PM Dancila: I told President it's important to have full government on January 1

Bucharest, Dec 31 /Agerpres/ - Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated, on Sunday, that she had a discussion with President Klaus Iohannis in which she told him that it is important to have the government at full capacity on January 1, when Romania takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"Normally, 'immediately' means in a very short time. We see that 'immediately' for the President does not represent the same measure as for most Romanians. I had a discussion with the President, I told him that for me as a Prime Minister, for the Romanian Government, for us as a country it's important to have on January 1 the government at full capacity in order to takeover the Presidency as should be done, with a complete government, with ministers that take over the dossiers on the European agenda. It's hard to say, because when you're speaking to someone you expect to have an answer - in a day, in a week, in a month. Immediately should have been the next day, that's how I see it," said Dancila in an interview with private broadcaster Antena 3 on Sunday, in reply to the moderator who mentioned that the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) set down that the President must make a decision regarding the two ministers proposed by the Social Democrat Party (PSD, major, at rule) immediately.

The Prime Minister mentioned that if the President maintains his refusal to accept the two ministers, he must send "a well-argumented" note.

"You cannot send the refusal for a minister because you don't like him or you consider him not that good. We will see what measures we will take. We must not allow the President of Romania to infringe his attributions. The proposal is made by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is responsible for the activity of the Government and in this sense takes on ministers in which he believes and which can bring added value, can be more involved in their domains. If we let the President say what minister he agrees with, some day soon we may be surprised that the President designates himself a minister so that the minister will also be accepted," said Viorica Dancila.

She also said that she does not consider Klaus Iohannis as an opponent, as "to be an opponent, you must run for something, go towards a confrontation. I am not in a confrontation with President Iohannis and I do not wish to be. My objective is to implement the governing programme. (...) I do not wish to lose energy fighting with certain people that have other interests, not that of coming with concrete projects or matters for Romanians.

The Government notified the CCR that President Klaus Iohannis did not make a decision regarding the appointment of new ministers for Transport - Mircea Draghici and Regional Development - Lia Olguta Vasilescu.

The two were proposed by the National Executive Committee of the PSD after the first two proposals for the ministries - Ilan Laufer for Regional Development and Lia Olguta Vasilescu for Transport - were rejected on account of them being unfit. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalin Alexandru, editor: Nona Jalba; EN - editor: Razvan-Adrian Pandea)