The Brussels pact brings the opposition to Cotroceni

The tense situation on a European level has succeeded in getting the domestic party in power and the opposition to sit down at the same table. The leaders of the USL have repeatedly refused to show up for the consultations initiated by the presidency, regardless of the proposed topics. Since the difficulties in Europe are increasingly worse, the leaders of the main parties have decided to provide Train Băsescu with a set of concrete proposals at the meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow at 15:00. The meeting is announced in a press release of the presidential administration: "On Monday, December 12th, Romanian president Traian Băsescu sent a letter to the presidents of the parties and political factions represented in the Romanian parliament, inviting them to come to the Cotroceni palace, on Wednesday, December 14th, at 15:00, for talks on the following topic: The Conclusions of the European Council of December 8th-9th 2011".

The opposition has announced that it will only participate in the talks under certain conditions. Crin Antonescu said there is a need for serious discussions and not just for a parade of the political parties at the Cotroceni Palace: "It has to be said we are constantly ready for dialog with those in power, in other words with the president and, if he wishes, with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. We are not willing to participate in ridiculous ceremonies where Traian Băsescu gets the people from all the political parties to huddle together while he makes them listen to speeches. We have listened for more than an hour to the lecture he made yesterday (ed. note: Sunday), there is no need for another one. It is natural for the dialog to take place between those in power, namely the president and whoever else he wishes, and the opposition, that is the USL, which is the only opposition in the parliament".

On the other hand, president Băsescu announced that there is a need for a comprehensive debate on this topic, and that he hopes the parliament will also get involved, because he can't start this major process by himself: "I have taken on the role of informing the Commission that Romania will join this agreement. If the Parliament decides otherwise, it's their problem. The deadline is the end of 2012. Countries which don't meet all the requirements won't join the agreement. And I wash my hands if that happens. I will continue to maintain that we need to solve that problem. We need to avoid having this problem be debated in Romania by those who are unfamiliar with it. It would be very bad, we would prove ourselves incapable of understanding the European realities and I wouldn't want Romania to be viewed like that". Two days ago, USL leader Victor Ponta said that he was "urging" president Traian Băsescu to hold political consultations as soon as possible in order to implement the decisions made by the European leaders in Brussels. Victor Ponta also said that the obligation to comply with the decision made in Brussels through the Fiscal Governance treaty can be made through a special law, based on article 148 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the laws concerning European treaties are drafted by the Parliament, in a joint session, with the vote of two thirds of the senators and deputies. There are also the members of the parliamentary opposition who claim that these consultations should have taken place one week ago, prior to the summit in Brussels, when nothing had been decided yet. PNL president Crin Antonescu discussed this thing: "Leaving aside the fact that the president should have held these consultations prior to participating in a political meeting of such importance, there are also other signs which do not show even the slightest hint of willingness to be open from those in power: the way our amendments to the budget were approached without any serious discussions and talk, our amendments to the budget, the way the president discussed even yesterday the fact that he has made the commitment on behalf of Romania, and as for how the Parliament feels about it... it's their business, the way we are being told today about a very delicate issue and which is more important than politicians and political parties, namely the simultaneous holding of the two elections, we are once again told that the Prime Minister once again is taking full responsibility for this decision. All of these things definitely do not bode well".

The USL proposes the creation of a crisis Committee which would include the Government - The Opposition -the NBR, to find the quickest solutions for adopting the decisions in Brussels and to lower the deficits. Another proposal is to create a government consisting of technocrats that would implement the anti-crisis measures, including those concerning the budget deficit, and which would also prepare advance elections, and the newly elected parliament would be the one to modify the Constitution. President Băsescu emphasized that one of the provisions of the agreement concern the obligation of the countries which join it to include in their national legislation a commitment to "balance the national budget and have a surplus ", which means that the structured deficit should not exceed 0.5% of the GDP.