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Essay title:

“ROMANIA – DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY IN A CRISIS AND

AUSTERITY CONTEXT” 

Student name:

CRISTINA SERACCourse name:

Democracy and Globalisation

Main Coordinator: VIRGÍNIAFERREIRA 

Coordinator of topic: ANTÓNIO CASIMIRO FERREIRA

-2012-2013- 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................... 1 

ROMANIA – DEMOCRACY FEATURES  ..................................................................................2

ROMANIA NOWADAYS – TIGHTEN STRONG ITS BELTS....................................................2

FORESIGHTS FOR THE NEXT YEARS .....................................................................................9

CONCLUSIONS.............................................................................................................................. 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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1

INTRODUCTION

Romania, one of the european countries that adhered to European Union in 2007, is sufferinga lot after the beginning of crisis in 2008.

Which are the reasons that this country is so affected nowadays by the crisis? Many factorsdetermined it to take measures of austerity.

Before 2008, in the period of economic ―boom‖, the financial sector doubled its percentage in

the GDP from 36,3% in 2003 to 74,1% in 2007. The romanian analysts consider that the

reason of the growth was because of an economic bubble that raised the prices of assets(especially the financial ones) and not because of an industrial development. Moreover, inthese years, the number of financial institutions didn’t increase so much, but the banks’

turnovers increased a lot because of the consumption credits offered.

Another reason that we have to take into consideration is the fact that the type of the policyhas changed into neoliberal in 2005 to encourage economy development. But, for anemergent country, these measures took out new issues and was an impediment for anequilibrated and sustainable development.

At the beginning of the world crisis in 2008, the west European countries started to adoptsome sort of nationalism measures that affected Romania. For example, delocalizationmeasure  –  The Nokia manufacture moved after just two years after the opening. And, of course, more other foreign investors moved their businesses in more advantageous areas. 1 

The most romanian banks has foreign capital and, in these period, the banks started towithdraw the capital to help to sustain their domestic subsidiaries. As a result, in 2009 thenumber of offered credits decrease. Before the crisis, foreign direct investment increased till amaximum of 9.1 billion euros, in 2008. The next year the investments went down with 61.5%and the tendency remain low the next years. 2 The imports increased and exports fell down.

From an emergent country that was being in an integration process to European Union, thecrisis transformed Romania in one of the most affected countries by crisis. After years of 

 prociclic policies to grow the economy, excesivelly through consumption and raisingrevenues over the level of productivity, Romania became vulnerable. It wasn’t ready toconfront the crisis.3 

1  http://www.dcnews.ro/2012/10/studiu-de-ce-a-intrat-romania-in-criza-cum-ne-au-bagat-boc-si-mru-la- periferia-europei/ 2 http://www.zf.ro/zf-utile/investitiile-straine-directe-evolutie-sursa-bnr-8154303. Accesed at 15.09.2012.

3  http://www.dcnews.ro/2012/10/studiu-de-ce-a-intrat-romania-in-criza-cum-ne-au-bagat-boc-si-mru-la- periferia-europei/ 

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ROMANIA – DEMOCRACY FEATURES

As the Romanian Constitution says, Romania is a democratic country in which humandignity, rights and freedoms, the free development of human personality, justice and political

 pluralism represent supreme values, in the spirit of the democratic traditions of the romanian people and ideals of the Revolution of December 1989, and are guaranteed.

The form of the government is a Republic. The State is organized in accordance with the principle of separation and balance of powers - legislative, executive and judicial - withinconstitutional democracy. The legislative power is exercised by the Parlament. It iscomposed of Chamber of Deputies and Senate Chamber . The executive power is represented

 by the Government. Its role is to manage the internal and some external policies and to

manage the public institutions. The judicial power is represented by the Superior Council of Magistracy, Public Prosecutor and Courts.4 

The President of Romania is a guard of the Constitution and is responsible of proper functioning of public authorities. For this purpose, he act as a mediator between the powersof the state, and between state and society.5 

ROMANIA NOWADAYS – TIGHTEN STRONG ITS

BELTS

We have seen earlier the reasons that brought Romania into crisis. But which was the

beginning of crisis for European Union?

