support young people who initiate a business
• starting 2011 people will be able to pay taxes online throughout the country 
• the government knows what it has to do 

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