Speeches

Mr President, the railway network in Romania is in a deep state of degradation. As evidence, for 2023, the average speed for passenger trains was 44 km/h and for freight trains 15 km/h. There were higher average speeds between the two World Wars. The Romanian network is 20% electrified. Romania has at its disposal European funds of over EUR 6 billion. The total contracted amount so far exceeds EUR 3.5 billion, but many of the projects are lagging behind. The situation is dramatic due to endemic corruption at the level of the Ministry of Transport and state railway companies, with several former directors of CFR, CFR Marfa and CFR Infrastructură being investigated. At the moment, the Romanian Government is preparing a scam to liquidate and bankrupt CFR Marfă, which has debts of over EUR 900 million to the state budget and wants to set up a new company, Carpatica Feroviar, to take over the assets.

Madam President, the European single market is a very good idea, which, unfortunately, in certain areas of activity is not working properly. I'll give you three examples: the energy market, where Romania, which produces more electricity than it consumes, pays the highest bills in the European Union. The second dysfunction, which is still unresolved, is agriculture. Furthermore, cereals and certain food products exported from Ukraine reach the Romanian, Bulgarian or Polish market and create unfair competition for domestic agricultural producers. It is also worth highlighting the refusal to implement the process of external convergence, which should lead to the equalisation of subsidies for farmers in all countries of the European Union. Last but not least, recently, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared illegal several provisions of the mobility package targeted against Romanian carriers, which confirms the Draghi report. There is still gold-plating of the single market and this affects free competition. I would also point out that the killing of the Schengen area by the countries that introduce general border controls and the states that still keep Romania and Bulgaria on the sidelines still affects the proper functioning of the single market.

Madam President, the Schengen area is dead. This is evident from Germany's recent decision to introduce generalised controls at its border. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who killed the free zone in Europe. First of all, the states that made fun of the rules. The most handy example is Austria, which still blocks access with land borders for Romania and Bulgaria in vain. Second, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under the popular leadership of the European Union, who invited migrants from the Middle East to come to Europe. Thirdly, the leadership of the European Union, which for years refused to discuss the issue of migrants, preferring to send them to all corners of the Union on the basis of arbitrarily set quotas. It is also the European Union that refuses a constructive dialogue with Turkey. If the Erdogan administration lets go of the flood of refugees, Europe will never look the same. Schengen will become what it was when internal discrimination is eliminated, when the European Union states show solidarity and cooperate, including from the perspective of securing the external borders.

Mr. President, there are one million citizens of the Republic of Moldova who have also formally received Romanian citizenship. Many of them work in other states of the European Union and prove to be good people and workers who have fully adhered to European values. They send home significant amounts of money and, in fact, represent the real engine of the economy of the Republic of Moldova. It is becoming clear that our Bessarabian brothers see in the European Union the way to an improvement of the economic and social situation. What the Bessarabians do not see, however, is that Europe's political leaders should be genuinely concerned about what is happening in their country. It would have been necessary, also in view of the referendum of 20 October, to increase the presence of Europe's leaders in the Republic of Moldova, in order to clearly present the benefits of this accession and to make firm commitments in this regard to the citizens. You can't just love from one side. Today's debate in Strasbourg was much, much more useful if it was held in the Parliament in Chisinau, including from the perspective of countering the hybrid attacks of the Russian Federation against the institutions of the Republic of Moldova. I reiterate the GOLD's hope that the Republic of Moldova will be a member of the European Union as soon as possible and that the referendum of October 20 will be a success.

Mr President, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians strongly condemns Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. We support the continuation of economic and military aid to Kyiv and hope that we will have a peace summit as soon as possible. We keep in mind that it is not the weapons that will end the conflict, but diplomacy. It is also crucial to pay more attention to areas bordering the conflict. The Republic of Moldova, a state strongly affected by the perpetuation of the war, will have on October 20 a referendum on joining the European Union. I call on the Member States, the European Parliament and the European Commission to provide greater economic, technical and administrative support for Chisinau. Bessarabians must see and feel that they are wanted in the single European project. We, the GOLD, want the Republic of Moldova to be a member of the European Union as soon as possible. This seems to be a prerequisite of our idea that a political union between Romania and the Republic of Moldova under the umbrella of the European Union is necessary and useful. We believe that it would be a good thing from the perspective of a re-editing within the European Union, of a reunification, as happened with the two Germanys in October 1990.

Mr President, the floods that have occurred and the catastrophic effects on Romania highlight two aspects. First of all, the serious infrastructure problems that Romania is facing. Almost nothing has been invested in the last 35 years in terms of hydrological systematization and protection of areas where floods can occur. No flood dam in Romania has a safe operation permit. Just as no less than half of the 2 000 dams have this operating licence. Secondly, the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region has not been properly implemented, has been abandoned too early and has not been properly funded. For example, my country would benefit if some funds were found for embankments in the Danube area. In all ports on the territory of my country, flood quotas have been exceeded. I would also like to point out that the management of the situation by the Government in Bucharest has been catastrophic, both logistically and from a human perspective. For example, the Ciolacu Cabinet mocked the people, allocating the humiliating sum of 2,000 euros to the families of the people who died in the floods.

Mr President, Romania, although it is a net exporter of electricity, with production exceeding consumption by about 3.25 terawatt-hours in 2023, is currently paying around EUR 150 per megawatt-hour, the highest price in the European Union. This shows us two things: firstly, that the European single energy market is a hoax at the moment, as long as other states pay less than half. There is little to say that there is no solidarity. We are simply being robbed. Second, it is obvious that states like Austria are playing Russia's games. At this point, there are congestions in the network. I remind you that Romania helps both Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova in the energy area. We have high costs with this effort, which are not shared at the level of the European Union. Brussels seems to want equality, but not for the eastern countries, which bear the costs of the war. I would like to point out that there are suspicions that we are witnessing a policy of economic sabotage, as long as NGOs paid from Brussels or other Member States, including Austria, under the pretext of environmental protection, oppose the exploitation of Romania's hydropower potential, which would like to build more hydropower plants.

Mr President, censorship and political control of ideas emerging on social media, defined as public space by most decisions of the CJEU and national supreme courts, are incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. The fight against disinformation should not be done through censorship, but through effective communication and transparency. The brutal and unjustified intervention of Commissioner Thierry Breton in the story of the podcast with Elon Musk and Donald Trump was supposed to lead to his dismissal. It is a pity that we have come to the situation where Breton's removal was the result of not kissing Ursula von der Leyen's royal condom, not the attempt to limit freedom of expression. We see that there are such anti-democratic tendencies in all member countries. I give you the example of Romania, where a SRI general claimed that they are directly involved in controlling what appears on social media and there was no reaction at the level of the European Union. Also, the PNL representatives, which is the ruling party, under the pretext of protecting children, want to censor online platforms and cancel the right of anonymity on the Internet.