Representation at the European Council, discussed in Parliament

The Prime minister will present Monday, in the plenum of the reunited Parliament chambers, a statement on matters of internal and external policies.

The USL representatives is intent on debating the issue regarding the representation of Romania at the European Council on the 28th of June, although PDL claims that the Parliament doesn’t have any authority to make decisions in this regard.

The USL parlimentaries claim that the prime minister is authorized to attend the meeting that the EU Council will hold at the end of the month, arguing that it concerns the commitment that Romania has made with regard to the projects that depend exclusively on the government.

The PSD senator Dan Şova, member of the judicial committee, stated in a press conference that the Constitution doesn’t stipulate anywhere what the President is responsible to represent Romania.

"I don’t know where this idea came from that the President is the boss of external policies, the Constitution stipulates that the Romanian government insures the application of internal and external policies.

"He claims that he wants to go to Bruxelles to talk about the regional development or internal businesses or the global recession. He has no atribute to do this", Dan Şova declared.

The president of the Senate, Vasile Blaga, confirmed that he received a letter from the prime minister in which he demanded to hold a speech on matters concerning the EU before the assembled plenum but without demanding that a decision should be made regarding the mandate and the representation of Romania at the EU council.

The quaestor Radu Berceanu also claims that it is not within the competence of the Parliament to make this kind of decisions.

"I don’t think that the provisions of the Constitution authorize the Parliament to arbitrate this kind of decisions. I for one can’t see what the Parliament can invoke to justify its doing so", Radu Berceanu said.

On the daily agenda of the common meeting will be the assumation of a statement regarding the national anti-corruption strategy and a debate about the activity of video media and public radio.

Translated by Vlad Nichita
MTTLC, Bucharest University