Burnete: Leaders of former governing coalition will discuss wage law with President next week

   Leaders of the former governing coalition will hold another meeting next week with President Nicusor Dan to discuss the draft law on public sector wages, Presidential Advisor Radu Burnete stated on Thursday, following consultations on the matter at Cotroceni Palace.Radu Burnete stated that party leaders had received a new version of the draft, which he maintains complies?in principle?with the obligations Romania assumed under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), as well as with budgetary constraints."The Romanian state is in discussions with the European Commission regarding all the milestones of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), and the technical group at Cotroceni wanted to ensure that any draft reaching the political parties ticks the relevant NRRP box so that we ultimately secure those funds. Where do we stand right now? Today, party leaders received a draft version that, in principle, meets all the obligations Romania assumed under the NRRP and satisfies all our fiscal constraints?given that we are not in an ideal budgetary situation. In the coming days, the parties will be asked to review it (...). We will hold a few more rounds of technical discussions, likely over the weekend, after which the leaders will meet with the President of Romania early next week to reach a final conclusion on whether there is political consensus to adopt this draft," the presidential advisor stated.He stated that, over the past week, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance have carried out several calculations and assessments to address requests from trade unions, political parties, and representatives of various occupational groups.According to Burnete, the draft law on remuneration has an annual financial impact of nearly 170 billion lei and affects over one million people.In turn, the interim Minister of Investments and European Projects, Dragos Pislaru, stated that the data regarding the education and health sectors had been re-evaluated "so that the parties could make an informed decision that is, at the same time, grounded in the realities of all these sectors."He reiterated that the law on remuneration constitutes a milestone under the NRRP; however, the European Commission does not determine the budget associated with the legislative act, but rather formulated observations regarding the limit of the total wage bill."Any amount exceeding 8 [billion euros - Ed. note] must be justified, including through compensatory measures; it is highly significant that the Commission also noted?regarding the 12 billion figure we had floated?that, from their perspective, exceeding that amount is clearly out of the question (...). An increase beyond 12 billion was discouraged by the Commission," Pislaru pointed out.When asked whether Romania exceeding the 12-billion-euro threshold could lead to the country being downgraded to "junk" status by rating agencies, the minister replied: "If you exceed these figures, we enter a risk zone."Pislaru also stated that adopting the wage law after the start of next year would fail to meet the PNRR milestone, given that the provisions must come into force on January 1, 2027. At the same time, the minister pointed out that regarding the draft, "no one spoke of tax increases?neither the Commission, nor the Government, nor the parties.""There was no question of any tax increase as a compensatory measure for the budget," he pointed out.Dragos Pislaru assessed that, should the wage law not be adopted, "an indexation would likely be necessary?one that would probably need to be based on the inflation rate."