PM Dancila: Guy Verhofstadt's speech, totally inappropriate; division emphasised

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila deemed as "totally inappropriate" the speech of President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt held on Tuesday, in the context in which the head of the Romanian executive presented at the plenary session in Strasbourg the priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

"A totally inappropriate speech [that of Guy Verhofstadt, ed.n.], a speech that I, as Prime Minister, did not accept and I do not accept. I have said every time that I did not come here to do any explaining, and what the leader of the ALDE political group said seems to me totally inappropriate and completely unrealistic. I believe that by what Verhofstadt said he has dealt a blow to internal problems, has brought a lot of disinformation and he has shown a totally hostile attitude towards Romania and the Romanians. I believe this is precisely what should not happen and this attitude is exactly the one that does not find its place in the European institutions," Dancila said on Tuesday at private TV broadcaster Antena 3.

She considered that Guy Verhofstadt had an electoral speech and that he wanted to gain visibility.

"While I was talking about unity, about a Europe in which we promote cohesion, Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE political group, tried to emphasize division, tried to split the states in some where certain things are accepted and some other states in which these things are forbidden and I believe that this attitude wards off citizens from the pro-European path and does not bring them closer. Mr. Verhofstadt had an electoral speech and I think the personal interest, the visibility he wanted to gain, was to the detriment of the gain which the European citizens must have," the prime minister said.

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE group in the EP, affirmed in his speech in the European Parliament that the Romanian presidency takes over two instances of Article 7 of the treaty being triggered, in Hungary and Poland's case.

I hope that during your presidency there will not be a new Article 7, a third case. A case against your government. And I must tell you, you are not very far from that. You are getting closer to the procedure triggering Article 7 by ignoring the recommendations of the Venice Commission," he held. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Razvan-Adrian Pandea)