Voiculescu Wrote to Iliescu

The HPR (the Humanist Party in Romania) leader, Dan Voiculescu, has sent a letter to the President Ion Iliescu. This letter tried to justify the organization of a national referendum concerning the citizens’ consulting about the Romanian adherence in the EU.

The HPR president, Dan Voiculescu, has sent a letter to the President Ion Iliescu. This letter tried to justify the organization of a national referendum concerning the citizens’ consulting about the Romanian adherence in the EU. The idea has been publicly announced at the beginning of the week by the vice-president of HPR, Codrut Seres.

"The HPR said, a while ago and sound, that Romania belongs to the big family of Europe. But we believe that the citizens have the right of knowing everything about the integration, to know what’s going to come, the advantages and the disadvantages, in order to not get surprised by the consequences of the EU integration", says the HPR leader’s letter.

ARGUMENTS. Dan Voiculescu believes that the a priori refusal of the idea of consulting the Romanians using a referendum and entering the EU only on the base of the polls would prove a lack of democracy which the humanists cannot tolerate. He told the President Iliescu that "we don’t have to fear of the EU members’ reaction to the idea of a referendum". "When the euro was supposed to become the unique European currency, some of the EU countries preferred a detailed consulting of the citizens and the fact that England still doesn’t have euro as currency shows that the occidental democracy means mutuality and receptivity towards the free will of the citizen. In the same manner, the Swiss decided following a referendum, not to adhere, for now, to the Shengen area, nor to the European structures, though the majority of the politicians are convinced that Switzerland belongs to the EU", emphasizes the HPR president.

MEDITATION. At the end of the letter, Dan Voiculescu expresses his hope that the HPR measure will generate a "general, mature and responsible reflection of the politicians and of the civilian society in what concerns the EU integration" and that it will have the president’s support, "which has many times described himself as being the adept of the detailed consulting of the citizens of the country".