PM Dancila: When holding EU Council Presidency, consensus, peace are needed; political disputes secondary to it

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Tuesday that Romania should follow the example of the other EU member states and seek consensus for the time it holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2019, stressing that political disputes should be secondary to that.

She added that she is convinced that the national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea, wants consensus, because he is a very experienced politician.

"The armistice has been demanded by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker himself. We have to follow the example of the other member states who have shown that when you hold the presidency of the Council of the EU, you need to have consensus, to have peace and to relegate disputes to a second plane because this very important objective to us has to prevail; it is an exam that Romania has to take and when I say Romania I do not necessarily mean the PSD and the ALDE [the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats], as we have to reference the entire political class and we have to prove more wisdom and more interest in Romania's goals, instead of vested interests," Dancila said, responded about the consensus demanded by Chairman of the Senate Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and his statement that Romania is not ready to take over the presidency of the EU Council.

Asked if the PSD national leader Liviu Dragnea agrees with that, Dancila said she is convinced that he also wants consensus.

"I have not talked with Mr Dragnea, but I am convinced that chairman Liviu Dragnea wants consensus during the presidency, because he is a politician with a lot of political experience and knows how important consensus is when holding the presidency of the Council of the EU," added Dancila. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Rodica State)