Orban: PNL intensifies lobbying for resuming procedure to designate EU Chief Prosecutor

The National Liberal party (PNL) MEPs will intensify the lobbying for resuming the procedure of appointing the EU Chief Prosecutor, given that the odds of the Romanian candidate to this position - Laura Codruta Kovesi - have improved, the Liberals' leader, Ludovic Orban, said on Monday. "I have even talked with Rares Bogdan and Siegfried Muresan, and today in the Executive Bureau, I have given them the mandate to intensify the pressure, the lobbying, to get involved in resuming the procedure of appointing the EU Chief Prosecutor. In today's context, the odds of the Romanian candidate have improved and there is the possibility to secure this prestigious position at European level," Orban said at the end of the PNL Executive Bureau meeting. According to him, "arguments are no longer very strong" for the French candidate. "After the negotiations that took place at the level of the European Council and at the level of the parliamentary groups, the chance of the Romanian candidate to be nominated as EU Chief Prosecutor is much higher than before the elections. I remember that the European Parliament designated Laura Kovesi for the post of Chief Prosecutor. The victory was obtained with a very high lobbying effort on behalf of the PNL, our EPP partners and some colleagues - for example from the former ALDE [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats] group, whom we want to keep alongside this campaign, in order to succeed in imposing in the European Parliament the point of view in the negotiations with the Council of the European Union. The decision in the EU Council was not even taken at ministerial level, but by COREPER," added the PNL leader. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Simona Iacob)