The main cause was the financial market that had a deficit of liquidity to roll over the debts.The credibility in financial institutions decreased but nobody thought about a collapse tillSeptember  2008 when the Lehman Brothers investment bank defaulted. From that momenton, all investors lost completely the credibility and withdraw their liquidity. The other sectorsof economy became affected at a glance, especially household demand, notably for consumer durables and housing. The cross-border transmission happened also extremely rapid, due tothe tight connections within the financial system and also the strongly integrated supplychains in global product markets. EU real GDP was shrink by some 4% in 2009, the sharpestcontraction in its history. 6 

4

 http://legislatie.resurse-pentru-democratie.org/const_2003.php#131 Title I, Article 1 5 http://legislatie.resurse-pentru-democratie.org/const_2003.php#131 Title III, Chapter II6 http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication15887_en.pdf   

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All around the Europe the consequences took place: one of them, losing jobs, came with atemporary solution - flexible unemployment benefit arrangements, but eventually the impactof rapidly rising unemployment will be felt, with downturns in housing markets occurringsimultaneously affecting (notably highly-indebted) households. Another consequence are the

fiscal positions of governments that continued to deteriorate, not only for cyclical reasons, but also in a structural manner as tax bases shrink on a permanent basis and contingentliabilities of governments stemming from bank rescues may materialize.7 

The crisis has underscored the flaws behind the common currency, the euro, turned downgovernments, pushed a number of countries into a second recession and exposed deep rifts

 between regions.

What happened in different countries of European Union? We know that the most problematic countries are named as PIIGS (Portugal, Irland, Italy, Greece, Spain).

Greece is the most affected country. Here, the new government revealed in 2009 that its predecessors had concealed enormous deficits. By the spring of 2010, Greece was unable to borrow on the open markets at an affordable interest rate, and a series of bailout packagetotalling 110 billion euros was devised by the European Union, the International MonetaryFund and the European Central Bank, the so-called ―troika‖. In return, Greece was requiredto slash public spending deeply. In May, leaders approved a contingency fund of 500 billionseuro for the union at large. In November 2010, Ireland, wracked by a banking crisis thatfollowed the collapse of a housing  bubble, received a 67 billion euro bailout. Portugal,received 78 billion euros in May 2011. In both countries, the governments soon fell. In thesummer of 2011, worries arose about two vastly larger economies: Italy, still struggling withdebts built up before it joined the euro, and Spain, where the collapse of a housing bubblehad sent the unemployment rate over 20 percent. Over the rest of the year, Europeangovernments struggled to increase the size of the ―firewall’' offered by bailout funds. InDecember, Germany’s chancellor,  Angela Merkel , whose push for austerity in return for aidhad dominated the response to the crisis, won package of a pact calling for tighter fiscalintegration and greater penalties for bid deficits. But what appeared to be an imminent crisiswas averted only when the European Central Bank, under a new chairman,  Mario Draghi,flooded banks with cheap loans that many used to prop up their governments. But meanwhile,the continent tipped toward a second recession, with the hardest hit countries, like Greece

and Spain  — unable to devalue their currency  — seeing unemployment soar while deficitsremained stubbornly large. Governments fell from the Netherlands to Greece to Slovakia.

