The Week in Review: June 19-23

Click here for a review of the past week's highlights

Daniela Budu, 24.06.2017, 14:42

The Romanian government was toppled following a no-confidence motion

This week brought a premiere for the Romanian Parliament. It is for the first time since 1989 that a government was toppled by a no-confidence motion tabled by parties which backed its swearing in, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of liberals and Democrats in Romania (ALDE). 241 MPs voted for the motion, thus exceeding the minimum number of required votes, 233. The National Liberal Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party refrained from voting, saying the issue was an internal problem of the ruling coalition. The no-confidence motion was tabled following the Prime Minister’s refusal to resign after the ruling parties withdrew their political support. He dismissed as ungrounded the conclusions of a report assessing the activity of the government six months after taking office, a report drafted by PSD which pointed to delays in implementing the governing program.

After the vote in Parliament, the outgoing Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu explained why it was important for PSD to stay united: “I hope the vote in Parliament doesn’t turn out to be a big error, and that PSD will nominate the future prime minister. It is important to get out of this deadlock and to send a message to investors and chancelleries the world over that Romania continues to be a stable and predictable country. PSD does not equal Liviu Dragnea, PSD does not equal Sorin Grindeanu, either.”

In turn, PSD leader, Liviu Dragnea, said the party is stronger following this political action, and he added that future prime minister will be a man of vision, capable of implementing the governing program. Liviu Dragnea: “Romania has returned to normalcy and constitutional regulations. This was a political action initiated by PSD and ALDE, which assumed responsibility and took a political risk, as they didn’t want to run the risk of seeing an ambitious governing program placed under a question mark. We have attached, attach and will attach utmost importance to the governing program which changes Romania for the better.”

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday will hold consultations with the political parties on the formation of a new government.

Romania and Germany foster privileged relations

Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, has paid a visit to Germany earlier this week, for talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on the privileged bilateral relations, the state of the European Union and trans-Atlantic relations. The German chancellor underlined that Bucharest and Berlin share the same stance on Brexit, border protection, terrorism and migration. Angela Merkel also said Romania made significant progress regarding the rule of law and the fight against corruption but she drew attention that slowing the pace of this progress would not be a good thing. Romania’s relation with Germany is not only of strategic importance, but also a privileged one, and actually one of the best relations we have, said the Romanian President.

Klaus Iohannis also attended an event devoted to the anniversary of bilateral relations. He also mentioned the economic component of the relations, which is on the rise, as well as the German ethnic minority in Romania, which, in his opinion, is the real catalyst of dialogue between the two states. Klaus Iohannis: “To Romania, the partnership of strategic importance with Germany is a fundamental element of the country’s policy. The 10 years of EU membership and Romania’s whole European and Euro-Atlantic path was marked by a period of spectacular changes in our history. Against this backdrop, Germany, which held the EU presidency when we joined the union, has always been our trustworthy partner.”

The Romanian President has also delivered a speech at the German History museum in Berlin, during a ceremony commemorating the victims of refuge and expulsion, and he said that the scourge of migration is currently raising problems to the entire international community.

President Klaus Iohannis at the Summer Summit in Brussels

Also this week, the Romanian President met with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on the sidelines of the European Council in Brussels. The two leaders tackled such issues as bilateral relations, European affairs and international files. The EU Summer Summit was devoted this time to the future of the European construction. The main issue on the first day of the summit was the fight against terrorism, and the European Council decided to boost cooperation with the online industry. The European leaders agreed to put in place a permanent European cooperation mechanism in the field of defence, which entails, among others, deeper integration of the member states, in this area. Romania pays special heed to everything relating to European defence.

President Klaus Iohannis explained in Brussels that Bucharest is very interested in the so-called structured security and foreign defence. The Romanian president underlined that it is too early to say to what fighting groups Romania will be a member of, or what military capabilities it will develop. Klaus Iohannis: “Romania takes a high interest in the issue, because we want to see all EU member states cooperating closely, and we want to contribute to reaching this goal, but obviously with a special mention that we have earlier made on other occasions: we do not want to develop something in parallel with NATO, and we want to develop structures to meet the Union’s needs, on the one hand, to complement and not compete with NATO structures.”

The European leaders have set the goal of completing by the end of the year the new system of border information exchange.