Romanian MEPs from several political groups in the European Parliament are of the opinion that Roxana Minzatu, the designated commissioner of Romania who will have the function of EU executive vice-president for people, skills and training, will not encounter problems in obtaining the validation vote from the commissions competences of the European Parliament, although some of them continue to reproach Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with the result of the negotiations with the President of the European Commission.

The Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament decided on Thursday that the hearing of Roxana Minzatu in the European Parliament will take place on Tuesday, November 12, on the last day of the November 4-12 interval established for the procedure.

„Mrs. Minzatu will have to convince her colleagues from the labor committee (EMPL) and the culture committee (CULT) that she is capable of handling this portfolio. I obviously want the Romanian commissioner to do honor to Romania and make a good figure at these hearings, even if the portfolio, unfortunately, is an insignificant one. However, the small size of the portfolio helps Mrs. Mînzatu, because candidates with difficult portfolios usually have greater difficulties in convincing”, declared PNL MEP Siegfried Muresan, who holds the position of deputy chairman of the PPE group in the EP.

He reiterated, during a briefing for Romanian journalists held in Strasbourg, that in his opinion „the portfolio is a weak one” and that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu failed in these negotiations.

„He proposed an economic portfolio, the result is exactly the opposite. He returned with a social portfolio in an area where the European Union has little competence, so the portfolio is a thin one,” declared Muresan, which was circulated as a variant of commissioner for expansion by the party to which he belongs.

At the same time, said the National Liberal Party (PNL) MEP, it is expected that Oliver Varhelyi, the Hungarian candidate, „will have a difficult hearing”.

„We will have to see, no commissioner should receive either a red card or a blank check before the hearings. We have to see how the hearing of Commissioner Varhelyi goes, and if the hearing goes well and he is convincing, then the vote can be favorable,” said Muresan. At the same time, he drew attention, „the rejection of the Hungarian candidate means additional uncertainty and additional delays in the formation of the European Commission”.

His opinion about the Romanian commissioner is also shared by PNL MEP Daniel Buda, who was circulated by PNL for the portfolio of commissioner for agriculture.

Declaring that he has confidence in Roxana Minzatu’s ability to effectively manage the received portfolio, Buda said that Prime Minister Ciolacu is the one who „should have the ability to negotiate a portfolio as consistent as possible for Romania”.

„I am not saying that it is not relevant. At the moment we are trying to create competences, please, for this position or this portfolio of commissioner. But Mr. Ciolacu assumed this responsibility to come up with a difficult position for Romania”, said the PNL MEP, who also stated that PNL and Social Democratic Party (PSD) ran on common lists for the European Parliament „precisely to be an important force at the level of the European Parliament and we are a force because we took more MEP mandates than we expected us”.

„Unfortunately, Mr. Ciolacu ignored this force that we have at the level of the European Parliament and negotiated a portfolio that until now did not exist and nobody knows what he will deal with exactly. (…) Or we say that leaving from the position that Romania has in this ecosystem of the European Union, from the number of MEPs (…), we should have had a much more consistent post, and that of cohesion, or that of agriculture, or that of budget-finance could have been with us. Victor Negrescu could have been a very good commissioner on the budget-finance side. Why couldn’t it be for him?,” asked Daniel Buda rhetorically.

However, Victor Negrescu considers that the discussion about Roxana Minzatu’s weak portfolio or the fact that he could have occupied a more important economic portfolio, as Marcel Ciolacu initially wanted, „is already over.”

„There is no point in commenting anymore. This portfolio was held by Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, an influential Commissioner in the previous term. The area of social policies is important for our political family and consequently, it is a very good portfolio obtained by Romania and more we have a vice-president elected. We must not forget this,” the EP vice-president told Romanian journalists in Strasbourg.

AGERPRES