Address by PM Victor Ponta on the presentation of the activity report for 2012 of the Competition Council

Victor Ponta: Thank you Mr. Chairman, good morning to all! You said very well that the time of a prime minister is very short, inevitably. But it is important the functioning of the institutions that we have established not only out of the obligation to comply with certain commitments, but from the belief that they are necessary. I learnt in the last year – this is why I am here – that we should have an independent, professional Competition Council and which, with patience, consistency, should educate all society partners on the importance of observing the competition rules because a country where there is truly competition, it is a country that can remain competitive. I think Romania needs this, as surely, Europe needs this in competition with US, Asia, with other countries. In the end, observing the rules established at European level and enforced at national level, even if they bother us in some moments, disturb us, we do not understand them, they are to the benefit of our economic and institutional development.
My presence here today as I told, reflects the fact that I am a Prime Minister who understands that these rules must be observed.
I do not always like them, because obviously, any Government wants, at a certain moment, when competition rules are on his liking, to observe them; when he does not like them, to try to find out other solutions. It is important the fact that I found in the Competition Council not only for a very severe arbiter who shows us, what we cannot do here, take certain decisions, but it is a mere partner/ I would very much like to mention the fact that, strictly observing all its competences, I found in the Competition Council in this difficult year and I hope it to happen in the future too, I repeat a partner who explained to us very clearly, me and to Ministers, in different situations which are the rules and measures we can take, and which are the limits of these measures and where we cannot go further.

I believe in the late role of the Competition Council to strictly enforce the competition rules as well as the education and information role for public authorities, private companies because obviously, Mr. President know it, not few times I go and meet private investors, and they tell: yes, but the Competition Council does not let us”, do something or the Competition sanctioned us. I tell them: you should play by the rules.
I want all private investors to be satisfied. I want all to be able to male all government decisions, but everything should be done according to rules. We may together educate the public opinion further on, and we are in 2013: we hear too often why don’t you give money from budget for Oltchim? Or why don’t you give us money from the budget for CFR? Sometimes, when I was in the Opposition and I asked myself this, I found out meanwhile why money cannot be further earmarked from the budget, and why it would not be better in fact to continue to earmark the money from public budget and from that budget which should have other destinations. We would not do but postpone an obvious outcome in a competition market, in an open Europe, a Europe that has as current preoccupation, exactly the increase in competitiveness and observance of competition rules, we do not but postpone difficult decisions.
Surely, I did not expect myself to be that I cannot postpone and to be compelled to make the decisions. I had near me a Minister who told me every time, this is state aid, this cannot be done, we should take measures, it was Florin Georgescu. He let now Mr. Voinea who keeps telling me that this is state aid, that we should ask the Competition Council whether or not, something is possible, we should ask the Commission, we do not take any decision. It is a type of education that I think I needed, and we –all who are making decisions in Romania, need, I speak on behalf of public authorities, but equally true is the education of the private companies’ structures, regarding the rules observance. In this context, I am very much glad that the idea of transparency and professionalism of the Competition Council in Romania get strengthened and the direction is the good one.
I tell it once again and I hope it is correctly interpreted in Brussels too when I tell that I do not see in the Competition Council just that tough arbiter who sanctions us, but I see a partner and the European Commission is in fact a partner for the National Governments in a time when any Government wants to help as much as possible the economy and jobs keeping or creation. I repeat, I do these things out of the conviction that in the end, a fair competition is to the benefit of all of us and that observing some rules by us all who participate in the economic and social life is the only solution. I want to congratulate the Competition Council for the last year’s activity, and I want to rejoice that this European meeting takes place in Bucharest, in fact, here, in Bucharest, many things are happening, I do not know if we are indeed impossible to be governed as some may consider, it seems to me that we can be governed, and we are good hosts as this year, there will come, the Presidents, leaders of all international financial institutions: IMF, World Bank, EBRD, EIB. The fact that Romania has economic growth and if I look in the area, surely a stable Government, without fair competition and economic development, all this stability will prove to be short – lived, and I want to further have in the Competition Council an arbiter and a partner. Thank you for your invitation!

I wanted to be present here to thank a partner and to express my hope that over the next period, we will work equally well. Thank you!