Financiarul

The former head of the Department for European Affairs (DAE) and former Minister of European Integration Vasile Puscas (from the Social Democratic Party) on Monday told Agerpres that the coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, most probably early next year, will generate a series of important changes for Romania’s internal affairs as well, and not only for the foreign ones.

“While other member states have already made in the latest years efforts to adjust their institutions, local administrations, as well as their decision making process and mechanism, to the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon, in Romania there should be more attention paid, to start with, to the rethinking and stimulation of the European decision making process, with the country needing to participate in this process. Romania also needs to make consistent and immediate efforts, based on evaluations of the impact of the announced institutional changes, towards the preparation of the manner in which the Parliament and Government would have to relate to each other in the future, of the manner in which the principle of sustainability will be implemented in Romania too, and of the manner in which the authorities will interact with the newly created competencies for the public institutions” Puscas said.

He also added that the main institutions of the Romanian state would need to interact more, with new structures to be created too, to focus on the interaction with the European forums. “For instance, the Romanian Parliament will have to assume new competencies related to the law making process from the perspective of its relation with the European Parliament and with the European institutions, and also while referring to its relation with the Romanian Government.

Moreover, with regard to the EU Presidency, the Romanian Presidential Administration will have to set up an office to be concerned exclusively with this relation” Puscas said, among other things. In his opinion, these changes and adaptations will be related not only to the institutional process, but also to human resources.

Moreover, he considered that, compared with other EU states, Romania was left behind in terms of its preparations for the Treaty of Lisbon. “There are several states that, over 2007-2008, insisted very much on this aspect. Unfortunately, in Romania, even the initial European decision making process, which was supposed to be ready on January 1, 2007, was quite incomplete” Vasile Puscas said.