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Iohannis: Overall, we cannot talk about a radical change for the EP after the elections

by AI | 13.Jun 2024 | Europe in brief AI

President Klaus Iohannis commented on the outcome of the European Parliament elections and the new political configuration resulting from this vote, indicating that there can be no talk of a major change, but of “small movements,” and the centrist parties still represent the “bulk” of the European Legislature.

CRISTIAN NISTOR

Riga – President Klaus Iohannis commented on the outcome of the European Parliament elections and the new political configuration resulting from this vote, indicating that there cannot be talk of a major change, but of “small movements”, and that the center parties still represent the “bulk” of the European Legislature.

“There has been a lot of talk about the way political families are represented. In reality, I don’t think we can talk about a major change. There are small movements, for example, in the European People’s Party, which is still the most significant group, the number of parliamentarians has slightly increased, for others it has slightly decreased. Essentially, the so-called center parties still represent the bulk of the European Parliament, but, of course, depending on the national specifics, for example in the case of France, significant changes have appeared, but for the European Parliament as a whole we cannot talk about a radical change,” Iohannis said in a press statement after the B9 Format Summit in Riga.

“There are changes that will influence the way votes are cast, will influence lobbying in Parliament for certain parts of the legislation, but I am convinced that the Union will move forward and the European Parliament will be a partner and a constructive institution,” the president added.

Regarding the merging of local elections with the European Parliament elections in Romania, the president appreciated that “elections are legitimate, valid from a democratic point of view, when a large number of voters participate” and that the fact that these elections were put together led to a participation rate of over 50%.

Romania ranks ninth in the European Union in terms of voter turnout in the European elections, in a ranking dominated by Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta, and which has Croatia, Lithuania and Bulgaria at the end, according to data based on provisional results made public on June 12 by the European Parliament on the website results.elections.europa.eu.

Still in Riga, Klaus Iohannis announced that he will convene the meeting of the Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) next week, Thursday, when it will “probably” discuss the ceding of a Patriot system to Ukraine, a subject that was addressed during the recent visit of the Romanian head of state to Washington.

“There is, obviously, a need for advanced anti-aircraft defense systems in Ukraine, and in this way, in recent weeks, there has been quite an intense discussion about who can offer Patriot systems to Ukraine. Romania has such systems and then, of course, we were also asked. And President Biden brought this issue up and I said I am open to discussing these issues, which means that I will have to discuss at home, in the CSAT, how we can approach the problem, what we can offer and, obviously, what we can receive in return because it is, in my opinion, unacceptable for Romania to remain without anti-aircraft defense. I believe we will find a solution,” Iohannis said then.

President Klaus Iohannis co-chaired the Bucharest 9 (B9) Format Summit in Riga on Tuesday, alongside the Polish and Latvian counterparts, Andrzej Duda and Edgars Rinkevics, respectively.(11.06.2024)