ForMin Melescanu: Assessment of Romania's embassies activity to be completed in 10 days; there is no list

Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu stated on Saturday that the assessment of the activity of Romania's embassies at the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) level is to be completed in maximum ten days and mentioned that there is no list of heads of diplomatic missions who are to be assessed, the action being carried out annually.

"There is no list of ambassadors, neither the first nor the second, it is a request for the assessment of the embassies activity and, certainly, this implicitly means [the assessment] of the missions heads who are in charge of the foreign diplomatic activity. It's a matter that we carry out annually. Each embassy, at the end of the year, sends an activity report in January and, on that basis, the Prime Minister's request to conduct a very clear assessment of the way in which the activities in the diplomatic offices were carried out, following which some conclusions are to be drawn," Melescanu told Antena 3 private television station.

He stated that he hasn't seen the last assessment of Romania's Ambassador to the US Geroge Maior.

"No, I haven't seen this assessment. We are now assessing 2017, during the period when I took over the mandate. I cannot tell you how were the previous assessments, but we are now carrying out this assessment, I repeat, of all the diplomatic missions of Romania, precisely in order to have a more accurate picture of what activity was carried out and, especially, in order to adopt the necessary boosting measures to raise the activity to a much higher threshold," the Minister explained.

When asked whether the disclosures regarding the involvement of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) in forming Governments, in the lawsuits, the cases of Justice would justify a withdrawal of George Maior from his office as ambassador, Melescanu stated that the only thing which he can do is to assess the activity of any person who is a head of a diplomatic mission.

"From my view, the only thing that I can do is to assess the activity of any person who is a head of a mission and I cannot refer to circumstances who are related to one's previous activity or other things. Therefore, the assessment is being carried out strictly regarding the manner in which the tasks of each embassy are being fulfilled," the Foreign Affairs Minister mentioned.

When asked whether or not it's normal for the SRI director to get involved in forming governments, the Foreign Affairs Minister stated "no."

"No, I don't believe it is normal. The formation of a government exclusively depends on the will of the parliamentary majority that won the elections. From this standpoint, the government is a political formula able to ensure the responsibility of fulfilling, in the governmental activity, the priorities with which the parties won the elections or which they presented to the population," Teodor Melescanu said.

He stated he hasn't carried out any discussion with Maior after the latter's hearing in the SRI oversight committee.

"No, I didn't have any discussion and, anyway, if I had had a discussion, it would have been limited very clearly to how he fulfils his duties as ambassador to Washington. I cannot have the necessary elements to pass a judgement regarding other activities," the head of the Romanian diplomacy mentioned.

Melescanu showed that the Embassy in Washington is one of the most important diplomatic offices of Romania.

"You have to understand that we have 169 diplomatic offices, some of them are very big, others are made up of a single person, therefore, the team we are working with matters very much. From this point of view, I currently wouldn't rate the Washington office as very good or very bad. To a great extent, we will see what results from the quantitative and qualitative analysis that is underway at the Foreign Ministry," he added.

Asked if anyone requested him to replace George Maior, Melescanu denied.

"I haven't been asked to replace Mr Maior. Normally such decision must be made after an assessment of the manner in which the activity of an office or other was carried out," the Minister mentioned.

He mentioned that it doesn't fall into his responsibility or competence area to rule on the previous activity of George Maior.

"I do not know how things were then... What happened... I, too, have seen the statements of Mr Dragnea, but more than that, I have nothing to say," Melescanu stated, adding that the assessment of the heads of diplomatic offices is to be completed in maximum ten days. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - editor: Rodica State)