Ex-PM says political reform vital in Romania

Date: 25/06/1998

By Simon Coss

ROMANIA still needs to make profound political reforms before its hopes of EU membership can be realised, warns the country's recently ousted prime minister.

Victor Ciorbea was forced to resign as Romanian premier at the end of March following criticisms of the pace of economic reform in the central European state, which led to a crisis in his coalition government.

But the former leader says that the new administration headed by his successor Radu Vasile appears to be leading the country into even deeper water.

“They have created a kind of trans-party cooperation in the government which is pragmatic in the most negative sense. It could more properly be termed opportunist,” said Ciorbea in an interview with European Voice. “They have maintained my government's budget plans, but they do not have the necessary foreign investment because all of the key projects with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union are all more or less blocked for the moment.”

Many foreign aid schemes to Romania were frozen at the end of last year because of exasperation at the slow pace of economic reform coupled with difficulties faced by non-Romanian investors in trying to set up business ventures in the country.

Ciorbea argues that the sort of cronyism which created the latter problem in particular is still very much in evidence today.

“The basic cause of the crisis is this attempt, which for the moment is succeeding, to defend the interests of the millionaires and the 'red oligarchy' which came and set up in our country in December 1989. These people are very well-represented within the opposition in Ilieuscu's party and in satellite parties,” said the former prime minister.

Ciorbea argues that the current political turmoil in his country has clearly had a detrimental effect on Romania's bid to join both NATO and the European Union.

While Romania's economic underdevelopment meant that it was never going to be in the first wave of countries considered for Union membership, the ex-premier nevertheless feels that ongoing political uncertainties can only set back the country's accession ambitions. “For the moment I don't think that the report drawn up by the European Commission this year will be very favourable,” he said.

However, not everyone feels that the future for Romania is as bleak as the picture Ciorbea paints.

Some analysts point out that Vasile, an economist by background, has pledged to put a tough reform programme in motion aimed at modernising the country's economy.

The plan includes setting dates for such key developments as privatising public utilities and introducing land reforms.

But it remains to be seen whether the new prime minister will be able to deliver on his promises. Ciorbea himself was also hailed as the great hope for Romania when he was swept into office in 1996.