Friday, July 27, 2007

President promulgates controversial pensions law


The controversial decision to increase the state-paid pensions was promulgated on Wednesday by president Basescu, not before calling the ministers who explained to the supplementary funds will be raised "incompetent" and "dilettantes". President Basescu says he promulgated the law due to the consensus in the Parliament on the subject.

In a press conference, Basescu pitiless criticized the Government. "I asked for an economic analysis on the way the pensions' growth will affect the budget and I got a letter full of electoral goals. The two ministers who signed it (Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian and Labor Minister Paul Pacuraru) are, from my point of view, incompetent.

I asked the prime minister to answer my query about the funding, but the prime minister didn't assume responsibility for the letter coming from his ministers... he didn't sign any document", said Traian Basescu.

According to the president's sources, namely the National Prognosis Institute, the pensions' growth will represent a budgetary effort of 30 billion euros between 2008 and 2013, exactly the amount the European Union offers Romania for development.

Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian replied immediately after the press conference, explaining that the Government has the money to support the pensions' growth, due to the general economic growth. "We can explain where the money comes from", said the minister a bit late, considering the weeks of scandals around the subject and the zero-information letter he offered as answer.

"The president didn't want this law because he didn't suggest it himself, in order to raise more electoral capital", said Vosganian.

HotNews.ro, Jul 18, 2007

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