Friday, June 10, 2011

Romania's Government will seek a confidence vote in Parliament to adopt the act on the country's administrative reorganization, Democratic Liberal Party general secretary Ioan Oltean announced in a press conference on Friday. The government's proposal is to reorganize the country into eight counties, from the current 41. According to Oltean, this new system would improve European Union fund absorption and increase the efficiency with which these funds are used. He pointed out that the EU has not explicitly asked Romania to implement a new territorial organization. The new counties would have their capitals at Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Timisoara, Craiova, Constanta, Iasi, Ploiesti and Bucharest. The ministries' decentralized services would have eight local offices, instead of 41, bringing the authorities closer to the citizen, according to Oltean. He added that many matters handled by these services and by the county councils would be transferred to commune, town and city halls. Oltean added that the ruling coalition wants the 2012 local elections to use the eight-county administrative organization. Asked why the government has not held a public referendum or a survey on the issue, Oltean replied that they would block or delay reform.

No comments: