Five years ago, several politicians were elected MEPs, in the first European parliamentary elections held in Romania. During their term in office, the Romanian voters heard almost nothing about them, with a few exceptions, as the elected politicians hardly did anything that could make them known in Europe. They simply cashed in their hefty salaries, according to Romanian standards, without doing anything special.<\/p>\n
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Once those politicians\u2019 terms in office was over, they unassumingly bowed out. This month\u2019s European parliamentary elections brought along changes, as they were a new test, a fresh selection process for Romania\u2019s representatives at European level. Opening up the lists of the leading parties were people who did a good job in Brussels. Their being re-elected has emerged as the most relevant validation of their political performance. Having won their second term in office, some of the Romanian MEPs say they will continue to promote and reach their major objectives. Opening the Social Democrats\u2019 list, Corina Cretu pledged she would defend the Romanian citizens\u2019 interests, which have recently become the target of the extremist parties\u2019 xenophobic rhetoric.<\/p>\n
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Corina Cretu: \u201dDuring these trying times, when almost 30% of the EP structure is made up of extremist parties, who have turned Romanian citizens, Romanian workers, Romania, into their target, we should defend these people\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A staunch supporter of European security, Liberal Norica Nicolai vowed she would further be a member of the European Parliament\u2019s Defense Committee, where she would support the drafting of a common policy in the field.<\/p>\n
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Norica Nicolai: \u201dThe Union should take into consideration the opportunities provided by the Lisbon Treaty. There are two clauses enabling the Union to draft a common defense policy. We could all see how frail we are before any possible risk. In a global world, we can no longer live on our own, as far as regional policies are concerned. We need everyone\u2019s participation, we need to put together competences and skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
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MEP Iuliu Winkler, a member of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania says he would have liked Romania to have a political say, in keeping with its demographic and territorial status.<\/p>\n
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Iuliu Winkler: \u201cWe keep saying we are the European Union\u2019s seventh largest country, but right now we have failed to fill that position, considering the influence or the power to capitalize on the country\u2019s interests in the European Parliament and the European institutions. So we also need to make some progress, to that effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Also affiliated to the European People\u2019s Party, Cristian Preda, a member of the People\u2019s Movement Party intends to carry on with his activity in the European Parliament\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n
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Cristian Preda: \u201cI intend to reach all the goals I set during the campaign, such as Schengen accession, joining the Eurozone, Romania\u2019s participation in the European economy\u2019s consolidation process. \u201d<\/p>\n
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Elected for a second term in office or first-timers, the Romanian MEPs have no other choice than be very careful about grading their performance, so as to meet the Romanian voters\u2019 and their parties\u2019 expectations, and to comply with the community legislator status, analysts say.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 32 Romanian MEPs who have won their seats in Sundays ballot have already started to outline their political agenda for their Brussels term in office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":52584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[34324,37379,19347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-54693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-ep-elections","tag-meps","tag-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n