President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday decided that Romanian MEP Adina Valean would take over the transport portfolio in the future EU executive, after the same day Romania submitted two proposals for candidates for the position of European Commissioner.
According to spokespersons for der Leyen, Romania submitted on November 6 two proposals for European commissioners. Both had interviews with the president-elect and they did well. The president-elect decided that Adina Valean will take over the transport portfolio. Mrs Valean is an experienced MEP who was already the chairman of the ENVI Committee and she is currently the chair of the ITRE Committee. In her career so far she has won expertise in topics related to the transport, energy and digital services portfolio. She was a rapporteur on the mechanism for Europe interconnection, having worked on systems for connecting vehicles and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced on Wednesday that MEPs Siegfried Muresan and Adina Valean are the picks of the Orban Government for Romania’s European commissioner. “After consulting with President Klaus Iohannis, we made the decision together to send to the President of the European Commission two candidates for the position of European Commissioner – they are MEPs Siegfried Muresan and Adina Valean. I can inform you that, according to the legal provisions, I will send to the chairs of both chambers of Parliament a request to approve hearings in the specialist committees of the Romanian Parliament, either of the two candidates or of the candidate to be picked by the president of the European Commission, to be heard at the earliest convenience of the two chambers,” Orban said at the end of a government meeting.
PSD’s Dancila on European Commissioner: A response was expected until a new Gov’t came; an incorrect approach
Chairperson of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Viorica Dancila criticised on Wednesday the fact that a response from Brussels was awaited too long in regard to the European Commissioner proposal made by her Government, pointing out that the Social Democrats would not have the same approach as the Liberals in the case of the new proposal.
“We came up with the proposals, we haven’t even received the rejection for Dan Nica. The second proposal was Dan Nica, there was no rejection. We proposed Victor Negrescu, a very involved person and appreciated in Brussels, a person who knows how the European institutions work. (…) Why the response has been expected that long? Why did we have to wait for a new Government? It’s clear that it was an incorrect approach. I am a committed pro-European, but I believe that all the countries should be equally treated and not exist an approach dividing the EU in first rank and second rank countries. I believe that this is the goal that we must have and which is up to Romania’s President. Because this thing showed that it was a political approach, to endorse the EPP [the European People’s Party] and, by no means, a correct one, in which when you make a proposal you should come up with an agreement on that proposal or with a motivated rejection. I don’t accuse anybody, but this thing created a dissatisfaction among the population, very many have told me this thing,” Viorica Dancila mentioned at the PSD headquarters.
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