Maybe fifth time lucky.
Bucharest’s fourth attempt to name a European Commissioner has failed, after the incoming European Commission decided that the outgoing Social Democrat government did not have the right to nominate someone.
The Commission said on Wednesday that the caretaker government of Prime Minister Viorica Dancila who was toppled in a no-confidence vote earlier this month, couldn’t nominate Victor Negrescu, the former European Affairs minister, without the approval of President Klaus Iohannis, Euractiv reports.
Dancila proposed Negrescu in a letter sent to Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday, after the Commission President-elect urged Romania to make its nomination as soon as possible.
But Iohannis, who is from the center-right EPP group, criticized the decision, insisting that the Dancila had “no legitimacy” to make the decision. He also said that Dancila had not consulted him on Rovana Plumb, Romania’s initial candidate.
The two political rivals are both running in an upcoming presidential election next month.
“This new proposal from the interim government has not been coordinated with the president,” a Commission spokesperson told reporters.
“Whoever is named by Romania must be acceptable to the president and must get through the European Parliament too. There are doubts in Romania as to whether the name put forward was done in a legitimate way,” the spokesperson added.
Questions are now being asked why the incoming Commission made its request for a nomination to the interim government, given the reaction today.
Negrescu is not the first candidate to fall by the wayside before even facing their Parliament hearing. Plumb, von der Leyen’s pick as transport chief, was struck down by the EU assembly’s legal affairs.
Other failed nominations include former European Parliament lawmaker Dan Nica and state secretary for European affairs Gabriela Ciot, neither of whom were accepted by von der Leyen.
Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea claimed Dancila picked her for the post, but she refused.
