Iohannis: Democracy is not at risk in EU, but under pressure

Democracy is not at risk at EU level, but it is under pressure, and those who believe in Europe must be more courageous given the Union faces various problems, such as Brexit, immigration or unemployment, said President Klaus Iohannis, the honorary guest, on Friday, at the "The State of the Union" conference organized by the European University Institute in Florence. 

In his view, in order to restore optimism at European level, one has to go to the source of the problems. He added that more talk must be about solutions and solved problems and less about European-level crises. 

President Iohannis mentioned that both the press and politicians are contributing to "demonizing" the EU. 

"If you open a newspaper today or watch TV, you sometimes hear good news, but often you find out about crises, calamities, attacks, anyway about something difficult, but you rarely learn about good things. For example, the single market has developed and provided better jobs and increased competitiveness. This is a problem. It does not necessarily mean we have to change the press, but we, the politicians, have to change how we create these images. If we create a positive image, then it will be used by journalists," said Klaus Iohannis. 

He added that the second issue is that politicians themselves are "a problem". 

"We all here know politicians who go to Brussels and say there that yes, everything is OK, that the EU is strong and we will go on the same path. But then elections come and they go to their home and the citizens ask: Mr politicians, why did you do nothing, why didn't you build roads? The politicians will answer: those in Brussels did not let me. So blaming the European Union at home, in every state, is extremely popular, as long as we have such politicians who say that the EU is good but at home, when going to their countries, they say that the EU is not good or a bad thing happens because of the EU. (...) We must not just come up with projects to build the future but we, as politicians, have to be also honest. If we achieve these opportunities to move things in the right direction, we do that, but if we cannot get them in the right direction, we have to admit that the project has been wrong. But not try to blame the European Union every time. Those in Brussels make mistakes too, but they are not to blame for everything," said President Iohannis.