Romanians Will Have 35 Observers In The European Parliament This Fall

Starting this fall, Romania will send its representatives in the European Parliament (EP). They will hold observers’ status.

The 35 Romanians to represent Romania at European level will be elected from the national assembly. The number will be broken down on party lines according to their proportion in the national parliament.

The liberals will hold thus seven seats. Mona Musca sa member of the National Liberal Party and also Minister of Culturet was very eager to be included on their list, in spite of calls from her colleagues to not desert her office, even temoporarily. The EP works a few weeks per year, in both Strasbourg and Brussels.

The other liberals in the EP will be house members Mircea Cosea, Raluca Turcan, Ovidiu Silaghi, Tiberiu Barbuletiu and senators Adrian Cioroianu and Nicolae Vlad Popa.

The Democrat Party sDP, ruling along the NLPt has five seats on its name, but only four candidates applied by yesterday noon. The reasons might be the hurdles put forward by the NLP leadership: the representatives to the EP should be proficient in two foreign languages and will cease to hold any other office nationally, the NLP leaders ruled. The four DP applicants are house members Roberta Anastase, Monica Iacob Ridzi, Marian-Jean Marinescu and senator Radu Tarle. The party will decide Sunday who will be those representing it in the EP.

The Social Democrat Party (SDP) will have 12 representatives in the EP: four senators and eight members of the house. The party National Council, headed by Dan Mircea Popescu, will decide on the 12 people to go to the EP. The applicants so far are senators Alexandru Athanasiu, Corina Cretu, Vasile Dancu, Antonie Iorgovan, Serban Nicolae, Rodica Stanoiu, Razvan Theodorescu, Adriana Ticau and house members Titus Corlatean, Gabriela Cretu, Doina Dretcanu, Cristian Dumitrescu, Bogdan Niculescu-Duvaz, Ioan Mircea Pascu, Radu Podgoreanu, Daciana Sarbu, Adrian Severin, Mihai Tanasescu, Valeriu Ungureanu, Petru Vlase and Valeriu Zgonea.

The Greater Romania Party will be represented in the EP by house members Daniela Buruiana, Petre Popeanga, Vlad Hogea and senators Eugen Mihaescu and Viorel Duca.

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania chose house members Kelemen Atilla and Konya Hamar Sándor and senator Szabo Károly.

While the Conservative Party chose senator Silvia Ciornei and house member Dumitru Becsenescu to represent it in the EP.

The minorities’ group will also be represented in the EP by Ovidiu Victor Gant.

When out of party approval procedures, the 35 parliamentarians will still have to get the vote of the parliament, in a plenary session, to make it to Strasbourg and Brussels.

While attending the sessions of the EP the parliamentarians will be paid by the Romanian parliament, as if they were present in Bucharest, while the expenses for meals, accommodation and transportation abroad will be covered by the EP.

The Romanian parliamentarians with observers’ status will work one week with the political group, one week in the committees and one week in the plenary sessions of the EP.

They will start work on 26 September.