Romania needs a deficit reduction plan on seven years, agreed on with the European Commission, taking into account that it has very high investment spending, which „I don’t think anyone in this country wants to postpone or suspend,” Investment and European Projects Minister Adrian Caciu said on Wednesday.

He was asked in a press conference at the Victoria Governmental Palace if filing Romania’s deficit reduction plan with the European Commission could be postponed until the end of January 2025.

„This seven year plan comes with a series of reforms, which in fact so to speak should not take anyone by surprise, they are provided in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It is only an active timeline for those reforms to be achieved. As far as I know and as far as what will happen, I hope it happens, as I believe we are a coalition of responsible people, by October 15 this plan will be on the coalition table, approved and sent to the European Commission,” Adrian Caciu said.

The minister added that „the plan is a generic one, a first assessment” that will be sent to the European Commission, followed by negotiations with the European side.

„Romania isn’t the only country in an excessive deficit procedure and then an assessment will be done in ECOFIN, most likely in April [2025], because the ESA deficits in all member states need to be concluded, and they are communicated somewhere in the end of March,” Caciu explained.

Caciu stressed that this deficit reduction plan needs to be assumed within the ruling coalition and pointed out October 15 as the deadline Romania would have to file this plan with the Commission, explaining that it will include the fiscal-budget strategy on the deficit reduction, with the measures in view.

The most significant fiscal-budget consolidation measures are those to reduces unnecessary spending and, at the same time, to further increase state revenue collection based on digitisation.

AGERPRES