In March 2012, the troika engineered a default by Greece on most of its private debt and asecond bailout package, of 130 billion euros, in exchange for new rounds of budget-cuttingand privatization. But, by that time, a wave of anger was building against austerity. In May2012, France elected a Socialist,  François Hollande, to replace  Nicolas Sarkozy, Mrs.Merkel’s closest ally, as president on a platform that called for an emphasis on growth. In

Greece, the two traditional parties, both of which had supported the bailout deal, wereroundly repudiated, while a left-wing party that demanded the repudiation of the deal movedto the fore. No party proved able to form a government, and talk about Greece’s exit from the

euro, once unthinkable, became common. Fear of a ―Grexit’' and the possibility of it

happening elsewhere increased strains on weak banks, particularly in Spain, where in Maythe country’s largest mortgage lender sought a $24 billion bailout. In June, leaders began

7 http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication15887_en.pdf   

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speaking of common measures to contain the crisis. The leader of the European Central Bank called for continent-wide deposit insurance and bank regulation, while Germany suggested itwould support  pooling much of the continent’s bad debt into a single fund, to be paid off over 25 years. Also in June, Spain became the fourth country in Europe to accept a bailout for itscash-starved banks as European finance ministers offered an aid package of up to $125

 billion. But the urgency of that mission was driven by events in a country at the other edge of the euro zone: Greece. The Spanish rescue was well within the means of a Europeanemergency fund already established for just such purposes. Far harder to calculate are thecosts if, after Greek elections in mid-June 2012, the new government there reneges on theterms of the bailout Athens negotiated with its European lenders only a few months ago. Thatcould lead to an unprecedented withdrawal from the euro zone, threatening the structuralintegrity of a currency union that has largely benefited more prosperous members likeGermany. The big fear in Europe is contagion  — an infection of financial panic that couldspread far beyond Greece. Indeed, Spanish leaders have long said that Greek problems werecontributors to the general market uncertainties that helped undermine Spanish banks. OnJune 17, Greek voters gave a narrow victory in parliamentary elections to the conservative

 New Democracy party, which had supported a bailout for the country’s failed economy. Thevote was widely seen as a last chance for Greece to remain in the euro zone, and the resultshad an early rallying effect on world markets. But strong doubts remained as to whether anynew leadership in Athens would be able to fulfill those obligations. A lot of private moneyhas already fled Greece, while its deeply depressed economy and dwindling tax revenuesthreaten to put the country ever deeper in the hole. 8 

Let’s see how was affected the unemployment rate in Europe Zone nowadays:

9 

8http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/european_sovereign_debt_crisis/index.html  9 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm./drawGraph.do&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=teilm020&toolbox=legend  

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As we can see from the graph, Romania is not so affected by unemployment rate as other countries are. One of the reasons could be the drastic austerity measures that our country hadto take – cutting a lot from the wages and maintaining a low minimum wage value, under theaverage of European Union:

Source: http://www.puterea.ro/articol/ue_vrea_sa_ne_mareasca_salariile 

But, of course, the situation of some European countries like Spain and Italy affected us morethan officialities shows – a lot of Romanian people were working in the black market in thesecountries and they had to turn back home.

As we can see in the graph below, at the beginning of 2010 was registered the maximumvalue of unemployment rate, over 7.5%, growing with 2% from 2008. In september 2012,unemployement rate in Romania was 7.1%, at the same level with the previous month andhad decreased with 0.6% less than the level registered in September 2011. By gender, male

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unemployment rate is bigger than female unemployment rate with 1% (7,6% for males 6,6%for females).10 

Source: http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/comunicate/somaj%20BIM/a12/somaj%20BIM_SEP12r.pdf   

Unemployment rate in Romania

Which are the external debts that Romania took?

The external debts are 18.7 billion euros, the biggest creditor being European Union with 5 billion euros  –  these money were received like a part of the agreement with IMF.Additionally, another 2.2 billion euros were transferred by IMF directly in the Minister of Finance’s bank account. Romania owns 6 billion euros to other international institutions likeEIB (European Investment Bank), IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment), EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and 4.3 billioneuros bonds from creditors like Deutsche Bank (1.4 billion euros) and Erste Bank (1.1 billioneuros). Thus, 70% from the external public debts are from International Financial Institutions,that has the advantage of low interest rates but it has also the disadvantage of constraints fromIMF and others.11 

