THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONS ON THE LAW OF GIVING IN PAYMENT "A lost letter", the Romanian senators' version

Romanian playwright Ion Luca Caragiale would have had fun yesterday, hearing our senators argue over the Report drawn up by the specialized commissions in the Senate (the juridical and the economic one), following the joint session concerning the Law of giving in payment.

Similarly to the plot from the "A lost letter" by Ion Luca Caragiale, the report of the commissions seems to have been lost, yesterday, on the way between the commissions and the Permanent Office of the Senate.

While PSD senator Marius Sorin Bota was saying, yesterday afternoon, that the document has not reached the plenum, Cătălin Boboc, the president of the Juridical Commission of the Senate was saying that the report had been sent as early as this morning to the Permanent Office.

The situations would be funny if it wasn't depressing!

Marius Sorin Bota told us: "The report has not reached the plenum. It has not yet been sent to the commissions and as a result, I can not state an opinion on something we do not have. I haven't seen this document. If we receive it, then it can very well go in tomorrow (ed. note: today) to be voted in the plenum, if not, next week. The members of the commissions can still discuss it if they do not bring it to the plenum, public talks can still be held".

Just a few minutes after we talked to Mr. Bota, liberal senator Cătălin Boboc told us that the favorable report drawn up by the two commissions, in line with what has been decided in last week's joint session was submitted to the Permanent Office of the Senate, yesterday morning.

He posted on his Facebook page: "The legal commission of the Senate, which I lead, and the Economic Commission have issued a favorable report on the Law of giving in payment properties to extinguish loan debts, as a result of the request for reexamination sent by the Romanian president. This favorable report has been submitted to the plenum of the Senate, where it is going to be put up for vote. We liberals have spoken out in support of this law. The only possibility for this report returning to the specialized commissions would be for the plenum of the Senate to decide it should happen".

The contradictory statements have appeared after lawyer Gheorghe Piperea, one of the initiators of the law wrote: "The report of the legal commission of the Senate, which favors the law of giving in payment, has been withdrawn. It won't be discussed tomorrow (ed. note: today) in the plenum. Talks on it in the commission will resume two weeks from now. This announcement was made publicly a few minutes ago on Radio România Actualităţi, by a certain senator Bota, from the PSD. But the report couldn't have been withdrawn without the approval of the president of the juridical commission, Mr. Boboc, of the PNL. Thus the whole «thing» spans several political parties. The heavy lobbying of the NBR hit where it counts. From this point on, we might as well dig up a grave for the version of the Law of giving in payment that I built and that Mr. Zamfir (ed. note: liberal deputy Daniel Cătălin Zamfir) has promoted. It has been a beautiful dream".

Sorin Bota denied the aforementioned statements and said: "I did not say that the report of the Juridical Commission of the Senate has been withdrawn, I said that it hasn't arrived in the plenum".

Lawyer Piperea also updated his post as follows: "I received a message from a senator, Ionel Ardelean, a lawyer. He said that the report of the commission can not be withdrawn. As far as I know, if the report has already been submitted, it can't go back to the commissions unless the plenum votes in favor of that happening. It's just that, as far as I understand, the report has not yet reached the plenum. We don't know what will happen tomorrow (ed. note: today).

On the other hand, I understand that senator Bota is going back on what he told Radio România Actualităţi today (ed. note: yesterday). He claims that he didn't say that the discussion of the law would be postponed for two weeks in order for the «opinion» of the Ministry of Justice and of the Supreme Council of Magistrates. It remains to check out (ed. note: yesterday's) today's talk on the web".

Mr. Bota has posted on his Facebook page part of the radio show that he has participated in: "Present in a show on Radio România Actualităţi, PSD senator Marius Sorin Bota said that the Law of giving in payment must answer the specific needs of those who are currently in financial distress, but at the same time, they have to answer for the future as well: «A law that answers only for the situation of those who are currently in trouble will lead to a very high cost of borrowing, or even to the inability to borrow. We are trying to make a law that deals with the present, as well as the future. If we do not succeed in doing that, for the future part we are going to improve the legislative framework, and leave this law to answer only to the needs of those who are currently having financial difficulties. This situation has been mostly created by the banks' stubbornness, which refused to follow through on the requests of distressed debtors», the senator said".

One of the debtors who had a CHF loans sent a message to senator Boboc, and he went on to say: "After five minutes I was called by a gentleman who asked me whether I had sent an SMS to the senator. I told him I had! He told me his name was Dan, that he was an advisor to Mr. Boboc and that the law would be put up for vote the next day! I asked him whether that information was certain? His answer was YES!"

It's just that by the closing of the edition last night, the law was not on the agenda of the plenum of the Senate.

It seems that nothing is certain about this law.

We remind that the Ministry of Justice (MJ) and the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) have expressed opinions on the law, at the request of the Senate.

For the most part, they were critical of the initiative, but according to the representatives of the two institutions, their opinions are merely advisory in nature.

The banking system and the NBR have lately expressed their points of view on the law, in letters sent to the press and to the members of the Parliament, by proposing a series of amendments to the law.

The initiators of the law do not support those proposed amendments, and so far no senator has taken the chance of supporting the banks' proposals, to promote them in the form of amendments.

The law of giving in payment, which involves the discharge of the debt once the property is assigned to the bank, was sent back to the Parliament by president Klaus Iohannis, at the end of last year.