Premium
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated on Tuesday that in case President Klaus Iohannis will not appoint the new ministers of Development and Transport or will not provide an explanation, the only solution is to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR).
"I think it is a vulnerability if the President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, will not nominate the new ministers. This is an unfortunate situation not for the Romanian Government, but an unfortunate situation for Romania, because the files that are in the works are already being taken over (...), there are training meetings by the Secretariat-General going on and we will have to make this transition from one minister to another much later than necessary. (...) After discussing with the party chairman [Social Democratic Party leader Liviu Dragnea, ed.n.], with the ALDE [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ed.n.] leader [Calin Popescu Tariceanu, ed.n.], we are waiting a few more days. Mr president said that after December 1 he will come up with the nomination or will provide an explanation regarding the delay, and if not, we have to go to the Constitutional Court to find a result there. (...) Should he reject this appointment, we will decide within the National Executive Committee. (...) Our only solution if neither a nomination nor an explanation come from the president is to go to the Constitutional Court. I believe that this is a unique case in the history of the European Union. Now, when we are taking over the Presidency [of the Council of the European Union, ed.n.], when this country project lies ahead of Romania, we have such a difficult situation in which the president is not really interested in the way we take over the EU Council Presidency. (...) We are in a deadlock at this moment," Dancila told a telephone interview at private TV broadcaster Romania TV.
She described the situation as "unpleasant", but she showed she did not want to outsource internal issues to Brussels.
"I believe we have to find the solution in Romania and we have to show more responsibility. I am convinced that both the President of the Commission, as well as other commissioners are informed. I will have to explain why I am going with ministers who have already been removed from office," said Dancila.
Asked if she had tried talking by telephone to President Klaus Iohannis, the head of the government replied: "I answer all the phone calls and I have already said that I want to cooperate as best as we can during the presidency because, in fact, it is Romania we are talking about we need to be as responsible as possible. Unfortunately, however, at the present moment, at this stage when the Government taking over the Council Presidency and having to manage both the program and the important files is in a deadlock, because the president of Romania does not want to take notice of the revocations and the nominations is a difficult situation for us."
