After the government restructuring, all the newspaper headlines read: Government Nastase II. They were right. But not in the chronological sense. In fact, as revealed by the emergency ordinance on the government reshuffle, Adrian Nastase made himself a parallel cabinet.
A number of 21 agencies and departments will report directly or will subordinate to the Premier. These institutions have the most diverse responsibilities, from setting the power price, granting licences to telecoms or negotiating with foreign investors to authorising water and sewerage companies or preventing and fighting money laundering.
When he was named Prime Minister, Adrian Nastase replaced the round table that had been used for government meetings for ten years with a rectangular one. There was no room for the new, bigger team, according to the official explanations.
Or maybe “there was no room” for an equal disposition of the government members, as implied by a round table. This last scenario is more likely, considering the latest government reshuffle.
Premier Adrian Nastase will coordinate regulation authorities, agencies, commissions and offices that will no longer report to the respective ministries.
Thus, from the five departments he used to coordinate (Institutional Analysis, Social Policies, Economic Policies, Foreign Trade and National Administration of State Reserves), the Premier now has 21. Which is four times as much. Another Nastase Government.
The Regulating Authorities in the field of Energy, Natural Gases, Communications, Communal Planning, the National Agencies for Foreign Investment, Mineral Resources, and SMEs, but also the National Commissions for Prognosis, the Control of Nuclear Activities or the Office for Preventing and Fighting Money Laundering – they will all be coordinated by the Premier.
This way, in a pre-electoral year, Adrian Nastase will be able to become involved in coordinating these structures, in setting the prices for energy, gases, telephony, water and sewerage services.
But the stake is even higher. Romania is likely to benefit from significant investments in oil, energy, communications, water and sewage infrastructure, and one of the main investment factors is the price of the supplied service. And since he coordinates the Foreign Investment Agency, the Premier will certainly be a big part of the process.
“It is rather unusual for so many structures to be directly subordinated to the PM. The Premier generally becomes directly involved when a sector needs to undergo reform (such as the healthcare system in Great Britain) or when there are special sectors (such as the drug fight in the US). But 18-20 institutions under direct coordination – I believe it would be hard to find a similar example in the developed countries,” says economic analyst Matei Paun, former Wall Street broker. sorin.pislaru@zf.ro