Romanians bring internal squabbles to the EU
By Dan Alexe
The European Parliament has became the latest battleground for fighting out internal Romanian political arguments.
In mid-November, the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Calin Popescu Tariceanu, a former prime minister, wrote to the president of the European Commission to complain about the "totalitarian twist" taken by Romanian President Traian Basescu's regime.
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Last week, Romanian MEPs from the governing Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) managed to block a complaint sent by two Romanian trade unions in the Committee on Petitions in the European Parliament.
The unions, the Confederation of the Democratic Trade Unions of Romania (CSDR) and the Romanian Federation of Journalists MediaSind said the government considers the press to be a danger.
They criticised the Romanian government's new National Defence Strategy, which states: "Romania faces a series of threats, among which the press, and especially press campaigns, figure prominently."
Their complaint was at first deemed admissible but on Thursday (2 December) it was blocked after a Romanian committee member, Elena Basescu, daughter of Mr Basescu, successfully lobbied her colleagues to reject it.
This happened after another Romanian MEP, Theodor Stolojan, also from the president's party, brought the committee transcripts of telephone conversations. The conversations bore evidence of an anti-governmental slander campaign directed by media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu.
Members of the Committee on Petitions present on Thursday (2 December) seem to have backed the Romanian government and conclude that the press is a danger to the country. But replacing absent EU deputies with eight Romanian MEPs who are not members of this committee is unusual.
"This is embarrassing," said Ms Norica Nicolai, an opposition Romanian liberal MEP. "By allowing this to happen, the president of the Committee on Petitions, Erminia Mazzoni [PPE, Italy] clearly infringed on the rules."
Journalist trade unions, meanwhile, have sworn to repeatedly reintroduce the petition until they get what they want.