UDMR's Kelemen Hunor: Ruling coalition discusses budget; would be good if it is adopted by year-end

UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania) leader Kelemen Hunor said on Monday that the draft budget would be discussed at the governing coalition meeting, adding that, although it would send a good signal if it is adopted and published in the Official Journal by the end of the year, it wouldn't be a "great tragedy" if this doesn't happen, agerpres reports.

"In the Government, we have proposed a tight timetable for the adoption of the budget. We have said that we will start the procedures and we did start the procedures so that on December 23 we will give the final vote on the budget. Of course, this is a very, very ambitious agenda. I admit it. This afternoon, we will have a coalition meeting where the Minister of Finance will present the budget proposal and if we manage to draw up the budget these days - today, tomorrow, of course, we can go for it, we can go with the version proposed by the Government and agreed by the coalition. So I don't know what will happen, but I would like to believe that it is still possible," Kelemen Hunor told Digi 24 private television broadcaster.

He said that there is need of a discussion with the European Commission and the limits of the amounts for each ministry should be established.

"Of course, we also have to talk to the Commission, every time before the budget a discussion is needed with the Commission, and we also need to see the limits for each credit release authority, and I'm mainly talking now about the ministries. It would be good, it would be an important signal for everyone, from the citizens to the investors, the financial institutions, let's close the year with the budget approved and published in the Official Journal. I for one will insist for that to happen, I will insist to go on with the procedure, with the agenda, but it will be no tragedy if it doesn't happen this year, although it's not desirable. In my opinion, the end of the year means that you have the budget approved for next year. But if we don't succeed, then we will continue in January. That was the agenda and that was our proposal from the Government to the coalition," the UDMR leader added.

Kelemen Hunor said that the possible postponement of the adoption of the budget was not related to the solidarity tax.