Romania's opposition USR accuses governing PSD of blocking Patriot missile procurement in Parliament / Liberals: "Any delay in the decision puts Romania in a delicate situation, we seem to be unreliable"

Romanian opposition group Save Romania Union warns in a press release that most of the PSD-ALDE governing coalition members are trying to block in Parliament the law of acquiring the first Patriot missile system and thus jeopardizing the strategic partnership with the US.

According to them, none of the senators of the PSD-ALDE appeared on Tuesday at the meeting of the Senate Defense and Public Order Committee, where on the agenda was the draft law on the acquisition of the Patriot missile system. In the absence of the PSD-ALDE senators, the meeting did not have a quorum and the law could not be debated.

The PSD and their allies bring Romania into an unprecedented situation. If this Patriot missile acquisition law is not adopted, Romania will not be able to spend the 2% of GDP it has committed in front of international partners in order to invest in defense, and the seriousness of our country within NATO will be affected, said USR Senator Nicu Falcoi, a member of the Commission defense and public order, quoted in the press release.

In the ten months of the PSD-ALDE government, a large part of the Ministry of National Defense budget, went on current spending, especially pensions and salaries, which shows the focus of the coalition government only on populist measures without real budget coverage to the detriment of the Army’s endowment, the USR said.

Liberal (PNL) Senator Iulian Dumitrescu, chairman of the Defense Committee, Public Order and National Security, was worried because PSD and ALDE Senators did not appear today at the meeting, according to a press release.

We have noted with concern that the PSD and ALDE representatives did not come at the meeting today where we had to approve the bill on the purchase of Patriot rocket systems. We did not have a quorum and we could not make decisions. The delay in the acquisition is jeopardizing the engagements Romania has made with its partners in the North Atlantic Alliance. We are in the middle of November, how will we be able to spend 2% of GDP on defense, as we commited ? Any delay in the decision puts Romania in a delicate situation, we seem to be unreliable, says PNL Senator Iulian Dumitrescu, chairman of the National Defense, Public Order and National Security Committee of the Senate.