UDMR LEADER MARKO BELA: "The budget requires an extraordinary session"

The President of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania (UDMR), Marko Bela, considers that the Government should make it its priority to elaborate the new state budget, so as to allow its validation by the Parliament in an extraordinary session.

"It would be very good if the Government elaborated and finalized the draft budget as soon as possible so that we can summon an extraordinary session and get right on with enacting the budget ", stated the UDMR leader in a conference yesterday.

Marko Bela has reiterated that is for the first time in years that the state budget is not yet ready in January. "Most likely it won"t be ready before February ", he claimed.

According to the president of UDMR, many institutions won"t be able to get their projects done in the absence of a budget.

Marko Bela added that even the operations of the local administrations will be blocked by the lack of a budget. "Local and county councils and city halls need to know where they stand", the UDMR leader stated.

The lack of a budget could also have a negative influence on the absorption of funding from the European Union, he stated.

"You can"t elaborate any projects until you know how much money you have and what you can or can"t rely on ", stated the president of the UDMR.

Marko Bela admits however that the current government is not entirely to blame for the delay in drafting the budget, as it has only been in power for a few weeks, but rather "previous Parliament and objective factors" are to blame.

"However, these days the Government will have to concern itself almost exclusively with the issue of the budget, and not with appointing various officials ", Marko Bela said.

UDMR is concerned about this "budget instability", which occurred just as the worldwide economic crisis is raging.

"During such times, we have to be very mindful of what"s happening and what the budget will look like ", Marko Bela concluded.