PNL First Vice President Klaus Johannis stated yesterday at the end of the meeting of the commission on regionalization that the Liberals support a regionalization implemented in two stages, with the process of decentralization implemented after January 1, 2014, and a leadership “by turns” until the elections. “We propose two stages, the first stage until January 1, 2014, in which the notion of region should be introduced in the Constitution, the regions should be established and they should start working in order to absorb European funds.
The second stage will consist of establishing a leadership within the regions through elections, and until then obviously there is the need for a specific legislation that cannot be drafted in a month or two between the adoption of the new Constitution and January 1, 2014, so there is the need for a period of transition,” the PNL leader stated, being quoted by Mediafax. He pointed out that the Liberals’ proposal is for the leadership of the regions to be done by turns, the leaders set to come from among the representatives of counties, county council presidents or the mayors of county seats. “The important thing is that we do not believe it’s a good thing to fill in these leadership positions with persons appointed or elected from a closed circle, we would prefer a system by turns until the elections,” Johannis pointed out. Asked who he would like to see as leader of the region Sibiu will be part of, he stated that he personally opts for the county council president. The PNL leader pointed out that for the time being the fundamental goal for which regions are necessary is the absorption of European funds. “In reality we have an urgency to tend to, the absorption of European funds, there has to be an entity that signs the partnerships for European funds, this entity has to be the region. Just like the ADRs worked so far in a system also almost by turns we believe the region can work during a period of transition and then nobody will impose his point of view and the work will be done as it was done so far in development regions,” Johannis added.
