Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu made a series of somewhat contradictory statements on Thursday. "The economic crisis will not forgive us if we're not prudent", said Basescu. "We can not be an island of welfare in an ocean of disasters", said Tariceanu, eliminating any chance for Romania to pass the crisis without damage.
President Basescu admitted that Europe's coordinated and complex effort to make the financial system functional are important, including the increase of threshold of guarantees for banking deposits, but said that such a measure was unnecessary in Romania, where the banking system is solid.
Conclusions after the summit in Brussels, in brief:
President Traian Basescu:
- The member states have aim at maintaining the confidence in the banking system and its stability; authorities assume responsibility to ensure the cash flow in the banking and the financial system;
- The European Commission demands responsibility from all banking actors;
- An informal alert system will be put up for information exchange and situation evaluations;
- The EU member states decided that the financial system surveillance must be consolidated;
- Accounting standards must be modified for a better image on the value of the financial institutions' assets;
- EU intends to take steps, along with its partners, for a reform of the global financial system;
- The financial crisis didn't hit Romania because this cost was already paid in the early '90's and the Romanian prudent reforms are more severe even than the ones currently implemented by the Union.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu:
- Most debates focused on the financial crisis. A crisis cell was set up in order to help the information flow between the member states. The cell will couns
