Save Romania Union (USR ) have said that that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has negotiated „a failure” for Romania in the European Commission, stating that Roxana Minzatu has been entrusted with a portfolio „without weight, without influence.”

„Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu promised a lot, but delivered a failure to Romania in the new European Commission von der Leyen II. Despite the pompous declarations about the negotiations and the influence of our country at the European level, Romania receives a portfolio without real power: Education, Jobs and Social Rights, areas in which the European Union has no concrete levers of action. Marcel Ciolacu told us for a few months about important portfolios, about the economy and the domestic market, but the result is the one we all see today: a portfolio at the bottom of the ranking in terms of importance, with no real impact. The portfolio received by Romania is a consolation prize offered rather on geographical and population criteria, and not for diplomatic merits,” USR said in a press statement released on Tuesday.

Dan Barna, MEP and ALDE vice-president, says that Romania has come to manage „a portfolio without weight, without influence”.

„Marcel Ciolacu has failed. We have come to manage a portfolio without weight, without influence. It’s a consolation prize. No matter how much Marcel Ciolacu tries to dress the defeat from a negotiation into victory, Mrs von der Leyen’s announcement today shows how much power the Social Democratic Party – National Liberal Party (PSD-PNL) government has in European politics and how much appreciation it enjoys (or rather does not enjoy),” he says.

USR MEP Vlad Voiculescu says that „Roxana Minzatu was not entrusted with a large economic portfolio, as Mr Ciolacu and PSD boasted”.

„She was entrusted with the portfolio that comprises areas in which Romania is doing the worst. Basically, if she does a good job, which I sincerely wish she does, Mrs Minzatu will manage exactly what Mr Ciolacu and PSD have failed to do – and in fact have not even strived – in the last 30 years in Romania,” says Voiculescu.

Iulian Bulai, deputy and leader of the ALDE group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, says that he will ask questions to understand how these negotiations were carried out and why Romania was marginalised.

„Marcel Ciolacu has shown once again that he is not respected in Europe. He brought Romania a weak portfolio, without clear attributions. I will ask questions in the Committee on European Affairs to understand how these negotiations were conducted and why Romania was marginalised. Ciolacu must answer for this failure,” Bulai says.

Roxana Minzatu, Romania’s candidate for European commissioner, has been appointed executive vice-president for people, skills and preparedness, as announced in Brussels by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

AGERPRES