President Traian Basescu accused PM Victor Ponta of illegitimate participation at European Council, noting it was the first time that he had been hindered from fulfilling his duties.
Parliament to impeach Basescu on July 3 or 4?
The leaders of USL established the calendar of impeaching President Traian Basescu, according to dc.news, quoted by antena3. Monday, July 2, the two judges of the Constitutional Court (Zegrean and Motoc) accused of being in position of incompatibility will be suspended by the Parliament, and Tuesday, July 3, or Wednesday, July 4, the Parliament majority will start the procedures of impeaching the president. The move will be justified through the repeated infringements of the Constitution by the president during the last two years, and not through the ongoing political crisis, the agency quotes USL sources as saying. The political move decided by the USL was due to be announced by two of the Union’s co-presidents, Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu, in a press conference last evening, after the closing of our edition.
‘Romania is legitimately present at the European Council, but is illegitimately represented there,’ President Traian Basescu said at Cotroceni on Thursday. He also said it was the first time after the revolution that a prime minister appropriated the powers of the president without a mandate.‘It is the first time in 22 years that a prime minister appropriates the powers of the president without having a mandate,’ Basescu continued. Asked if he would file a criminal complaint against the premier, the president said ‘Never! It is not my business and please do not attribute any such intention to me.’ Further on, Traian Basescu attacked PM Victor Ponta, saying that, for the first time in his eight years as president he had been ‘hindered’ from exercising his constitutional powers. The head of state started his statement by saying that it was not one of the happiest days for him. ‘It is the first time in eight years of term that I am prevented from exercising my constitutional powers,’ Traian Basescu added. He said he had made the decision not to go to Brussels because that would have been ‘an embarrassing situation’. ‘I made the decision not to go to Brussels because it would have been an embarrassing situation also for our European partners, who would have had to umpire in a national dispute,’ said the president. President Traian Basescu also said that PM Ponta had phoned him at 12 o’clock asking for a mandate for the European Council. ‘The mandate for the Council today (Thursday – our note) is extremely complicated and, looking at the delegation with which the prime minister went and also knowing the subtleties of the European Council, I can guarantee to you that they have not understood the mandate for the EC today. It’s a good thing that the talks will only be incipient today,’ the head of state also said.According to the president, Foreign Affairs Minister Andrei Marga informed him in writing that, ‘by order of the prime minister’, he had not forwarded to Brussels the list with the members of the delegation communicated by Cotroceni, the head of state noting that, after the decision of the Constitutional Court (CCR), he had sent the list to both the PM’s office and the Foreign Ministry twice, Wednesday night.‘When I say I was prevented from exercising my mandate, I have in mind two institutions. On the 28th, I sent through the list of delegates and I received the answer signed by the foreign minister informing me that, by order of the prime minister, the delegation established by the president would not be forwarded. Yesterday, after the CCR ruling, I sent the list again to MAE and a copy to the prime minister. At about 23 o’clock I sent the list again to MAE and the PM’s office. The delegation that I had established, that I would have led, had not been sent to Brussels, to the European Council, before this morning. Therefore, by decision of the premier and foreign minister, the president was practically prevented from exercising his mandate, because he was not on the list with the official Romanian delegation,’ Basescu said.The FM said at MAE, on Wednesday, that he had fulfilled his institutional obligations by sending to Brussels, last week, the list with the Romanian delegates headed by Victor Ponta. On the other hand, Victor Ponta said in Brussels, on Thursday, before the European Council began, that ‘if the president is not coming today, I will represent Romania at the European Council based on the mandate given by the Parliament.’ Ponta said he had discussed with Basescu ‘both last night and today’ and ‘agreed to meet here, in Brussels’, adding that he would try to resolve the conflict by institutional ways. Half an hour before the president’s statement, PDL MEP Traian Ungureanu had thrown a series of attacks at USL. He accused PM Ponta of betraying national interests, saying that ‘the country’s first plagiariser has become the first enemy of the country.’ Ungureanu said Ponta was guilty of betrayal of national interests. Ungureanu said Prime Minister Victor Ponta ‘is moving institutions as it best suits him’, noting that not even the communists had dared taken the Official Journal away from the Parliament.PM Victor Ponta departed fro Brussels Thursday morning, accompanied by the Foreign Minister and the European Affairs Minister.