Romania has paid the first instalment of the loan in 2012 made by agreement with the IMF,European Commission and World Bank in April 2009. The sum had the equivalent of about2.5 billion euros and was taken from the National Bank's foreign reserves without affectingthe domestic budget managed by the Ministry of Finance. In 2013 we have to pay over 5

10 Source: http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/comunicate/somaj%20BIM/a12/somaj%20BIM_SEP12r.pdf  

11 http://businessday.ro/12/2011/datoria-externa-a-romaniei-se-apropie-de-100-miliarde-euro-cine-ne-a-

imprumutat-si-cu-cat/ 

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 billion euros, the maximum amount provided annually. In 2014 we gave the same source of  about 4.7 billion euros and 1.4 billion euros since 2015.12 

Prime Minister Victor Ponta said in a press conference that in 2013 Romania would spendmore than it produce and at the end of year each person would owe with 150 euros more than

it was at the beginning of year. In 2013, Romania has due debt of 14.4 billion euros.  Moreover, The Government has to return 1.2 billion euros of loan received from the IMF andthe European Union. The debt represent 34.7% of GDP. The Prime Minister said that in EU,only three countries have lower debt (Estonia, Bulgaria, Luxembourg), while 23 countrieshave higher debt. Victor Ponta added that the total amount of public debts is 51 billion euros,2500 euros per each contributor. Four years ago, Romania had 28 billion euros debt, 1400euros per citizen.The Government intentions are to finish well the Agreement with IMF, itwould be pointless to talk about a new one before. For Romania a similar type of agreementlike Poland one would be advantageous, would borrow cheaper, would give the feeling of  stability.13 

Which are the main measures of austerity that Romania took?

Following the agreement with IMF, in 2010, Romania had cut the wages from public sector with 25% and the pensions with 15%, had dismiss 100,000 employees from public sector andincreased the value added tax (VAT) from 19 to 24%. Early pensions would be given muchharder than before and food tickets, bank deposits and the revenues from stock market wastaxed.14 

Of course, other measures took place (for example it started the privatization process of 10companies where the state was the main shareholder) but these are the most important,

 because they affected most the life well-being of Romanian population.

At the beginning of 2011, the wages from the public sector raised with 15%.

IMF was happy with the effects of austerity measures applied in Romania, but the idea of along blur future and the less credibility that citizens had in their leaders, dragged back Romania into recession. The current president, Traian Băsescu, with the ex-prime-minister,Emil Boc, and the Minister of Regional Development and Tourism, Elena Udrea, becamemore and more the purpose of jokes and satires. They lost their credibility because of thediscrepance from their public comments and their actions. The protests of population getstarted, the ex-prime-minister resigned first in February 2012, and just after a few months, the

Minister of Regional Development and Tourism resigned, too, in june 2012. These three main personalities from the party PDL (Liberal Democratic Party) lost the credibility and all the party went down with them. Meanwhile, two other parties was waiting to depose thePresident of Romania, Traian Băsescu. They took advantage about the indignation of 

 population, and tryed to make a worse reputation of President. The President was deposed bycitizens but just for a while. Traian Băsescu knew again how to get out from dirty.

12 http://www.realitatea.net/cine-plate-te-datoriile-la-fmi-ce-si-bm_1086576.html  

13  http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-13977548-live-video-text-ora-18-00-premierul-victor-ponta-prezinta-

elemente-din-bugetul-2013.htm 14  http://www.romanialibera.ro/bani-afaceri/finante/guvernul-impune-noi-masuri-de-austeritate-186028- pagina1.html#top_articol 

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Elena Udrea – Emil Boc – Traian Băsescu The word ―Bugetarii‖ (the people that work 

in public institutions) is changed with―Fugetarii‖ that means ―Runners‖ 

―Poporul vă urmează‖ = ―The population is

following you

Today the Government is leaded by another party, PSD (Social Democratic Party), the PrimeMinister being Victor Ponta. The political war turned out the dirty actions of the three main

 parties of Romania, and the Romanian people can’t trust in neither of them. They all seemcorrupted and thirsty of  power, and don’t put as a priority to save Romania from the current

 position.

