PM Orban: Deadline for draft laws on restructuring ministries is Jan 15

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Wednesday stated that the presentation deadline for the draft laws on restructuring ministries is January 15.

"We have already taken measures to slash spending. We stopped transfers from the private sector, which means that there are tens of thousands of people who leave the public system and they no longer receive a salary in the public sector. We haven't succeeded yet in banning the cumulation of salaries and pensions in the public system, because the law was challenged with the Constitutional Court. We have also reduced expenditures on dignitaries and you will see in the organisational charts that we have reduced dignitary positions, management positions and also the staff. January 15 is the deadline for the presentation of the draft laws on the restructuring, which will then be analyzed, first of all by me, because I also need to give an approval and I need to make sure that each ministry's activity will indeed become more efficient," Orban told a press conference, at the Permanent Representation of Romania to the EU.

He added that he doesn't know yet what will be the number of employees to be laid off in the public sector after the restructuring.

"We will know this after the completion of the restructuring process, which means more than just the government decisions on the organisation of ministries, for it also affects the other central administration bodies like agencies, authorities or whatever they are called," said Orban.