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The National Liberal Party (PNL) will support Laura Codruta Kovesi's candidacy for head of the European Prosecutor's Office, said Liberal Chairman Ludovic Orban, who is also calling on Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader to give up his efforts to block the procedure and denigrate the former chief of Romania's anti-corruption agency.
"Following the proposals forwarded by the selection panel that has shortlisted the candidates for the position of European Chief Prosecutor and the procedural steps to be taken in the next period, I hereby announce that the National Liberal Party will back the appointment to this highly important and prestigious position of the EU of Romania's representative - Laura Codruta Kovesi - who is ranked first in the order of preference. To this effect, the PNL representatives will actively advocate in the European Parliament and in the European People's Party group - the strongest party at European level - for the candidacy of the former Prosecutor General and DNA Chief Prosecutor to get a favorable vote, in a procedure that will most likely take place in March," Orban said in a statement released on Tuesday.
"I am calling on Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader to give up the efforts to block this procedure and to denigrate the former DNA head, and to understand that the campaign he has launched is harmful to Romania. It is clear that the patriotism clamored by Tudorel Toader and the PSD - ALDE coalition is nothing more than empty cardboard rhetoric. The Justice Minister has taken a silly stance as long as the selection panel consists of 12 experts from European Union states who know perfectly well how the process to remove the former DNA head from office has been framed by Liviu Dragnea and his political courtiers. If Toader persists in being hostile to the appointment of Romania's candidate to European Chief Prosecutor, and Kovesi still lands this position, the Minister of Justice will be compelled to urgently submit his resignation as he will have compromised himself beyond repair in the eyes of the entire European Union," Ludovic Orban wrote.
