via PRO Romania Sponsored Content Romanian government headed for a clash with Europe and its own people “Romania’s powerful Social Democratic leader is unravelling the judicial system, and Europe needs to stop him,” says PRO Romania founder Victor Ponta’s in this opinion.

Superstitious Romanians believe that if the 13th of the month falls on a Tuesday, it will be a bad day. Unfortunately, this Tuesday, November 13, may well prove them right.

This is the day the European Parliament and European Commission are set to throw the spotlight on moves to unravel Romania’s judicial independence and rule of law.

The Parliament is expected to adopt a resolution expressing deep concern for the country’s overhaul of judicial and criminal law — especially its potential to undermine the legal system’s ability to fight corruption, and the rule of law. The resolution also condemns the violent and disproportionate police intervention in protests in Bucharest in August, and calls on Romanian authorities to safeguard checks and balances.

Romania’s Government amendments “seriously weaken” the justice system’s effectiveness in fighting corruption and violent and organized crimes.

The Commission will release an annual report on Romania’s progress in judicial reform, the CVM. Its conclusions may be the most negative Romania has seen since joining the European Union in 2007, and they would be backed by recent findings from a Council of Europe advisory body. The Venice Commission found in October that Romania’s Government amendments “seriously weaken” the justice system’s effectiveness in fighting corruption and violent and organized crimes.

This criticism could not come at a worse time. Just two months before Romania takes the Council of the EU’s presidency for the first time.

How did Romania reach this unprecedented level of confrontation with the European institutions? Is it the result of an ideological and political struggle that borders on nationalism, as we have seen in Poland? Is it because an overly powerful political leader is benefitting from solid electoral support, like in Hungary? Or, is it the result of populism and the ambition of a political newcomer, as in Italy?

It’s a combination of all of the above, which reflects the problems sweeping through parts of Europe today. Yet there is another very different element that could put Romania’s successful integration into Europe at risk: the obvious aspirations of the leader of Romania’s largest political party that lost contact with the real needs of the citizens.

As a former Prime Minister, I couldn’t bear to watch how my country goes in the wrong direction and therefore I decided to found a new pro-European party, the ProRomania Party. I like to call it “a startup” as we only have 12 MPs for the moment, but many young people expressed their will to make this shift that our political environment needs so badly. We intend to fight in order to bring Romanians back where they belong, closer to Europe and happy with their European identity.

Sadly, the most powerful person in Romania is a lesser-known political figure named Liviu Dragnea. The leader of the Social Democrats and former chairman of a county council in one of the country’s poorest and least developed regions, has kept a discreet public profile over nearly two decades, despite legal woes.

He was barred from serving as prime minister because of a suspended Supreme Court jail sentence for an attempt to rig a referendum in 2012. Then in June the court sentenced Dragnea to three and a half years in prison in a case involving fake jobs for party workers, which he is appealing. On top of that, Dragnea was indicted on fraud charges a year ago on suspicions that he fabricated documents in order to secure €21 million in EU development funds in 2008.

However, he rarely attends international meetings, so he has drawn little attention from the European establishment and media — until recently.

The large protests held in Bucharest in January 2017 against Dragnea’s first attempt to change the criminal code were seen as a sign of a healthy democracy. But it did not stop Dragnea from eventually reforming the legal system in a way that has been criticized for undercutting independence.

I am happy to see that all that is happening in Romania preoccupy the European institutions.

Pan-European politics have so far held little influence over Dragnea, or his power over the Romanian Social Democrats.

The Europe-wide Party of European Socialists remained sometimes silent on the judicial system changes, and some of them also on Dragnea’s failed referendum in October to restrict the definition of family to a marriage between a man and a woman. He supported the measure.

The European Commission’s interventions, instead, have gained little traction. When the Commission’s First Vice President Frans Timmermans, a Social Democrat, voiced concerns over Romania, he was slammed by Romanian party representatives as having “sold out to George Soros” and protecting a “parallel state,” which Dragnea defines as a conspiracy by judicial, police and other authorities.

On the same note, Romania’s Commissioner Corina Crețu, also a Social Democrat, was recently called a “traitor” to her party and her country by the Social Democrats’ deputy secretary-general, after she pointed to shortcomings in the Romanian government’s implementation of EU-funded infrastructure projects.

For a further reduction of Brussels’ influence in Bucharest, the structural funds are no longer a concern to the Romanian government. The prime minister’s main economic adviser Darius Vâlcov said that Romania should not use European funds that are “only given and stolen by European companies” and that rely on public-private partnerships with non-European countries. Vâlcov was sentenced in 2015 to eight years in prison, and is now appealing the conviction.

Dragnea’s clout should also cause concerns. While he is a so called “political leader”, he does not hold a mandate to lead. He has only run for elected office as an MP on the party but his power stems from his control over the party and administrative structures.

Yet Romania lacks a serious political leadership who can stand up for the Romanians.

Yet Romania lacks a serious political leadership who can stand up for the Romanians. ProRomania was created to fill that gap between the leadership and the people. I strongly believe that the only reason we hold the power is to implement good policies for people!

President Klaus Ioannis keeps a low profile and prioritizes international trips over involvement in domestic politics. He has struggled to resist Dragnea’s actions, which have also shrunk the president’s powers.

Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, a Social Democrat, is largely under the party president’s influence. Dragnea marginalized her predecessors when they appeared to take independent stances.

And the main opposition group, the National Liberal Party, suffers from internal divisions and lacks a credible alternative political vision. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, a minority party, instead is paralyzed by the unexpected closeness between Dragnea and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán.

Meanwhile, Romania faces economic challenges. By allowing the public deficit to continue to exceed the EU’s authorized 3 percent, Romanian Government has cut any hope to join soon the Eurozone. The European Commission has issued recommendations for Romania, which is now the country with the highest deficit in the EU, to correct the significant deviations. Instead of addressing the problem, the government recently changed the law to put the public deficit under its full control.

For Dragnea, however, the priority seems to be to seize control of Romania’s justice system and adopt an amnesty law that would prevent him and others from serving their prison sentences. He recently said the amnesty law should be adopted in a year or two.

Dragnea appears to believe there is little that Europe can do to fight off these changes. So what can be done?

It is essential that Europe remains united, without further divisions between east and west, north and south.

For one, political groups and their leaders should do good for people via the power they are entitled with and therefore make more decisive interventions.

When I was Prime Minister in 2012, then-European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Martin Schulz mediated Romania’s constitutional crisis, and contributed greatly to finding a solution. We were part of a family, the European family.

The Party of European Socialists should express strong support for the Parliament’s and Commission’s stances, and send a firm message to all Social Democratic leaders. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe could also come to the aid of the Romania’s ALDE party, which is a minority member of the Social Democratic-led government coalition. Additionally, all European parties should mediate a common strategy for Romanian parties to put the country back on the right track of democratic values, rule of law and judicial independence.

Concerning the Commission, I am certain that they will again warn Romanian PM Dăncilă via the CVM report that their actions go against the European values and this will always elicit immediate reaction from Brussels.

The Pro Romania Party will actively and consistently fight to keep Romania on the European path, with full respect of the EU’s core values. We believe that the EU needs to be stronger and more united, given the global context; for this; it is essential that Europe remains united, without further divisions between east and west, north and south.

Hopefully, this Tuesday 13th will not necessarily a be bad day. Rather, I hope it will have actually marked the beginning of a new opportunity for Romania to change and be an active member of the European family.

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