Chair of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor outlined on Wednesday the details of the draft law on reforming central and local administration, noting that the 10% reduction will not be applied evenly and that almost one third of local administrative units will not be affected by staff cuts.
"We have broadly reached an understanding within the coalition regarding the 10% reductions in local administration and the way they will be applied, and likewise in central administration - 10% overall - but this does not mean that each segment will face a 10% cut. There will be areas where the reduction will be higher, because that is the situation, and areas where it will be smaller. But overall the wage envelope must reflect a 10% cut," Kelemen Hunor told the press.
The UDMR leader stressed that his party has proposed an exemption for education, explaining that this sector has already implemented the necessary adjustments earlier this year, by increasing teaching workloads and cutting scholarships and overtime payments.
"We have put forward and strongly support one exception: education. In July, under the first package, education already applied the necessary cuts. Teaching workloads were raised from 18 to 20 hours a week, and payments for hourly teaching and scholarships were reduced. This also applies to higher education, where workloads increased and scholarships were cut. If we look at everything that has happened in education over a full year - since this year we are only talking about 5-6 months, essentially August and September - they are already around 10%, and it would not be fair to cut education again. This is the only exception we have accepted and indeed proposed," Kelemen Hunor said.
On the impact on employees, the UDMR leader said that a 10% reduction in local administration would equate to around 12,000 filled posts, but noted that salary cuts are also a possibility.
Kelemen Hunoralso underlined that many local administrative units will not be affected by staff reductions.
"In local administration, roughly 10% means about 12,000 filled posts, but I am not convinced that - since the draft law allows it - those who do not wish to free up posts will not instead opt to reduce salaries. Each local authority has this option for a one-year transition period. In any case, if we look at the situation, there are local authorities where staffing levels are clearly inflated, and there are others - around 1,000, I do not know the exact number - almost one third - where nothing needs to be cut, especially smaller localities, as they did not overstaff. So when we speak about local administration, these nuances must be pointed out, otherwise people think everything is being cut everywhere. No! Nearly 1,000 local authorities will not have to do anything, because they are already below the thresholds that will be set in this project," he explained.
The UDMR president said he hopes the project will enter the approval process as soon as possible, so that the Government's confidence vote can be published in the Official Gazette before the end of the year.
"I would like us to enter the approval circuit as soon as possible, starting next week if we can - I hope it will be possible - and for the confidence vote to appear in the Official Gazette before the end of the year. Otherwise, you cannot build the 2026 budget law. What will happen exactly, how and on what date, I do not know. I would prefer it to be as soon as possible, because the budget law must be prepared, and discussions can and will start on the 2026 draft budget law, but we cannot finalise it until this package is published in the Official Journal," Kelemen Hunor added.
The UDMR leader took part on Wednesday in Miercurea-Ciuc in the inauguration ceremony of the town's outpatient clinic, which has been fully renovated and equipped with medical devices through a project financed by the National Investment Company.
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