Barna, after meeting PM: Important victory, prorogation of special pensions for mayors by one year

Save Romania Union (USR) proposed more than 60 amendments to the law on the state budget for 2020, among which one referring to the postponement of the application of the law on introducing special pensions for mayors, the head of this political party, Dan Barna, made the announcement on Monday. 

According to the USR leader, who had a meeting with Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, the amendments concern the cut of the funds for "the ghost academies of the various politruks," the supplementation of the investments in education and infrastructure and the increase in institutional transparency and digitalization. 

Barna believes that one of USR's "victories" is the transparentization of the public spending. 

"We can name several important victories for the USR. And by calling them "victories" I mean that they are the result of a long journey that we had in the Romanian Parliament in pleading for these things, such as the amendment on transparentization. From now on, all those obscure modifications that used to appear in the budget out of the blue, and no one could say where they came from and why, will have to be communicated and available in the public space, meaning that they will have to be made public by the ones initiating them. This is a great victory," said Barna. 

Moreover, USR negotiated with PM Orban on the topic of the prorogation of the deadline for the application of the law that will allow mayors to receive special pensions. 

"Another important victory has to do with the prorogation of the special pensions for mayors by one year - one year for now -, which is very important. For they were supposed to come into force on January 1, becoming thus an earned right, which would have been the end of the matter. However, we did obtain the agreement of the PM and the PNL (National Liberal Party) to postpone this deadline," added the USR head. 

USR also asked for a cut in the funds for "the ghost academies of the various politruks and sinecurists," referring thus to the Academy of National Security Sciences and the Academy of Scientists in Romania. Barna says they could still function, but without the funds from the budget. 

USR also asked for an 80 per cent increase in the budget earmarked for the road and bridges infrastructure, from 203 to 363 million lei.