PM Emil Boc: EC might launch excessive deficit procedure for Romania

The European Commission might launch the excessive deficit procedure for Romania, Prime Minister Emil Boc declared at the opening of the General Assembly of Romania’s Communes Association. He said he hoped that the procedure will not be launched.

Should the procedure be launched, the most important sanction is that Romania could be deprived of the European funds, PM Boc said. For this reason the government decided to request back the unspent money allocated by the former government to the local communities. Boc accused that, despite an economic growth of about 8% in 2009, the budgetary exercise ends with 5.2% deficit.

For these reasons, the 2009 draft budget estimates a budget deficit of maximum 2% and 20% of the revenues are allocated to investments. Boc declared that Romania was undergoing an economic crisis that has yet to see its peak and that in his view the only solution was to create jobs by investments.