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Romania Military Budget
After five years of sustained military budget increases
in the
early 1980s, the Ceausescu regime reduced military
expenditures by
4.8 percent in the 1986 state budget. At his instruction,
the GNA
passed an additional 5 percent cut in military spending
and the
size of the armed forces. It also adopted a change in the
1965
Constitution to hold a national referendum to confirm or
to reject
this reduction. Young Romanians aged fourteen to eighteen,
who were
likely to favor any cut that might decrease their chances
of
induction into military service, were allowed to vote on
the
referendum. On November 23, 1986, in balloting typical of
that
during Ceausescu's rule, a reported 99.9 percent of all
eligible
citizens turned out and voted unanimously in favor of the
5 percent
reduction. This electoral ploy may have enabled Ceausescu
to
overcome more easily the apparent opposition to the plan
among the
professional military.
Implementing the decision made in the November
referendum,
Romania cut its 1987 military expenditures by US$156
million to
US$1.171 billion, an actual reduction of more than 11
percent.
Active units discharged 10,000 soldiers and mothballed 250
tanks
and armored vehicles, 150 artillery pieces, and 25
aircraft.
Deteriorating economic conditions and a chronic labor
shortage in
the mid-1980s probably necessitated the cut in military
spending
and the force reductions that accompanied it.
Nevertheless, a
genuine commitment to disarmament--and its attendant
potential for
enhancing Romania's security--and desire to demonstrate
this
commitment cannot be entirely discounted as a factor
behind the
unilateral reductions.
Data as of July 1989
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