Romania should assume a more prominent role in the European Union next year as the country will hold for the first time the presidency of the EU Council and host a EU summit in Sibiu. Besides the EU Parliament elections, 2019 is the year when Romanians will elect again their president.

The presidential elections

The next presidential elections will be held towards the end of 2019, in November or December.

The president is elected once every five years and can serve two mandates. Among the president’s roles are the naming of the prime minister, of the cabinet members, based on a confidence vote from the Parliament, and the naming of several heads of state institutions. The president also has a prominent role in the country’s foreign policy.

Current President Klaus Iohannis already announced his decision to run in 2019 and the National Liberal Party (PNL) said it would support his bid.

Among other potential candidates, former technocrat PM Dacian Cioloș said this summer he did not rule out a presidential bid in 2019. This December he just launched a brand new political party, the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS). Another former PM who launched a new party this year is Victor Ponta, who lost the presidential bid to Iohannis in 2014. The Pro Romania party plans to come up with a candidate for the presidential elections in 2019, Ponta said, although he doesn't plan to run himself.

Among the opposition, parliamentary parties, Save Romania Union (USR) has similar plans. Meanwhile, the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) did not announce a candidate and may have difficulties in finding one. Neither did its coalition partner ALDE. ALDE is headed by Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, who came out third in the first round of the 2014 presidential elections. Some PSD members see Tăriceanu as a possible presidential candidate for the PSD-ALDE coalition, but many PSD leaders don't like the idea of supporting a candidate from outside the party.

The European Parliament elections

The elections for the European Parliament will be held in Romania on May 26. The country has 33 seats in the European Parliament, one more compared to the last elections.

After the 2014 elections, the PSD, part of the S&D Alliance, holds the most seats: a total of 16. Several MEPs however withdrew from PSD in the meantime. Another two seats went to the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). Eight MEPs are currently listed as independents.

Several other parties will offer candidates for next year’s EU Parliament elections. USR already selected its candidates, and Pro Romania and Dacian Cioloș’s party are also expected to join the race.

A Eurobarometer released this fall showed that Romanians are among the Europeans most worried about the election campaigns’ transparency. A majority of EU citizens are worried that disinformation campaigns, data breaches and cyber-attacks will interfere with electoral processes.

The EU Parliament elections are also an important barometer that will show if and how the Romanian voters have changed their preferences in the two years since the PSD-ALDE coalition won the parliamentary elections. This period has been marked by many political scandals and controversial reforms.

The EU Council Presidency

Romania will hold the EU Council Presidency from January to June of 2019. The most important event on the EU agenda in this period will be Brexit. The negotiations for the new EU budget are also ongoing. Finland will follow from July to December.

The presidency is “responsible for driving forward the Council's work on EU legislation, ensuring the continuity of the EU agenda, orderly legislative processes and cooperation among member states.”

Romania’s presidency of the Council of the EU will focus on cohesion and its motto will be “Cohesion as a European common value” as announced by prime minister Viorica Dancilă. She explained that the priorities of Romania's presidency rest on four pillars: Europe of convergence, Europe of safety, Europe - global actor and Europe of common values.

The domestic preparations for Romania’s takeover of the presidency saw a tense moment when EU Affairs minister Victor Negrescu resigned at the beginning of November, prompting an exchange between President Iohannis and the Government over the country’s readiness for the task. The new EU Affairs Minister, George Ciamba, was confirmed mid-November and everything got back on the usual track.

The EU Summit in Sibiu

On May 9, the EU leaders are set to hold in Sibiu the first meeting after UK’s departure from the EU and the last one before the EU Parliament election. In mid-September last year, EC president Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a special, post-Brexit EU summit in the central Romania city. The summit is expected to bring 27 heads of state and government from European countries, 36 official delegations, 400 high-level guests and about 800 journalists to the country.

Sibiu, a city with a strong Saxon heritage, was the first in Romania to hold the title of European Capital of Culture, in 2007. At the time, the city’s mayor was Klaus Iohannis. He was a mayor of Sibiu from 2000 until 2014, when he became president. Next year, the area of Sibiu will also hold the title of European Region of Gastronomy.

The tender for 5G licenses 

The granting of 5G licenses is the main objective of telecom regulator ANCOM for next year. The tender is planned for the end of the year. The 5G roll out will require investments of EUR 58 billion from operators in the EU by 2025, according to Sorin Grindeanu, the head of ANCOM. Locally, the new technology is expected to bring investments estimated at EUR 9 billion by 2023-2024. The 5G services will first be available in the most commercially attractive areas, and ANCOM will select at least two cities for 5G installation.

According to a draft government ordinance that also adds new taxes in the banking sector, the future 5G licenses will cost telecom operators 2% of their previous year’s turnover, as it is listed in the national statistic ranking of the economic activities CAEN, multiplied by the number of years the license is valid.

The visit of Pope Francis 

A visit of Pope Francis in Romania was scheduled for 2019. After meeting with him in Vatican this year, PM Dăncila said the visit will take place in 2019. The Pope received official invitations from the Romanian president and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 2017.

The visit was initially scheduled for the beginning of May but was postponed so as not to overlap with the EU Summit in Sibiu, Digi24 reported. Pope Francis would be the second pontiff to visit the country after Pope John Paul II’s visit in May 1999.

Romania - France Season & Europalia

The Romania – France Season, which kicked off this November in Paris, will continue in 2019 with various events in Romania. The Season, a broad project of public, cultural and economic diplomacy, runs in France until April 5, 2019 and in Romania from April 18 to July 14 of next year.

Over 200 projects are included in the program. It takes place under the slogan “Oubliez vos clichés!” (Forget the clichés). The organizers plan remove such stereotypes as Romania being the land of Dracula or France the country of Napoleon.

At the same time, in 2019, Romania will also be a partner country for the Europalia festival. The centerpiece of Europalia Romania will be an exhibition about Constantin Brancusi, set to open in October 2019 at Bozar, in Brussels.

At home, Romania has declared 2019 the Year of the Book, when a national program called Romania Reads will roll out. The program is aimed at promoting reading in schools through weekly meetings with writers, public personalities, journalists and volunteers who would read to children fragments of various literary works.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo: Shutterstock)