Romanian PM announces new cabinet

BUCHAREST - Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced the ministers named in his new cabinet on Monday, a week after the split of the former ruling Social Liberal Union (USL).

Ponta is to seek a vote of confidence for the ministers at the Parliament's plenary sitting on Tuesday.

The prime minister, also leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), signed an agreement earlier Monday with head of the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor on the latter's joining the government.

Ponta expressed his hope that the governmental agreement with UDMR will last "until the 2016 elections", adding that he has appreciated the competence and seriousness of the UDMR representatives, both while in power and in the opposition.

According to the document, UDMR is part of the governing formula and commits to the government's 2013-2016 program passed by the Romanian Parliament on December 21, 2012.

UDMR will have members appointed to the government as ministers and secretaries of state, proportionally to its share of the parliamentary majority.

In the new cabinet consisted of 25 ministers, four of them will be also deputy prime ministers, UDMR will have two ministers in culture and enviroment, respectively, and the culture minister is to serve also deputy prime minister.

Other positions will be occupied by the Social Democratic Union (USD), an alliance forged by Ponta's Social Democrats, Conservatives and the National Union for the Progress of Romania.

Romania's ruling National Liberal Party (PNL) last Tuesday decided to withdraw its ministers from the government, announcing the split of the ruling union.

The Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party formed the Social Liberal Union in early 2011 to counter the then ruling coalition led by Democrat Liberal.

The first USL cabinet was sworn into office in May 2012, after a no-confidence motion toppled the ruling, and in December the same year, the USL won a sweeping victory in Romania's quadrennial parliamentary elections.