This year’s European Parliament election is a test with very important stakes to European democracy, President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday, May 9, Europe Day.

He added that „division among states, discourses that promote fault lines within democratic societies are weapons that threaten our peace and prosperity.”

According to him, these are „worrying” phenomena, which include „extensive disinformation campaigns, fake news, increased aggressiveness in the public space. All this tests the health of our democracies and generates a sharp polarisation inside society.”

„Giving the context, this year’s European Parliament election is a test with very important stakes to European democracy,and we are under an obligation to encourage the citizens of our nations to participate in the vote. Europeans want to live in free societies with a functional rule of law, where rights and freedoms are observed, and the outcome of the June vote must reflect this majority choice,” said the President.

Iohannis added that now, almost three-quarters of a century after the Schuman Declaration, Europe Day is celebrated „in a context that has not been so complicated since the end of WWII.”

„The military aggression unleashed by Russia against Ukraine puts us in front of major decisions to reconfirm our full attachment to the defining principles and values for the European Union: solidarity, unity, diversity, respect for the rule of law and fundamental human rights. These are the pillars on which our Union was built and on which five years ago, at the historic Summit in Sibiu, we committed ourselves to defend them, to consolidate and advance the European design.”

Thus, „the current challenges are showing us all the more clearly that we have a responsibility to the people to keep peace on the continent, and the surest solution is to strengthen European construction and strengthen unity between our nations.”

Iohannis told the detractors of the European design that they must answer the question: „What is the alternative you propose to this project that brought peace and broke down the walls of hatred and prejudices that caused fratricidal conflicts between European peoples?”

„The European design has brought us together by offering a model of collaboration for the common interest, of coexistence and multicultural harmony, transforming into a space of unity in diversity. 45 years after the first European election, it is important to remember that our decisions can influence the future of European design for the better. In a challenging global context with multiple challenges, the European Union is increasing its importance as a beacon of solidarity and aspiration for peace and prosperity. „Our country, firmly anchored in the European design, has actively contributed to actions that fuel and support the progress of the Union,” said Iohannis.

He mentioned the „historic decisions” taken at the end of 2023 regarding the opening of accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine, decisions that represent „a significant stage for the entire European Union.”

„The place of Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and the Western Balkan states is in the European Union! Our support follows naturally from the fact that we are ourselves a successful story of the enlargement of the European Union,” added Iohannis.

He went on to say that recently two decades have been celebrated since the largest enlargement of the European Union, with the accession, on May 1, 2004, of ten new member states, completed in 2007 by the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union.

„EU membership has brought considerable benefits and opportunities to citizens in all member states, a strategic investment in peace and democracy. One of the great achievements is the Erasmus project, which gives European students the opportunity to interact and explore together projects that can open up numerous opportunities for achievements in research and in the professions of the future,” he said.

He added that „strengthening the international relevance and attractiveness of the European Union become crucial to regional and global stability and security, especially at this time when the Russian Federation has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for over two years.”

In his Europe Day remarks, Iohannis also pointed to the Sibiu Declaration of 2019, when Romania held the Presidency of the Council of the EU: „Today’s Union is stronger than yesterday’s and we want to continue to make it stronger for tomorrow. That is our commitment to future generations. This is the spirit of Sibiu.”

AGERPRES