Romania should take the example of other EU member states on a consensus during the presidency of the EU Council, Romanian prime minister Viorica Dăncilă said. She argued that political disputes need to take second place.

Romania will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union from January to June of next year.

“This truce was requested by the EC president Jean-Claude Juncker. We need to take as an example the other member states that showed that, when one holds the presidency of the EU Council, there is a need for consensus, for calm; political disputes need to go second because this very important objective of ours need to come first; this is an exam Romania needs to take and when I say Romania I don’t necessarily say [the Social Democrat Party] PSD, [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats], ALDE. We need to refer to the entire political class and we need to show more wisdom and more interest in what Romania’s objectives are concerned, and not the personal interest,” Dăncilă said, quoted by Agerpres.

The Senate president and ALDE leader Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu previously said Romania was not ready to take over the EU Council presidency “because of a full political war in the past months.”

Asked by the PSD president and coalition partner Liviu Dragnea to explain his statement, Tăriceanu said he was referring to the fact that “politically we are constantly in a scandal and the subject is exported at a European level. I wish there was a sort of a truce on the means to carry the political fight,” Tăriceanu said, quoted by Mediafax.

Earlier, Tăriceanu also said he would not refuse a pact on justice among all the political parties in the country. The statement came as president Klaus Iohannis talked to representatives of the parliamentary parties aiming to get their consensus for a new process for adopting the justice laws.

Meanwhile, Angela Cristea, the head of the European Commission office in Romania, invited the political leaders in Romania to agree on a pro-European pact.

“My hope is that […] you will find time to agree on a pro-European pact, a pact that answers the expectations of the Romanian citizens that Romania is a strong state in the EU, it is perceived as such, and can generate the solutions that Europe needs,” Cristea said, quoted by Agerpres.

She called “surprising” the fact that all parties declare themselves pro-European but very different positions can be seen in public debates in Romania.

The EC representative spoke of the “very divided political arena which is a reflection of what happens in the public space in Romania.”

“There are topics that divide Romania in two but it is my belief that there are bridges to unite these two Romanias. We know that there are more than two Romanias – anyone travelling in the country discovers this – and I think it is important to be able to focus […] to be able to build these bridges on the common values we all share,” she said.

She also referenced a recent Eurobarometer that showed that the share of the Romanians who believe the country has to gain from being a part of the EU dropped for the first time below 50%. “We will see if this is temporary or a lasting trend,” she said.

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editor@romania-insider.com