Romanian government may send second package of reforms to Parliament this week

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) has returned to the meetings of the ruling coalition in Romania on August 25 after more than three weeks of boycott, and the four parties have reportedly agreed that the second package of reforms can be sent to Parliament for approval under the simplified procedure by the end of the week, according to Digi24. The ruling coalition has not issued any formal statement about the structure of the package or the topics still to be agreed on, and its leaders are expected to resume talks on August 26.

PSD's interim president, Sorin Grindeanu, after the meeting of the party's leading bureau, said that topics still need to be agreed on regarding the fiscal measures and the measures in the public administration.

"In all other chapters of the second package - those regarding ​​eliminating privileges [of the SOEs board members and other employees in public institutions], the health package [streamlining expenditures and the management of the public hospitals], the insolvency law [to address frauds], the proposals coming from the Ministry of Labor [magistrates' pension and retirement regulations] - we do not have any objections. We are talking about topics still to be agreed upon in the fiscal and public administration sectors," Grindeanu declared, according to Agerpres, in a press conference held at the PSD headquarters.

Surprisingly, PSD reportedly objects to the limitations of the deductibility of intra-group operations and minimum capital requirements for companies, where the party proposed a gradual approach depending on the company's turnover (versus a flat requirement for minimum RON 8,000 / EUR 1,600 irrespective of turnover).

PSD leader Grindeanu also asked to see the budgetary impact of the measures proposed by the Finance Ministry, as well as a clear structure of the second package of reforms.

The objections to the public administration regard staff streamlining and possibly the public investments under the national scheme, Anghel Saligny, dedicated particularly to utilities projects in villages. There is no clarity whether the Anghel Saligny scheme will be part of the second package of reforms, but the draft measures published by the government aim at using existing resources for the most mature projects, prioritising the projects, and avoiding in the future over-contracting projects. PSD leader Grindeanu said that the administration reforms are subject to amendment requests from local representatives of all parties in the ruling coalition, proportional to their representation in the territory.