

PES Common Candidate Frans Timmermans (L) with PES leader Sergey Stanishev. Photo: EPA/Miguel A. Lopez

Weeks ahead of the European elections, the European Socialists have “frozen” their relations with the ruling party in Romania, and in June will decide on its continued membership of the left-wing bloc in the European Parliament.

Romania’s ruling Social Democratic Party has been at odds with Brussels during the past two-and-a-half years over its push to make changes in the justice system that have widely been deemed a threat to the rule of law.

The European Socialists have given the government in Bucharest until June to clarify its commitment to the rule of law and follow the recommendations of the European Commission, PES leader, Bulgaria’s Sergey Stanishev said on Wednesday, according to a press release published on the European Socialist website.

PES Common Candidate Frans Timmermans, Stanishev, and centre-left heads of government, commissioners and party leaders met on Wednesday in Brussels ahead of the Special European Council on Brexit, where they also discussed the situation in Romania.

The freeze means that the European Parliament group will not organise any events with the Romanian ruling party until June 2019, Stanishev noted.

The European Socialist leadership has been under pressure from several MEPs during the past months to make a decision about the Romanian Social Democrats’ future membership.

Some the party’s poor image on the issue of the rule of law might damage the group’s standing in the European elections in May, when right-wing nationalists are expected to make significant gains in several countries.

The PES announced its decision weeks after the centrist European People’s Party suspended the ruling Fidesz party in Hungary, for similar reasons.

The European Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ALDE, has said it will discuss the possible exclusion of the Romanian ALDE, the junior ally of the Social Democrats in the coalition government in Romania.

The head of the Social Democrats’ women’s organization, Rovana Plumb, on Thursday criticised Stanishev’s announcement, calling it “non-statutory”. She added: “It is a political declaration in an electoral context.”

The Social Democrats have been at the core of political turmoil in Romania since they won legislative elections in December 2016.

Several bills meant to curb the independence of prosecutors and slow down the fight against corruption have led to the country’s largest protests since the fall of communism in 1989.