A new Romanian commissioner in Brussels

MEP Adina Valean is Romanias proposal for European Commissioner, accepted in Brussels.

Bogdan Matei, 07.11.2019, 13:55

The European Commission’s president-elect Ursula von der Leyen, has announced she agrees to the nomination of Romanian MEP Adina Valean for the position of commissioner for transport. Romania’s new Government made two proposals for European commissioner, namely MEPs Siegfried Muresan and Adina Valean. A spokesperson for the European Commission said that both candidates did well at the interview with the EC president. Pundits say that the need to strike a balance between the number of men and women in the Commission’s makeup was in Adina Valean’s favour.

Liberal Adina Valean, 51, a Maths teacher, became a member of the European Parliament in November 2007, after Romania joined the European Union. Before that, she was a deputy in Romania’s Parliament (2004-2007). Valean is one of the most influential Romanian MEPs. She is currently the president of the European Parliament’s Commission for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). Before that, she was a vice-president of the European Parliament (July 2014 to January 2017) and president of the Commission for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Sge was fourth in a ranking of the most influential MEPs, released by Vote Watch EU in April. In 2009 she had a decisive contribution to the decrease in roaming mobile Internet tariffs.

Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said that before nominating Valean, he consulted with President Klaus Iohannis. Romania had previously made three nominations for the position of European Transport Commissioner, a portfolio the country has been allotted in the new commission led by Ursula von der Leyen. The nominations had been made by the former Social-Democrat Government headed by Viorica Dancila. Rovana Plumb, the first to be nominated, failed the integrity test in the legal committee due to her wealth declaration. Dan Nica, a former Minister, didnt even get to the hearing stage, since the Dancila Cabinet was in the meantime removed from office after failing a no-confidence motion in Parliament. The third nomination, the former Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Victor Negrescu, raised the problem of legitimacy, as the nomination was made after the Government was demised. Last week the European Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva sided with President Klaus Iohannis, arguing the proposal made by Viorica Dancila did not have the approval and support of President Iohannis, which raised serious doubts in Brussels over its legitimacy.

The media is now sure that Adina Valean will become the fourth Romanian EU commissioner, after Leonard Orban, Dacian Ciolos and Corina Cretu, but points out that allotting the transport portfolio to Romania, a country that still does not have a coherent motorway network, has not upgraded its railway network for decades and whose national air company has lost more than 340 million euros in the last two years alone, is at least ironic.

(Translated by Elena Enache)