Prime Minister Mihai Tudose moved the Danube Delta from the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment to the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG).
The transfer of authority over the Danube Delta has been formalised at the very first meeting of Mihai Tudose government, last Friday, and has been concealed in an emergency ordinance amending and supplementing several pieces of legislation.
The stake of transferring the Danube Delta to SGG – „an aberration,” as the former governor Liviu Mihaiu put it – must be similar to the transfer of the highways and the CNADR during the mandate of Ponta government, from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Large Projects and back, based on what portfolio Dan Sova had.
Meaning a stake of economic influence.
SGG, an institution directly subordinated to the Prime Minister, is headed by Mihai Busuioc, a loyal person to Liviu Dragnea. Busuioc was dismissed by Sorin Grindeanu when he tried to block Victor Ponta’s accession to the Government.
Reappointing Busuioc as the head of the SGG was the first measure decided by Mihai Tudose on Thursday evening, right after taking the oath at Cotroceni for the investiture of the new government.
Politics of pike
The Danube Delta has always been the focus of the political class and the „businessmen” close to the people in power. The Governor of the Danube Delta has always been imposed on political criteria.
The last governor, Grigore Baboianu, was removed from office after he dared to criticize Liviu Dragnea and Sorin Grindeanu regarding the pikes they captured during their famous April fishing trip.
A mention: according to Liviu Dragnea’s statements, the boatman of the two was the actual Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
The new Governor of the Danube Delta, Malin-Matei Musatescu, appointed to replace Baboianu, stood out in December 2016 by making, before the election, a servile interview with Liviu Dragnea about fishing.
The interview has been published on the Fishing&Hunting TV website. Among the fishing stories, Dragnea also campaigned and bragged in front of Musatescu for the fact that the 102 taxes that PSD eliminated by law include the fishing fee. In the meantime, the interview has been deleted from the website.
Hallucinating motivation of decision
The amendments have been justified as follows: „in the event of non-adoption of the proposed measures, it is not possible to ensure the implementation of the government program accepted by the Parliament and the execution of the Government’s main role to implement the internal and foreign policy of the country with direct repercussions on citizens… „.
According to art. IV of the ordinance already published in the Official Gazette, „the management of the Reservation is ensured by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority, a public institution with legal personality, financed from the state budget, subordinated to the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG)„.
Within 15 days of the publication of the ordinance in the Official Gazette, the Ministry of Environment and SGG must conclude a delivery and receiving protocol, which will also include the 2017 budget credits relating to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority.
According to the document, ” changes in the execution of the 2017 state budget are made based on the instructions issued by the Ministry of Finance at the request of the GSC”.
What government program mentions about Danube Delta
Every time the former government adopted a controversial measure, Liviu Dragnea plainly stated that everything was in the government program.
To avoid repeating the mistake, let us see what is written in the new government program about the Danube Delta:
In the chapter about the European funds: Major investments for 38 Territorial Administrative Units (UAT) from the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Tulcea and Constanta counties.
In the chapter about tourism development:
- Carrying out the cadastre of the Danube Delta and updating the Danube Delta URBAN PLANNING REGULATIONS to harmonize the height limits, the exterior appearance of the buildings, the use of traditional building materials with the coverage and use of land according to the protection requirements for one of the largest wetlands in the world.
- To protect the ecosystems, it is planned to increase the use of environmentally friendly means of transport with lower levels of pollution, promote and develop the non-motorized tourist routes and coherently regulate the circulation channels with the running speed.
- Environmentally friendly passenger transportation by replacing the existing fleet of vessels that provide maritime transportation in the Danube Delta with low fuel consumption and low pollution ships that also use alternative renewable energy systems (bicycles, rowing boats and electric motors).
- Improve the tourist information network, create GPS support applications with maps and tourist routes, the tourist accommodation structure of Danube Delta and other useful information.
Regarding the flood prevention and management: The Danube Delta is a special area, particularly affected by floods.
Regarding the Transportation: Another problem of the port, which is a connecting hub between all the isolated localities in the Delta with the terrestrial, road and railway transport network, is the excessive agglomeration in the coastal area at the mooring. A solution is to improve all these services of passenger transportation by ship between those isolated areas of the Danube Delta by developing the mooring facilities and port services.
