Fmr PM Ciolos: Mr. Tariceanu says not mandatory to take light from Brussels

The founder chairman of the 'Romania Together Movement' / 'Miscarea Romania Impreuna', former European Commissioner for Agriculture and former Prime minister Dacian Ciolos believes that Romania should choose the European values, the rule of law, democracy and not 'authoritarianism, propaganda and the little green people' and demands the Senate President, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, to propose 'where we should take the light from' if it is not mandatory to take it from Brussels. 

'Irritated by the proposal forwarded by the European Commission which wants to condition the granting of the European funds by the observance of the rule of law, Mr. Tariceanu, second person in the state says it is not mandatory to take the light from Brussels. In 1945, freshly returned from Moscow in an impetus of political opportunism, [writer, ed. n.] Mihail Sadoveanu was organizing at Bucharest downtown Dalles Hall a conference titled 'Light is coming from the East'. And you, Mr. Tariceanu, where do you propose that we take the light from? Are you bothered by the preoccupation for the observance of the rule of law?' Dacian Ciolos wrote on Wednesday night on his Facebook page. 

Moreover, Ciolos asked Tariceanu about his opinion on the 'clear-cut stance' of Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ed.n.) EU parliamentary group. 

'What is your opinion on the clear-cut stance of Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE EU parliamentary group, the political family you are part of, at European level? He said a few days ago that 'Should a government of a member state does not want our European values, then it does not need our European money either. The EU must stop financing illiberalism.' Obviously, you are in a flagrant short-circuit with the leadership of your European political group,' Ciolos asserts. 

According to him, in 2018 'it is important to understand what is happening around Romania, to look into history.' 

'Nothing bright has ever come from the East on political and social level for more than a century. And more importantly, nothing good seems to be coming any time soon. As for the light, perhaps it is high time we enlightened ourselves with our own efforts, and not live with the idea that others are giving us the light,' Ciolos adds. 

Senate President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu says that the European Commission's proposal to 'restrain access to the European funds' for the member states that violate the rule of law is controversial within the Union, because 'there is no connection to be made' between the funds and the rule of law, Romania never having been charged 'officially' by the EU with non-observing the rule of law regulations. 

'At the EU level, this talk is extremely controversial because normally, there is no connection to be made between the allocation of funds and the existence of the rule of law. The paradox is as follows: Romania, which has been monitored in the last 10 years through the well-known Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) in reports, as you know, has achieved constant progress which unfortunately were never considered enough because the landmarks, the milestones that were established from the very beginning of this mechanism, the four conditionalities have been permanently moved. Romania is not officially charged by the EU that it doesn't observe the regulations of the rule of law and probably what is surfacing today is making a lot of European officials ask themselves how well the CVM has worked, if these things have existed and have been tolerated. Obviously the EC could very well say 'we had no idea of these transgression and abuses' which are a reality and can no longer be denied. These are not simple statements made by one politician or another. So, if we are to refer to the formal things, Romania has no problem with the rule of law,' Tariceanu told the Senate on Wednesday.