Romanian Liberals’ president: "We must have a strong team of Romanian MEPs to represent the country"

Watch the highlights of the Euronews Romania interview with the president of Romania’s National Liberal Party, Nicolae Ciuca.

Transcript

00:00At this moment, the electoral message of the PNL, what does the PNL have to do with the two elections?

00:07We are in the European Parliamentary and Local Elections.

00:09The National Liberal Party supported this decision because we see the direct, intrinsic link

00:17between the activity of the local voters and what is happening at the level of the European Parliament

00:28from the point of view of supporting the interests of Romania and the development at the level of the communities.

00:36Practically, everything that has been achieved in this period since Romania is a member of the European Union,

00:43from the point of view of the realization of a whole series of objectives in the municipalities,

00:52in the smaller, middle-sized cities and even in the residential cities, has been done with European money.

01:01We must admit that this increase in the number of municipalities that currently have water, sewage, asphalt,

01:18from 30%, 32% to more than 60%, so we are talking about a double of what has been done with European money.

01:29The liberal administrations at the moment are the ones that lead in this hierarchy of those

01:40that have attracted the most European funds.

01:43If we refer to the 17 municipalities where we have the Presidency of the Council of Municipalities,

01:50in 17 municipalities the statistics show that we have managed to attract 52% of the European funds allocated

01:59in this direction at the country level.

02:05We have very good administrations, and here we are talking about Cluj, Ilfov, Iași and Constanța,

02:20which are the first four local administrations that have attracted the most European funds.

02:30We have recently been to Cluj and only at the moment Cluj has projects worth 4.2 billion EUR,

02:37of which more than 460 million have already been implemented.

02:42We can say the same about Bihor County, Alba, Arad, Brașov, Suceava, Iași, Constanța, Ilfov.

02:58These are models of local development, of local administration,

03:04and practically, through this combination of local laws with European ones,

03:15we wanted to create this connection, to have a representative team at the national level,

03:25because the MEPs do not represent one county or another, but they represent Romania.

03:30We need to have a strong team of MEPs to represent the interests of the Romanians

03:38and to fight for everything that can sign the development programs for our country.

03:47If we donate a patriot system, what happens?

03:52Can we receive something that could fill this gap?

03:56The system is the American one.

03:59We need to discuss with the United States on a solution in this sense.

04:07Because it's not just about coming up with something from anywhere.

04:13It's about a system that is fully interoperable, that is compatible.

04:20Not necessarily. There are other systems that, from the point of view of the integration system, are compatible.

04:31If Transnistria and the Republic of Moldova attack each other, what will Romania do?

04:37What should Romania do?

04:39Romania should do now, and not only Romania, but all European countries,

04:45all countries that support democracy and the rule of law,

04:52should support Ukraine, so that Russia does not cross the current contact line.