The 2014 budget, which was this week approved by Romania's Government, is yet to reach the president Traian Basescu for promulgation.  Once it does, the president plans to immediately OK the social insurance budget, but wait on the state budget.

The president said he is most likely to get the budget on Monday, December 9, and that there is nothing to change in the social insurance budget. He has maintained his position against the gasoline excise increase in the state budget, meaning it will return to the Government for changes, and to the Parliament for another vote.

By law, he is allowed to take his time with the budget, with December 29 as his deadline for making a decision. This would delay approving the budget altogether, putting the Prime Minister is a tight spot.

Things have been heating up between the president and the Prime Minister lately. The president refused to sign the memorandum with the IMF while the PM has asked for a commission to check a loan taken by the president’s daughter from a state-owned bank.

editor@romania-insider.com