Romania to pay $120m to Sweden

The Governments of Romania and Sweden have concluded the negotiations regarding Romania’s old debts to Sweden.

The amount to be paid by Romania by the end of next year amounts to 120 million dollars, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said.

Foreign Affairs minister Mircea Geoana was assigned by the Premier to set the date when the inter-governmental agreement is to be signed. This document will end a dispute having lasted for about 60 years.

The agreement, which will be signed by both Romanian and Swedish Prime Ministers, should be endorsed by the two countries’ Parliaments.

About one quarter of this amount would be paid this year. Nastase announced that, together with IMF representatives, he will try to persuade the Swedish Government that the debt should be entirely paid next year in order not to unbalance this year’s budgetary deficit.

Otherwise, the debt will be paid with money the Government is ale to save due to the decrease in interest rates.

The Romanian Government has negotiated directly with the Swedish Government and skipped the discussions with Swedish companies to which the Romanian State owes the money.

“It was not right for the Romanian Government to discuss with the Swedish companies. We wanted exclusive negotiations with Sweden’s Government, which represented the companies’ claims,” Nastase said.

It had been previously agreed that talks should be carried with the Swedish companies claiming a part of the debts and that some of the payments should be re-invested in Romania.

Adrian Nastase considers that such an approach would have complicated the situation, as the credits would have mixed with the investments.

The talks started from two “extreme” amounts: 24 million dollars, an amount that had been previously agreed upon, and 3-4 billion dollars, the figure advanced by Swedish authorities.

Actually, Sweden has never accepted that this debt should be considered a “frozen” one, arguing that it should be treated as a “credit,” which should have pushed Romania’s debt to 3-4 billion dollars.