Bogdan Olteanu, PNL (National Liberal Party), chairman of the Chamber of Deputies and one of the most influential people close to Premier Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, has told ZF in an interview, that one of the options the Liberals were considering in governmental restructuring was to merge the Ministry of Economy with the Ministry of Finance and also the Ministry of Agriculture with the Ministry of Environment.

The first two ministries are run by influential PNL members; Varujan Vosganian (Economy) is one of the most politically charismatic leaders, while Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu is a close friend of the Prime Minister. The Agriculture Ministry is run by Dan Motreanu (PNL), while the Environment Ministry is headed by Sulfina Barbu (Democrat Party - PD).

"A team of our party is working on a formula for governmental restructuring, which will be submitted to Tariceanu for approval. One of these proposals is to reduce the number of ministries from the current 15 to 11 and also to merge the ministries of Economy and Finance using the French model, which entails three delegate ministers (within the new super ministry)," Olteanu says.

The merging of the Economy and Finance Ministries is the most radical government-restructuring proposal of the three considered by the parties in power over the past year.

If the ministry were established, it would be the biggest within the entire Government, with an administrative capacity of about 15-20% of the entire Cabinet.

The restructuring of the government has to pass parliamentary voting first and under current circumstances, the ruling coalition no longer has a parliamentary majority. If Parliament dismisses the restructuring proposal, the Government run by Calin Popescu Tariceanu will tumble.

Another option considered by the Liberals is dropping the positions of delegate ministers, with c