By
N. Peter Kramer
In an interview in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expressed blunt and unprecedented negative comments on the next EU Presidency, Romania.
He ventilated doubts over whether Romania will be able to properly lead the Council of the EU during the next six months. ‘I believe that the government in Bucharest has not yet fully understood what it means to preside over EU countries. Thoughtful acting also requires a willingness to listen to others and the firm will to put one’s own concerns at the end of the queue’.
But see, European Council President Donald Tusk has faith in Romania. ‘Happy New Year. I wish Romania all the best with your first EU Presidency. I am confident you will deliver and look forward to working with you’. Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila reacted that “Romania will demonstrate it is a reliable partner in consolidating the European project and ensuring its cohesion’.
The origin of Juncker’s doubts is that Romania’s government has been rocked of fights within one of the ruling parties, the Social Democratic Party, the resignation of the country’s EU minister, and of backsliding in the fight against corruption.
Romania’s two governing parties are to PES (EP Socialists) and ALDE (EP Liberals) what Hungary’s Fidesz is to the EPP: members of their respective political families, but also a source of constant trouble regarding the rule of law and therefore a weak point to be exploited by political opponents. Especially now the Socialists are campaigning for the ‘rule of law’ as ALDE is doing.
May be Juncker’s anxiety is more than pain in his back. In the Welt am Sonntag interview, he asked (again) his party, the EPP, to exclude Fidesz!
