An event such as the congress of the European People’s Party, the leading pan-European political force, cannot be overlooked even by the opponents of the European right, be it only because currently right-wing parties are dominant in Europe.
Angela Merkel and Manuel Barroso are right-wing leaders, so their presence in Bucharest at the congress of the European Popular Party is significant from this perspective.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had a meeting with Romanian president Traian Basescu on Wednesday, while the head of the European Commission, Manuel Durrao Barroso, met with prime minister Victor Ponta among others.
The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy did not make it, although his attendance was confirmed on Wednesday morning. Here is the explanation: on Thursday starts a very important summit for the European Union, which will examine the general directions of the Union’s budget for 2014-2020 and Rompuy has to prepare the summit.
Romania is very interested in this matter because irrespective of the right-left split, funds are allocated to Romania, not to one party or another.
In fact, after the meeting with Ponta, the head of the Commission made this clear in a release sent to the press, which did not have access to the Ponta-Barroso meeting.
“I have urged the prime minister to take immediate measures to solve the issues that led to the interruption of payments for certain EU programmes. Unless urgent action is taken, the absorption of EU funds will be seriously compromised.” He added that irrespective of the upcoming elections, there had to be a major impulse to impose the critical measures for improving the absorption capacity.
In Bucharest, the congress of the European People’s Party, which last evening elected its new president for the next three years, was viewed only from the perspective of the internal political confrontation.
But aside from this, it is important that 16 government heads from the EU and presidents of the highest political institutions of the Union were in Bucharest on Wednesday evening.
Almost 2,000 political leaders and representatives of right-wing political parties in Europe “stormed” Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament on Wednesday for the Congress of the European People’s Party. Merkel’s speech, the most awaited one, was significantly delayed, as were those of other EU leaders.
The meeting between Angela Merkel and president Traian Basescu took 10 minutes, but the head of the German government only stayed for 4 hours in Bucharest.
However, behind the official photos and smiles for the camera, and irrespective of the political regime that will dominate Europe, Romania will have to be responsible for its own evolution.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)