Brussels, 18/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 17 September, a few days after giving the message to Romanian President Traian Basescu, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso again warned Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta about the country's respect for European values. Barroso invited the two men a few days apart from each other, at their request.
As he had done for Basescu, who was officially restored to office on 21 August by the constitutional court, Barroso expressed “the same concerns” to the prime minister who had originated the attempt to depose Basescu, and asked the country to remove all “doubts” on its commitments to the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and the respect for the rulings of the constitutional court. Barroso again called on all Romanian political parties to act with responsibility and recalled some of the elements from the list of 11 recommendations which the Commission sent Bucharest this summer, like the ways of appointing the highest posts in the department for the fight against corruption, a Commission press release states.
Barroso and Ponta also discussed the issue of using the Structural Funds. “While major effort has been made over the last year, the absorption capacity remains extremely low”, the Commission says. It goes on that Romania risks “to lose significant amounts of funding” that could directly benefit Romanian citizens and businesses. Barroso urged the government “to take the immediate measures necessary to improve the administrative capacity and public procurement rules”, his press service said.