The HPR Asks for an Integration Referendum

The Political Bureau of the Humanist Party of Romania (HPR), which met at the end of the last week in Busteni, proposed to the Permanent Bureau to consider the opportunity of request the organization of a national referendum concerning the postponing of the Romanian integration in the EU.

HPR is going to request the President Ion Iliescu to organize a technical referendum in order to question the people concerning their opinion about the Romanian integration in the EU. The humanist vice president, Codrut Seres, announced yesterday that this request is based on the article nr. 80 of the Romanian Constitution, which allows the President to ask for the people’s opinion about the issues having a national interest. According to Seres, the idea of the referendum appeared in the moment in which the people said they agree with the Romanian integration "as long that is a good thing". So, the humanist want that using this referendum the people will answer only one question: "Do you agree or not with the Romanian integration in the EU?".

MOTIVATION. According to the humanists, a rushed and unprepared integration would make Romanian the consumers market for the European producers, as long as the exports are by far inferior to the imports, as long as the agriculture is made without any grants and on small and very small lots, as long as the Small and Medium Enterprises are suffocated by the increased taxes, and the great corruption remains untouched, as long as the professional education appears only in order to survive, not to rise the professional level of the employees. In the same time the vice president of the HPR asked the local bureaus for the European integration to continue on informing the people about the costs of the Romanian integration in the EU, its advantages and disadvantages.

REACTION

"For the time being, almost 80% of the Romanian population supports the integration in the EU in 2007. So, we consider that any attempt of postponing this is not made on the people’s request, but by some different interest groups", says a statement of the Ministry for the European Integration (MEI). According to the MEI officials, "the costs of the EU adherence are the same or might even increase if this won’t happen in 2007 as set, and adhering at a later date wouldn’t do more than postponing its advantages".