As a result, on 03.08.2012 Romania registered a minimum of its currency exchange rate:1 euro = 4.6481 lei15 

Awkward is that even if Romanian people suffered a lot because of the austerity, they took more easy the bad changes than other European citizens. "The measures that were taken bythe Romanian Government are almost unimaginable in Western Europe. Who can imagine inGermany or France the Government to say: 'You have to cut public sector wages by 25%?"And at the same time to increase the only tax that hits everyone, VAT? But this happenedwithout a single day of strike. It was a pretty brutal measure. But it is one of the differences

 between East and West that the East is a region where people have learned to live with

15 http://bnr.ro/Raport-statistic-606.aspx 

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 brutality and can handle a crisis substantially better than those in the West? " said AndreasTreichl, the general manager of Austrian group ERSTE.16 

FORESIGHTS FOR THE NEXT YEARS

In November 2012 the German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned it will take at least fiveyears for the euro area and the EU as a whole to recover from the economic crisis. The topthree trading partners of Romania being Germany, France and Italy, and because the last twowill be in recession and the first will have a slower growth rate, Romanian exports to thesecountries will decrease significantly. Similarly, stagnation and deepening crisis in the euro

area will increase the risk that banks will return the money from Romania to the headquarters,which will reduce the access to credit.17 

An important step is to adopt EURO currency - To change the national currency with euro,forecasted in 2015 is out of the question in the opinion of BNR ’s (Romanian National Bank)Governor Mugur Isărescu. By maintaining the currency, Romania won the flexibility toadjust interest rates, to control liquidity and to allow depreciation of the leu to reduce the

 budget deficit. Futhermore, maintaining the national currency, Romania's exportcompetitiveness was better and helped to lead to a lower cost of living, which attracts"suddenly" well qualified workforce of euro states in distress.18 

CONCLUSIONS

Der Spiegel and other German publications became more interested in Romania since―appeared deficits in terms of democracy". Daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: Romania is acountry with minimum democratic standards and has to make many steps towards a mature

democracy. Ponta and his allys should know that the European Union will monitor themclosely. And Băsescu should be aware that his escapades will not find supporters anymoreoutside Romania‖. 

"What has been missing until now for Romania is a government that is more interested incountry’s future than their comfort. And is not sure that Ponta is the right person. He showedlittle respect for the rule of law in the fight against Băsescu", concludes journalists of 

16http://www.wall-street.ro/articol/Finante-Banci/113780/seful-erste-aici-oamenii-sunt-obisnuiti-cu- brutalitatea.html 17

 http://www.romanialibera.ro/bani-afaceri/criza/romania-condamnata-la-austeritate-283134-main_pic1.html 18 http://www.business24.ro/macroeconomie/zona-euro/isarescu-trecerea-la-euro-in-2015-nu-mai-intra-in-

discutie-1521237 

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Handelsblatt. Ponta aroused "anger" of EU leaders, "including German Chancellor AngelaMerkel" for not respecting Constitutional Court decisions and pressures over the Justice. 19 

Romania should focus on increasing the absorption of EU funds and less on loans from theEuropean Union for sustainable growth, says the economist Daniel Dăianu at a World Bank 

conference about the global economic outlook.20 

Romania has all the advantages to have a powerful economy, to have a mature democracy,not an emergent one. But for this, the Romanians mentality has to change from the politiciantill the ordinary man.

Romania has a democracy in which the power and civic responsability are exercised by itsfreely elected representatives. In this sense, the quality of the representatives is veryimportant, and, as we have seen, this was an important issue nowadays.

Romania’s democracy fulfil the principles of majority rule and individual rights. It guardsagainst all-powerful central governments and decentralize government to regional and locallevels, understanding that all levels of government must be as accessible and responsive tothe people as possible.

