Romania, "seriously affected by depression in euro area"

The chief of the state declared that Romania would support the immediate amending of the Protocol No. 12 of the European Union Treaty at the European Council in Brussels.
The protocol will be followed by the revision of the Treaty at a later date, when there will be a consensus between the 27 Member States.

The protocol recalled by the president refers to the excessive deficit procedure.

The President said that such a solution would be more useful, since it did not require ratification by the Member States and could be done at the Council level.

According to him, it would be useful for this Protocol to impose to all Member States a timetable for achieving a maximum debt level of 60 percent of the GDP.

Also, through the Protocol No. 12, member states could be forced to introduce into the Constitution a maximum deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP.

Traian Băsescu said that Romania "is very much affected by the delay of compelling decisions in the euro area".

"Romania is now severely affected by the situation in the euro area and I will tell you in what field. In the summer months, our CDS (i.e. the risk premium for loans) was of about 200 points at loans for ten years; for one year, loans were below 100 points. "

“This is the insurance premium for loans. And now, due to mistrust resulting from the delays for Greece, to what happens in Italy, Romania's CDS of credits for ten years has exceeded 450 and goes up with the whole area.

Therefore we are affected. Romania is very much affected by the delay of compelling decisions in the euro area”, Băsescu said.

On Thursday and Friday, Traian Băsescu will participate in Brussels in the European Council winter meeting and the ceremony for the signature of the Accession Treaty by Croatia, according to the Presidential Administration.

Translated by: Gabriela Moateru
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University