Cretu: European Commission wants more details on Romania's hike of pensions and salaries

Cretu: European Commission wants more details on Romania’s hike of pensions and salaries

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is waiting for documents from the Romanian government on the sustainability of the planned hikes of salaries and pensions and for proofs that such measures won’t exceed the budget deficit target of 3 percent of GDP, so that Romania doesn’t enter the infringement procedure, said the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu.

Cretu said at Brussels that there is fear that Romania will have a similar path as Greece.

“PM Sorin Grindeanu ensured Moscovici (Pierre Moscovici – European Commissionaire for economic affairs e.n.) that there are some computations made so that this ambitious project of salaries increases to be within this budget deficit of 3 percent. The European Commission is waiting for documents from Romanian government. This is the stage that we are in, if the Romania Government will consider that these increases are sustainable. We had the Greece case and indeed the European Commission has this fear. Spain and Portugal are in crisis. It’s important for Romania not to be also. We have money and economic growth, but let’s see the sustainability of the measures, ” said Cretu, according to News.ro.

The minister of Finance, Viorel Stefan, said last week that the Government is prepared to take measures for reducing expenses if the budget deficit target of 3 percent of the GDP is exceeded, taking into account that the public debt of Romania is estimated to remain under 38 percent of the GDP.

The European Commission estimates that Romania will reach “significant deviations”of the budget objectives on the medium term in 2016 and the structural balance will suffer “new deteriorations” in 2017 and 2018.