Outgoing Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), said in Constanta on Thursday evening that a prime minister-designate cannot make a decision on Romania's pick for European commissioner, arguing that President Klaus Iohannis made a "big mistake" by saying in Brussels that a government duly dismissed in Parliament cannot make a proposal for European commissioner.
Iohannis said in Brussels on Thursday that duly dismissed by Parliament government cannot make a proposal for a European commissioner as it have no role in the next European Commission.
"There is on our side, unfortunately, a blockage called the Dancila government. (...) I will strongly oppose this, because a government that has been lawfully dismissed by the Romanian Parliament cannot make a proposal on behalf of Romania for the next tenure of the commission in which this government surely will have no part," Iohannis said before a summit of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday.
He mentioned that he would not discuss with the officials in Brussels potential picks for European commissioner.
"But I will say very clearly to the president-elect [of the European Commission] that I cannot accept an ousted government making a proposal that is also accepted; as for the portfolio, I have discussed with Mrs. von der Leyen, who assured me that the portfolio extended to Romania is the same and I have no reason to believe that unilateral changes are now occurring," Iohannis added. AGERPRES