Brussels, 19/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - Romanian Socialist MEP Corina Cretu was offended by the comments of her Danish colleague Mogens Camre (UEN), who recently said that the people of the Balkan countries, and in particular those of Romania and Bulgaria, were less intelligent. “The sort of declaration as the one of Mr Mogens Camre are not new to us. But it is even less acceptable as it comes from a citizen of a solid democracy, like Denmark, a country which may be considered a model of tolerance,” she said in a press release. To say that the number of seats attributed to each member state should be calculated on the level of intelligence of its citizens deals a serious blow to European values and puts us on, the slippery slope towards populism, she says. In an interview given in English to Radio France Internationale, Camre said, “When I look at the voting rules, I see that countries like Romania and Bulgaria have more votes than Denmark and Sweden and Finland, and I think - honestly speaking - that we are more clever than they are”. (A.B./transl.rt)