Premium
MEP Siegfried Muresan says merging elections is not seen negatively at European level
Merging European elections with local elections "is not something seen negatively at the European level", but is "a usual practice in member states" of the European Union, declared on Monday, in Strasbourg, PNL MEP Siegfried Muresan, told Agerpres.
"At the European level, this subject did not exist and it was very far from provoking the volume of discussions it provoked in Romania. The practice of merging elections is a common practice in member states of the European Union", he stated at a meeting with Romanian journalists in the European Parliament.
"The European Parliament (...) makes significant efforts to increase the voter turnout in the European Parliament elections, and combining the elections is a good thing in this sense. A decision to change the electoral legislation shortly before the elections would have been, obviously, viewed with critical eyes by the competent institutions, but it is not the case. The only thing that is done is that the date of the elections is practically set, and the date of the elections is always fixed a few months before the elections, never a year before the elections In the last European parliamentary elections, we also had the referendum on justice and, if I'm not mistaken, in the European parliamentary elections of 2009 there was the referendum on the unicameral parliament and the reduction of the number of parliamentarians," said Muresan.
He also emphasized that the authorities and the candidates "will have to inform the people exactly about all the ballots and all the votes they will have to cast."
Regarding the USR's approach to notify the Venice Commission regarding the merger of the elections, Muresan declared that he saw "no reason for the Venice Commission to express a negative opinion."
He voiced hope that, in case the elections are merged, the European themes will not be eclipsed by the local themes.
"I hope that European issues will have as big a role as possible, not only during the electoral period, but throughout the duration of the mandate of the European Parliament (...) Obviously, the candidates also have a responsibility here. The better the candidates are prepared on the issues European issues, the more our chance to discuss European issues, the greater the chance that those who will run for office will not run away from European issues", said Muresan, reminding at the same time that "in none of the campaigns for the European Parliament, in the past, there were not only European themes."
