Prime Minister Florin Citu, opposition leader Ciolacu to meet on recovery, resilience plan

Prime Minister Florin Citu says he has extended an official invitation to national chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolanu to a discussion on Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) at the government headquarters, agerpres reports.

"I spoke on the phone with Marcel Ciolacu last week, and we will see each other, I think, this week at the government. I am inviting him to discuss the PNRR a little. (...) That is not yet on the agenda; it also depends on Mr Ciolacu's schedule. We will have a discussion if not this then next week," Citu told journalists on Monday.

On the other hand, when asked to comment on remarks by Minister of European Investment and Projects Cristian Ghinea that Romania has a very big problem with collecting government revenues, Citu reiterated that there is an increase in voluntary compliance and that there is higher government revenue collected.

"I was in Brussels and I also talked to Vice President Dombrovskis, and the developments or what we are showing this year and what we will be showing you in the coming years in the tax and budget strategy is what the European Commission is using for the next years when analysing Romania. Although slapped with an excessive deficit procedure, Romania has not received any corrections or such observations. What I said is without any doubt: we had an increase in voluntary compliance last year in Romania in a time of crisis. We still see higher government revenues. Those are the real data. I don't know exactly what the minister meant, but in the tax and budget strategy, the convergence plan, I have said very clearly how we will narrow the government deficit throughout 2024. That is a strategy that the European Commission also accepted," said Citu.