The number one priority of the Government right now is to implement the PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan], while the next step should be to conduct a reorganisation of the administrative-territorial level and a reform of the budgetary system, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu stated on Friday.

The head of the Executive participates, on Friday, in the General Assembly of the National Union of County Councils of Romania, together with the interim president Ilie Bolojan, the minister of interior, Catalin Predoiu, the chair of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), Kelemen Hunor, and the candidate of the governing coalition in the May presidential election, Crin Antonescu.

'In what concerns the Government, our number one priority right now is the PNRR. We have taken each project separately, discussing it with each minister. There are projects, reforms and investments to be considered. And there are also reforms that need to be carried at the Government level. There are investments that are the responsibility of certain ministries, which investments the respective ministers can make directly, and there are investments that must be implemented together with the local authorities. Very many of them, especially in the education and health areas, need to be carried out in close collaboration with the presidents of county councils and county administrations,' said Marcel Ciolacu.

He underscored that the next step for the Government is to implement a form of administrative-territorial reorganisation and a reform of the budgetary system.

'We must admit and commit to achieve, even if we are in an electoral period, that a form of administrative-territorial reorganisation and a reform of the budgetary system will be needed (...) Statistically, if we look, those who have the capacity to attract European funds, those who have the capacity to contract loans, those who have the administrative capacity to move things, first of all, are the county councils and then the city and town halls. This must be the new skeleton of the local administration,' Ciolacu said.

He added that this reorganization will also have to come as a package with the reform of the central administration.

'You will see that, in the coming period, we will merge certain bureaus and we will change the entire approval system, which takes a lot of your time. We must courageously commit to do this and we must say it, even if, I repeat, we are in an electoral period. Because this necessity is obvious to everyone. We have a calculated deficit and we have a seven-year projection. We had some very good negotiations with the Commission. At this point it is our turn to deliver, especially in the context in which we continue to have a regional security crisis, especially in our area,' stated Ciolacu. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Florea, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)