The authorities are giving up on the concert planned for Romanian Language Day, on August 31, in order to reduce the expenses related to the events dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Moldova’s independence. The decision to modify the national program “The Independence that Unites Us. Moldova-35” was approved on Wednesday by the Government, reports IPN.

Prime Minister Vasile Tofan stated that he has asked the Minister of Culture to reduce the expenses for the events organized during this period. “I believe we can do it with a lot of heart and soul, but not necessarily with a lot of money. We will have a concert on August 27, which we will make more modest, and not necessarily have a concert on the 31st as well”, said the Prime Minister.

The Minister of Culture, Dan Suruceanu, specified that, for the optimization of expenses, it was proposed to exclude the Romanian Language Day concert from the initial program. He mentioned that, on this day, the Ministry of Education and Research traditionally organizes the Great National Dictation.

The decision was made after discussions on the sources of financing for the events. Previously, the Ministry of Culture had requested the redistribution of 10 million lei from subsidies intended for theater and concert institutions to cover expenses related to cultural events that were not initially planned.

The Ministry of Finance did not support this solution and recommended identifying other sources of funding, so that the activity of cultural institutions would not be affected.

The total cost of the “Independence that Unites Us. Moldova-35” Program is not indicated in the Government’s decision. The document stipulates that the responsible authorities will finance the actions from the already approved budgets. For the Ministry of Culture, the expenses can be covered by redistributing identified savings in the sector, without additional allocations from the state budget.