PM Orban: Romania should renegotiate loan agreement with IBRD

The Health Programme for Results loan agreement between Romania and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), signed in New York, on September 23, 2019, must be renegotiated, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Thursday, who approved, at the proposal of the minister of health, the withdrawal from the agenda of the government's meeting of a bill ratifying the agreement.

"Minister, if it is the agreement I have analysed, it must necessarily be renegotiated. There is a loan, and since we take out a loan, that loan must be intended to improve the quality of services, that is to say intended for investments in hospital infrastructure and other categories of expenses that will lead to the improvement of the quality of medical services. There are a few points in that agreement, which, indeed, is money that does not lead to any improvement in the healthcare services provided to the patients. So we are withdrawing it from the agenda and discussing renegotiation of the agreement, "said Orban at the beginning of a government sitting on Thursday.

The health minister claimed that the agreement was negotiated "totally uninspired" and called for its withdrawal from the agenda of the government meeting.

According to the explanatory memorandum of the bill the loan agreement is worth 500 million euros, and the deadline for drawing the money is December 31, 2023.