The basic human rights as freedom of speech and religion are protected in this country; Andalso the right to equal protection under law and the opportunity to organize and participatefully in the political, economic, and cultural life of society. Or, at least, apparently. Theregular free and fair elections are conducted by citizens of voting age of or over 18 years old.So, Romanian people, as citizens in a democracy, have not only rights, but also the

responsibility to participate in the political system that, in turn, protects their rights andfreedoms. And in the last years they weren’t as active as would be expected. They becamemore active when they felt their empty stomachs, when they went on strikes. Citizenship in ademocracy requires participation, civility, patience - rights as well as responsibilities. For democracy to succeed, citizens must be active, not passive, because they know that thesuccess or failure of the government is their responsibility, and no one else’s.

As a conclusion, I consider that if Romania will have less corruption, more active citizensthat are interested in their civil life, more competitive or professional elective representatives,all the economic measures could be implemented right and the issues solved. A mature

democracy can bring a healthier economy and more well-being expectances.

19 http://www.ziare.com/victor-ponta/premier/der-spiegel-romania-o-noua-problema-acuta-pentru-ue-si-

nato-1206668 20 http://www.capital.ro/detalii-articole/stiri/daianu-romania-ar-trebui-sa-absoarba-fondurile-europene-nu-

sa-se-imprumute-la-ue-176861.html 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOTE: The main materials represent romanian newspapers or financial magazines that

are on top in Romania.

1.  Online newspaper “DC News”:

http://www.dcnews.ro/2012/10/studiu-de-ce-a-intrat-romania-in-criza-cum-ne-au-bagat-boc-si-mru-la- periferia-europei/ 

2.  “Ziarul Financiar” (Financial Newspaper) online version:

http://www.zf.ro/zf-utile/investitiile-straine-directe-evolutie-sursa-bnr-8154303 3.  Romanian Constitution Law:

http://legislatie.resurse-pentru democratie.org/const_2003.php#131 

4.  European Commission site:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication15887_en.pdf  5.  “New York Times” newspaper, online version: 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/european_sovereign_debt_crisis/index.html 

6.  Eurostat statistics

7.  http://www.puterea.ro/articol/ue_vrea_sa_ne_mareasca_salariile 8.  INSSE (National Institution of Statistics ): 

http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/comunicate/somaj%20BIM/a12/somaj%20BIM_SEP12r.pdf  9.  http://businessday.ro/12/2011/datoria-externa-a-romaniei-se-apropie-de-100-miliarde-euro-cine-ne-a-imprumutat-si-cu-cat/ 

10.  REALITATEA TV (TV news Programme), online version:

http://www.realitatea.net/cine-plate-te-datoriile-la-fmi-ce-si-bm_1086576.html 11.  http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-13977548-live-video-text-ora-18-00-premierul-victor-ponta-

 prezinta-elemente-din-bugetul-2013.htm 

12.  “România Liberă” newspaper, online version: 

http://www.romanialibera.ro/bani-afaceri/finante/guvernul-impune-noi-masuri-de-austeritate-186028- pagina1.html#top_articol 

13.  BNR “Banca Naţională Română” (Romanian National Bank): 

http://bnr.ro/Raport-statistic-606.aspx 

14.  http://www.wall-street.ro/articol/Finante-Banci/113780/seful-erste-aici-oamenii-sunt-obisnuiti-cu- brutalitatea.html 

15.  “România Liberă” newspaper, online version: 

http://www.romanialibera.ro/bani-afaceri/criza/romania-condamnata-la-austeritate-283134-main_pic1.html 

16.  http://www.ziare.com/victor-ponta/premier/der-spiegel-romania-o-noua-problema-acuta-pentru-ue-si-nato-1206668 

17.  “Capital” newspaper, online version: 

http://www.capital.ro/detalii-articole/stiri/daianu-romania-ar-trebui-sa-absoarba-fondurile-europene-nu-sa-se-imprumute-la-ue-176861.html 

18. http://www.business24.ro/macroeconomie/zona-euro/isarescu-trecerea-la-euro-in-2015-nu-mai-

intra-in-discutie-1521237