Press briefing at the end of the Cabinet meeting of January 27

Press statements by Prime Minister Florin Cîţu and Minister for Development, Public Works and Administration, Attila Cseke

[Check against delivery]

Florin Cîţu: Good afternoon! On today's Cabinet meeting, the Emergency Ordinance whereby prefects become dignitaries has been passed. The Development Minister Cseke Attila is here, he will answer all questions. You know very well that it is a project assumed by the government coalition through the programme for government and today, we have approved this emergency ordinance. The Development Minister will offer you the details.

I will speak about the budget as I know there are public discussions about this topic. The targets remain the same, we are setting the deficit at 7%, we hope to reach 7%, 7% - 7.1%, but we are going around that figure. And I would like to say why we have to do this work and why it takes longer or it seems to take longer, although the goal is to come to Parliament next week because we are reversing or conducting or introducing reforms that have been postponed for 30 years; measures that have had a devastating, destructive impact on public finance in recent years, must be changed to create sustainability for public finance in the coming years. It is important, through this budget, to maintain the trust we created last year, trust in the eyes of the European Commission, of foreign investors, of credit rating agencies. That is why it is a very important budget,

It is a budget that helps the economic recovery, that lays the foundations of a strong economy for 2021 - 2024. Moreover, the analysis of this budget is a little different, because with this budget we are starting the first part of a multi-annual budget. Therefore, we will introduce in Romania, I think that from 2023, the multi-annual budgeting, but we are starting with this budget and I look at the 2021 budget and the budget for 2022, and I tell you that this is the discussion in the European Commission. We are talking about the two budgets because some of the reforms that we will implement in 2021 will have a real impact on the economy in 2022. Therefore, this work is a bit more laborious, but, for the first time, we are introducing this multi-annual budget that will be in effect from 2024.

On Cabinet meeting, of course, we had a discussion with all Ministers, because you know very well that I requested a set of reform measures from each Ministry and I want more details there, but there are measures we have been waiting for, and we will see them over the next period. I have publicly announced many of them, you already know what we refer to - state companies, Pay Law, Pensions Law, but also removal of some inefficient expenditure from the budget in this period.

Last but not least: the vaccination campaign. /.../

It's going very well, all the figures show that it's going very well. On the 25th, we ranked first in the European Union in terms of the number of vaccinations per day, calculated as an average. So Romania ranked first in the European Union at vaccinations. And we are still in top six in terms, with 2.5pct of the population that is to be vaccinated having already taken the vaccine, which we need to say so that people will know. With the resources that we have, limited resources, Romania manages to stay on the top. Yes, it is true, and Romania and the other EU countries had to reconfigure, to reset their vaccinations campaign in the very short term because the vaccine companies have adjusted their production and we had to re-analyze the situation. But this happens in all EU countries, not only in Romania. However, Romania has a successful vaccination campaign, we have over 500,000 vaccinated people,as I have already mentioned.

First, the medical personnel should be vaccinated as I do not want to have outbreaks in hospitals, we want the doctors to be always there, and to cope with the situation, the elderly, the chronically ill remain the main objectives, priority ones, and we maintain them over the next period, even if we had fewer vaccines.

Although we received 93,000 fewer vaccines last week, only 20,000 - 30,000 people were affected. Therefore, we managed to find solutions even under these circumstances. This is not the objective of vaccination, to rank first in the EU in terms of the number of vaccinations. The objective is to vaccinate as fast as possible an increasing number of people, and the vaccination campaign to have an impact on society.

And even with these short-term problems, we will have the same objectives we discussed with all the companies producing the vaccine, to get to vaccinate 10.4 million citizens by September. That goal has not changed. It could happen faster, but that is the target, and also to have 2.4 million vaccinations done by March 29 this year.

These are the objectives we undertake based on the contracts we have at the moment with the companies, especially with Pfizer, but with the other companies too, one at a time.

This is the I repeat, the vaccination campaign in Romania is going well, despite all those who thought we couldn't do it. But we did it and we even managed to rank first in Europe in this campaign. I will take some questions before giving Mr Cseke the chance of explaining you the draft emergency ordinance.

Reporter: Good afternoon. You were speaking about the budget. Today, there were several protests of retired in the capital, they demand an increase in the pension point by another 26 percent. What do you convey to them? How much will the pension point increase this year? We are speaking about three variants so far: freezing the pension point, an increase by 3 or 8 percent. Can you give them a clear answer?

Florin Cîţu: The pension expenditure is increasing every year by nearly 8 billion lei. To understand the budgeting procedure: until we start anything this year, we should see if 8 billion lei expenditure is the precise expenditure, due to increasing the pension point from September, and the child benefits by another 2-3 billion lei. Therefore, we supplement this year's budget, without doing anything, by nearly 11 billion lei, 1.1 percent of GDP. Pensions this year will be higher than last year's pensions, this is certain, and the budget is built on the effective legislation.

Reporter: Increasing the pension point by 40 percent is an illusion - the Labor Minister said. You have nevertheless set a threshold for the increase in the pension point? Can it increase nevertheless until 20, 30 percent?

Florin Cîţu: We have announced that the legislation on pensions will be amended, as there are many issues there. We, as the government coalition who took office this year, have an obvious objective: pensions should be based on the contributory principle, we are based on this, and we will see the final form. But I repeat this year, the pension point is higher than the pension point in 2020.

Reporter: And a single question, if you allow me, linked to the prefects' politicization. You are a member of a party that has always said, at least in the last years, that it wants to depoliticize the public offices. Why now this politicization of the position of prefect?

