Ponta: We need to make a decision on the restitution of properties by April 2013"

• The immediate repayment in cash would require 16 billion Euros, which is unsustainable

• The acceptable version: the scheduling of restitution requests and the restitution in kind

PSD president, prime minister Victor Ponta yesterday said that Romania is required to make a decision on the restitution of properties seized during the communist period by April 2013, saying that there has to be a political consensus on that topic.

According to his statement, quoted by Agerpres: "By April 2013, we are required to make a clear decision on the issue of the restitutions. Meanwhile, two things have seemed to be extremely important: first and foremost, the fact that the audits have continued - we have found numerous situations where the restitutions were made illegally, you know what I am talking about, and those cases have already been sent to the Prosecutors' office; second of all, an issue as important as the restitution of properties has to be the object of a political consensus, because we will definitely have the majority and we will make a certain decision, but that decision will take years to be applied because we are talking about restitution in kind, about the rescheduling of a deadline, and thus, aside from the electoral campaign, and emphatic statements, by April we need to have a political consensus on this fundamental topic".

Victor Ponta explained that the immediate restitution in kind of these properties would require 16 billion Euros, or half of the state budget for 2013, which is unsustainable. Therefore, the prime minister said that in the case of the restitution of properties, the steps to be taken should be the re-auditing of the applications, the restitution in kind and the scheduling of payments, and that there has to exist a fundamental political decision which all of the political forces must assume.

Mr. Ponta said that consultations with the political parties will be initiated, starting on December 9th, on the issue of the restitution of properties: "PDL has this issue of the alliance with PP-DD and thus, they can't debate the issue, at least until December 9th, without upsetting their ally, but after that date I hope there will be some rational people left in the PD-L, or at any rate, the rest of them, with whom we will be able to talk about the really serious things. We will be able to make the decision using the majority that we have, but it will not be a satisfying decision because, since it we are talking about a scheduling over a significant number of years and of restitution in kind of the assets, basically the people who have to receive those assets need to know that the issue does not lie just with the current Government or the current majority".

The prime minister thinks that after December, once the alliance between of the PDL with the People's Party of Dan Diaconescu ends, he would be able to find more somewhat reasonable partners to discuss this issue with.