Romanian candidates running for the European Parliament (EP) in June will focus while campaigning mainly on issues related to the financial crisis and environment protection, as most aspirants for a seat will try to convince especially voters in the rural areas of the importance of the EP.
MEP
Renate Weber, a candidate seeking another mandate at the third spot on
the list of the Liberal Party (PNL), says environmental issues will be
presented to inhabitants of the rural areas as well, who are not that
receptive to such problems but, explains Weber, they are the first to
face the effects of the climate changes. The PNL candidate thinks this
campaign should not be bugged with issues of internal politics.
The
fourth Democrat-Liberal (PD-L) candidate Cristian Preda, will focus on
“environment health”, trying to convince villagers of the importance of
the issue by promoting a modern agriculture.
Candidate
of the Social-Democrat Party (PSE) Rovana Plumb thinks it is a good
idea to raise awareness among Romania's population on food safety, as
health and environmental protection are the key issues of her campaign.
Another PSD candidate Daciana Sarbu regards MEPs as Romania's lobbyists
in Europa and stresses that about 70 percent of Romania's laws come
from the European Parliament, an aspect people should know.
However,
Theodor Stolojan, the Democrat Liberals' main candidate, thinks Romania
has really urgent problems to take care of, like lifting the monitoring
for the Justice department or the absorption of European funds.
Although he too considers the environmental protection and the
agriculture policy as important issues, Stolojan asks himself whether
the mass-media in Romania is really prepared for European debates.
The
candidate of the Hungarian minority party in Romania (UDMR), Iuliu
Winkler, thinks that the real problem in this campaign will be to get
people to understand the importance of having a representative in the
European Parliament.
The political parties finished their lists of candidates for the EP elections scheduled on June 7.
Romania
will send 33 representatives to the European Parliament. The county
joined the European bloc on January 1, 2007, with the promise to
crackdown corruption and continue reforms in the justice system.