Florin Cîţu: I would not say it is a politicization of the prefect office. It is a re-establishment of this position, the Minister will explain exactly what the reasons behind are. It is an objective assumed by the coalition, it is a transparent objective assumed in the coalition's government programme, nothing is done overnight, it is not a surprise, it is a draft ordinance that has been in public debate for a month.

Reporter: Regarding pensions, you said earlier that they will increase this year. Ludovic Orban said on Monday that it should increase with last year's inflation, plus half of the increase in the average salary per the economy. Do you endorse this point of view?

Florin Cîţu: I support my point of view, the one in which I say very clearly that the pension point in 2021 is higher than in 2020, and the expenditure regarding pensions has already increased this year by approximately 8 billion lei. Of course, we are looking at several options, but I repeat: when we talk about pensions, we need to look more in the long run. Because whatever happens this year with the pension point has implications for the coming years and, therefore, I repeat, we must move to a multi-annual budget. Without a multi-annual budget, we will have these discussions every year and we find that next year we are looking for money again through the budget. I stick to what I said, pensions this year are higher than pensions in 2020.

Reporter: And a clarification. Did I understand that next week the draft budget will reach Parliament? It should be approved by the Government first.

Florin Cîţu: Exactly. Of course, this is the procedure. I said I hoped we would be ready to go to Parliament next week. If not, there will be another week. But all the package, not just the budget, need to reach Parliament, it is about the package of reforms that this budget is based on, and which will have a medium and long term impact on Romania's economy, but the impact will be much to see in 2022. This is why we should be more careful when we pass this draft budget.

Reporter: I apologize, Anca Dragu said that budget could be sent to Parliament in two to three weeks.

Florin Cîţu: Well, not so pessimistic, but a week more or less does not matter at this moment, if we come with what I said - the reform package and the draft budget at the same time.

Reporter: Do you consider that Romania will sue Pfizer for non-compliance with the vaccine delivery schedule?

Florin Cîţu: There are discussions, I am aware of these discussions. So far, Pfizer does not seem to have not complied, because what was not given last week, was sent this week, so the doses of vaccine I received, were compensated.

Reporter: Then why?

Florin Cîţu: There could be other problems. They were sent earlier, they were scheduled to arrive last week, that's why that problem. But in the end, we get all the doses. It is clear that they arrived a week late. Discussions are taking place at the level of the European Commission. There are other companies producing the vaccine, AstraZeneca, we will see what the decision will be. Romania will not make a separate decision, because you know very well that these contacts are not made between Romania and the Pfizer company, they are made by the EU, Romania receives a quota.

Reporter: Have you also discussed at the government level about the vaccination of Romanians living abroad?

Florin Cîţu: In this respect, of course, there were some discussions. But the Romanian citizens who are domiciled in another locality ... there are also mobility problems, to bring them home implies all kinds of logistics-related issues. We are also trying to find a solution for the Romanian citizens living abroad.

Reporter: I am referring here to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova - because they are not part of the EU, how will they be vaccinated?

Florin Cîţu: You know very well that the Romanian Government promised to deliver 200,000 doses to the Republic of Moldova over the next period.

Reporter: Can you tell us how many vaccine doses do you expect, especially from those from Moderna, and if those who want to get vaccinated with Moderna, will need a new vaccination appointment, or will they be vaccinated with Moderna according to the appointment?

Florin Cîţu: Currently, there are about 60,000 doses from Moderna at this moment. We are looking for up to 90,000 doses to arrive over the next period, which, if they came a bit faster, we were not obliged to make this adjustment, as it was exactly the amount we have not received from Pfizer that week. Moderna and Pfizer are the same, there is no difference between Moderna and Pfizer. If I could have made a Moderna vaccine, to show there is no danger, I would have made this vaccine, unfortunately, we did not have this vaccine back then. There is no difference, the Health Ministry presented it, I will ask my Health Ministry colleagues to clearly present the differences or the resemblances between the two vaccines. I do not think there will be an issue the way people will get vaccinated. I think there will be vaccination centres with different vaccination cabinets where you can get vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer, therefore, a centre has several cabinets and thus, we can differentiate by cabinets.

Reporter: You said that 90,000 doses are missing from...

Florin Cîţu: 93,000 doses from Pfizer came late, over the ensuing weeks. Last week, we received 93,000 doses less, but we will receive them over the next weeks. Therefore, this week, we received some of them, next week, the other part. What we were to receive weekly was supplemented, for us to receive 93,000.

Reporter: How many Moderna vaccines should arrive, how many are missing and when the next batch arrives?

Florin Cîţu: We receive 14,000 Moderna vaccines weekly, they complied with the delivery schedule, we will receive over the next period too. We did not introduce them into use yet, as there were too few, but we need to make sure we have the Moderna booster dose too, this is why we are very careful when appointments are made.

Reporter: A question on the budget. There was a meeting yesterday at Vila Lac with president Klaus Iohannis, we know there are nevertheless tense discussions between PNL and USR leaders regarding the budget. If you can tell us if this is the cause of the delays on the state budget?

Florin Cîţu: No, there are no tense discussions, what matters is what I requested and want us to deliver - the reform- and it is high time for this. There was no kind of tension. We will make a sustainable budget, a budget to back the economic growth between 2021- 2024.

Reporter: There have been public information regarding certain Ministries asking more money than the state budget can afford.

Florin Cîţu: All Ministries are asking. There are not only some. All Ministries are asking more money, it is not something new. I could see this last year too. It is good nevertheless that they have investment projects, it is good there is interest and we should eventually prioritize resources, we are glad we find projects in which we need to invest.

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