Recommendations for Romania

Brussels has called on the Romanian authorities to correct the significant deviation from the medium-term budgetary objective.

Mihai Pelin, 06.06.2019, 13:50

Romania must take measures to correct the significant deviation from the medium-term budgetary objective, improve tax collection and set a minimum salary based on objective criteria. These are some of the recommendations that the European Commission has made for this year. It is for the second consecutive year that Romania is given warning on the existence of a significant observed deviation from the adjustment path toward the medium-term budgetary objective.

According to the report, Romania has not contained its net primary government expenditure nor has it delivered the improvement in the structural balance recommended by the Council on 4 December 2018. Moreover, both the structural balance and the expenditure benchmark pillars point to a significant deviation from the recommended adjustment path.

Romania must ensure sustainability of the public pension system and long-term viability of the funds in the second pillar. Investments should be oriented towards sectors like transport, low-carbon emission energy and environment infrastructure, taking into account regional disparities. Moreover, the quality and inclusion of the education system must be improved, especially for the Roma community and for other unprivileged categories, given that the funds allotted to this field are among the lowest in the EU.

The report also shows that, in spite of recent improvement, the poverty rate and the inequality of revenues remain high, while regional disparities deepen, with one out of three Romanians being further exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion. The health system is also facing challenges, such as low financing, insufficient use of resources and the lack of reforms. In the field of justice, the European Commission is concerned with the changes in the justice system, saying that the measures targeting the modification of the criminal codes would have a negative impact on the effectiveness of criminal cases and would restrict the definition of corruption. (Translated by Elena Enache)