Regardless of what happens in the coming period, the budget should be adopted, under normal conditions, as quickly as possible, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared on Friday.
He was asked on Radio România Actualitati whether the Government will send the 2026 State Budget Law to Parliament in February if the CCR's decision on magistrates' pensions will be postponed or will be one of admitting the unconstitutionality challenge and, at the same time, if the package on the reform of central and local public administration and the economic recovery measures will not be adopted.
"Regardless of what happens in the coming period, the budget should be adopted under normal conditions as quickly as possible. The budget was not adopted because the administration package was not supported by all parties. This is the truth. The budget is being worked on at the moment," said Ilie Bolojan.
The Head of Government was also asked what the main macroeconomic parameters are on the basis of which the state budget for this year will be built.
"We could target a gross domestic product that exceeds 2,000 billion. We could be in a situation where we target a deficit that approaches 6%. There are technical discussions here these days. That is, it should be at least a little over six, but as close to six as possible, so that we also have an agreement with the European Commission's technical team. Let's also respect our financial commitment to reducing the deficit, because we have reduction targets every year. Also, the part of reducing inflation is important. We could reach an inflation that is a little over 4%. These are some important indicators on which the budget can be built. Next week, the Ministry of Finance will announce the details. I gave you some indicative figures, because these are under discussion these days," said the prime minister.
According to him, the 2026 budget would also retain an important investment component.
"There are several important aspects related to this year's budget. We will have an important investment component this year as well, higher than the average of the countries in the European Union, in general, because it is a year in which several investment budgets overlap, and the most important of them is the PNRR program. We have to spend almost 11 billion euros by August, a fairly large amount, to which another five billion euros from the cohesion funds must be added. As such, the main focus is not to lose this money, at least the money from the PNRR, and since their absorption also means other expenses from the national budget or local budgets, amounts that are not eligible, then, practically, the bulk of the budget will be directed towards completing this program in such a way that we maintain the construction area in a good economic capacity and, of course, to absorb our European money. This means that, For example, at the national level, of the approximately 23-24 billion euros in the investment component, more than half will be European funds and this will be an important characteristic," explained Bolojan.
He mentioned that the health system will have a budget that will partially relieve the state budget of certain expenses, for the first time in many years.
"We are in a situation where the CASS will almost cover the health part. The things that didn't sound good last year, namely, the extension of the health contribution payment to many of the categories of people who were exempt, made us increase our tax base in such a way that, therefore, the income is higher in health, which means that we will be able to slightly relieve, let's say, the state budget, to make some more savings on this component," Bolojan said.
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