PLUS's Ciolos will give up Renew group's presidency if he wins elections for USR PLUS chairmanship

USR PLUS (Save Romania Union, Freedom, Unity, Solidarity Party) co-chair Dacian Ciolos said on Friday that he will step down as leader of the Renew Europe Group if he is elected president of the USR PLUS.

The clarifications were made during a debate, organized in Cluj, between the three candidates for the USR PLUS leadership: Dan Barna, Dacian Ciolos and Irineu Darau.

"At the moment, in the European Parliament, I spend a lot of time to do my job as the leader of a political group, the third political group. I am perfectly aware that if I am to be elected president of this party, I must invest my time in this work and I will clearly give up the presidency of the European Parliament group, because I will not be able to do both. This activity as party president is a full time executive responsibility," he said.

Ciolos also mentioned that his mandate as leader of the Renew group is valid until the end of this year, given that elections are held every two and a half years in each European parliamentary group.

"The fact that I would no longer be a group leader will not influence in any way the quality of the political actions of the other colleagues from the USR PLUS delegation who already have consolidated positions there. (...) Each of them has consolidated a position there, and not because I was the group leader, but because they are competent and because they have proven political qualities that will help them to continue to represent well our delegation. So I guarantee you that we will not lose anything," Ciolos said.