Romanian Liberal prime minister Florin Citu announced that Romania would no longer participate in the International Investment Bank (IIB) capital increase, claiming that the country "has nothing to gain from this."

"There are several things we are looking at. We will start to look at who decided that it is good for Romania to invest millions of euros in a Russian bank," PM Citu stated, according to Hotnews.ro.

Florin Citu has previously criticised IIB, when he was in opposition. In an attack directed rather against the dismissed minister of finance Alexandru Nazare (than against IIB), the PM now touched upon the IIB capitalisation issue and reiterated his past accusations.

IIB is a multilateral development institution set up during the communist regime and revitalised after the fall of communism with its headquarters recently moved from Moscow to Budapest.

Former minister Nazare, in response, said that Romania's supplementary capital contribution was already endorsed by the Government following all legal procedures (including consultations with foreign partners), and the Government of PM Citu could have cancelled the deal last year.

Nazare, a member of the Liberal party himself, defended the role played by IIB in Romania. "Romania is the most important beneficiary of IIB financing, with a share of 20% in the value of active investments," he said, quoted by News.ro.

Romania (with 6.89% of shares) is currently the fifth-largest shareholder of this bank, after Russia (46.03%), Bulgaria (12.95%), Hungary (12.27%), and the Czech Republic (11.47%), the other shareholders being Slovakia (6.59%), Cuba (1.64%), the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1.13%) and Mongolia (1.04%).

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)