MEPs ALAIN LAMASSOURE and ELMAR BROKssoure and Elmar Brok, European Parliament Budget and Finance and Foreign Affairs Commissions, urge the European Commission to watch the political developments in Bucharest and issue a report that might lead to Romania having the European Council suspended.“The decisions taken by Romania’s Government over the past couple of days are a reason for concern. The European Commission must act immediately and monitor Romania,” Alain Lamassoure and Elmar Brok said.Also, after the head of state delivered his impeachment-related speech before the joint plenum of Parliament, several voices commented that he didn’t say “anything new” and “didn’t tell the Romanians the truth”. France Foreign Ministry’s spokesman BERNARD VALERO in a communiqué urged Romania’s Government “to observe democratic values and the rule of law “. In its turn, the European People’s Party (EEP), calls on the European Commission to “immediately” act in Romania’s case and to check on the “worrying” decisions taken by government during the past couple of days. Later in the day the Romanian foreign ministry said it had contacted the French ministry and the French party detailed that in communiqué is not intended to have critical observation for the government in Bucharest.PAUL KRUGMAN, a Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, wrote on his blog that “it is time for those of us who care about constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law to be concerned about Romania”.Mediafax quoted MARTIN HARRIS, the UK Ambassador to Romania, as saying that it is important for Romania that politicians maintain the credibility of the Romanian state on financial markets, observe institutions, court decisions, including those by the Constitutional Court. Germany’s Embassy in Bucharest, represented by Ambassador ANDREAS VON METTENHEIM (photo), took a similar position, telling gandul.info, that political parties and institutions must act democratically irrespective of the tumultuous political context. “This fact also has in view, mostly, the observance of the independence of the Constitutional Court of Romania,” Germany’s Embassy to Romania also stated.The PRO DEMOCRATIA Association called on Government, President and MPs to show responsibility and put the national interest and democracy first, drawing attention to the political fight and the economic crisis risking compromising the basic democratic institutions.Sibiu mayor KLAUS JOHANNIS, too, on Thursday described USL’s attempt at impeaching president Traian Basescu as an “expected action” which surprises nobody really.The opening of impeachment proceedings by USL against President Traian Basescu was extensively covered by the foreign press as well. EUROPEANVOICE.COM writes that “Romania is in turmoil”, commenting on the episode of PM Victor Ponta attending the European Council meeting in Brussels. “This could be his last summit, given his efforts to get rid of the plagiarism accusations,” the site reads, adding that the latest developments appear to bring some “additional complications to EC officials who are working on the Romania annual progress assessment report to be published soon”. The VOICE OF RUSSIA radio station online, quoting the newspaper Moscow Time, writes that Romanians opposed their president’s impeachment at the referendum in 2007, adding that now, the Democratic Liberal Party, which is supporting the president, fell to 12 pc in opinion polls, following austerity measures recommended by the IMF and the EC.“The most significant excerpt from the president’s speech is that wherein he claimed to have told Romanians the truth. My belief is he has never told the Romanian the truth and those stands would be developed and substantiated in Friday’s <today> debate,” Mediafax quoted National Liberal Party (PNL) leader CRIN ANTONESCU as saying. Referring to Traian Basescu’s proposal of a referendum on both constitutional amendments and the president’s impeachment, Antonescu said it was “obvious” it represents an attempt at diversion from the maision: “It is the president’s yet other bid to tie, to bring together, to condition two topics that are totally different,” the Senate Speaker said.
