Romania’s President Basescu met Jaap de Hoop Scheffer -- NATO General Secretary (Oct 30, 2007)

Oct 30, 2007 (Romania Report)

Bucharest -- Romania’s President Basescu met Jaap de Hoop Scheffer – the NATO General Secretary to discuss topics related to the Alliance’s member states security, the operations in Afghanistan and in Western Balkan region.

During the press conference following the talks, Mr. Basescu said that the topics to be tackled during the future NATO Summit in Bucharest (April 2008) represented the main discussion subject.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer praised Romania’s hospitality, and said that he is looking forward to attain the NATO Summit in Bucharest – which is expected to have a significant agenda. “I have agreed together with President Basescu that the NATO’s public perception is very much linked to the way the Alliance is successful in its operations and missions.”

As about the future NATO enlargement, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that yet no invitations have been issued for future new NATO member states – as candidate countries should display a certain readiness and meet certain standards before invitations be launched.

Nowadays, NATO is not meant to become a global police – even if the Alliance has important global partners this doesn’t automatically mean it acts like a global police, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated. Beside these global partners NATO has (within what we call the North Atlantic Partnership) partners in the Caucasus and Central Asia regions, which are labeled as equally important. “I am sure that they deserve as well our support during the Bucharest Summit,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer added.

The NATO General Secretary also said that, during the NATO Summit, he looks forward that the head of states to discuss some challenges of the 21st century such as the energy security, the IT crimes as well.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he and President Basescu agreed upon the governing principle of the anti-missile shield – that is the “indivisible security” with capital letters.

As being asked about the Ukraine’s prospects to join NATO in the future, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he agreed with president Yushchenko’s point of view – i.e. that the country’s citizens must decide themselves on the issue of the future Ukraine’s NATO and EU membership. “It depends on their decision. We have an Intensified Dialogue with Ukraine, no more no less, but I cannot state any definitive conclusions on this issue,” he added. As about Georgia, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he endorses the same approach.

When being asked about Romania’s near future role regarding the anti-missile shield in Europe, the NATO General Secretary admitted that the “Third Site” system in Europe does not cover all the continent. However, as he was referring the security indivisibility concept it results that Romania will eventually share the same protection the other Alliance member states will enjoy. “The Alliance’s foundation is solidarity,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer concluded.



Romania Report

The EPP Group takes good profit from Euro-Parliamentary elections in Romania

Nov 26, 2007 (Romania Report)

Following the elections for the European Parliament on Sunday, European People’s Party group gained 10 new seats, as Romania’s Democrat Party (PD) won 13 seats and the newly-born Liberal Democrat Party (PLD) earned 3 seats.

As the country’s Social-Democrats (PSD) made 10 seats only, the European Socialist group lost 2 seats. The same, as the National Liberal Party (PNL) went down from 8 to 6 the ALDE grouping also lost 2 Euro-Parliamentary seats.

The good news is that the ultra-nationalist “Greater Romania” Party (PRM) did not make the required 5 percent, thus loosing its 5 representatives that helped Le Pen to form the “far-right international” earlier this year.

As over 99 percent of the votes were counted so far, the polls show that the political groups supporting Romania’s President Traian Basescu won the elections with 36.56% (the Democrat Party made 28.78 points and the Liberal Democrat Party 7.78 points, respectively).

Only 29.4 percent of the Romanians voted in the country’s Euro-Parliamentary elections – mainly in rural areas – so the Social Democrats managed to make an unexpected 23.14 percent (up 3 points against the latest opinion polls, but the lowest score the party ever made since its beginnings).

Also on Sunday, President Traian Basescu called for a referendum on the general elections’ reform inviting the Romanian citizens to decide upon a “winner-takes-all” majority vote system in two legs. Even if the National Liberals, some Social Democrats, and the top representatives of smaller parties publicly asked for the boycotting this popular consultation, 26.4% went to the polls with 81.4 percent backing the system proposed by Mr. Basescu. Following the referendum’s outcome, President Basescu yesterday asked the political parties for talks in order to assess possible solutions to change the parliamentary polls system.



Romania Report