“I do not expect a turnout of more than 30 percent”, says MEP Renate Weber

Newsroom 15/05/2014 | 12:01

On May 25, more than 18.3 million Romanians will choose who will represent them in the European Parliament, appointing MEPs as ambassadors for their interests in the EU decision-making process. BR made an interview with MEP Renate Weber,  the National Liberal Party, to find out which are the perspectives for Romania for this European elections.

By Oana Vasiliu

How many Romanian voters do you expect to turn out?

Personally I do not expect a turnout of more than 30 percent. It might seem low, but I want to emphasize two factors in this. First, our electoral register has nothing in common with reality. In Romania, over 18 million people are eligible to vote, according to the register. They do not exist. And since the turnout is calculated using the total number of people on these lists, we have a lower percentage. Second, we have a large number of citizens living and working abroad, probably more than 2.5 million. In general, few of them want to vote in this kind of election.

What is the local electorate like compared to other countries?

Voters in each country are different, for several reasons. A collective memory, but also civic participation depends on the role that education, churches and civil society have played over the years. Obviously, the press has a major role. In addition, in Romania, civic involvement has never been strong. We had a culture of civic participation in the interwar period, but it was destroyed by decades of communism. There is a political class guilt, which preferred to use the formula “mass of maneuver”, easily buying their voters with electoral gifts. This is not peculiar to Romania, but is something that happens in other EU countries as well, although on a much smaller scale, involving citizens of the poorest and most isolated areas of their countries.

What is at stake for Romania in the European elections?
I truly believe that after seven years as a quiet and rather pointed at EU country, we have to prove that Romania is different, that we can perform at a level comparable with other member states. Also, we have to demonstrate that we have smart ideas that can be relied on. It is interesting to note that Romanian MEPs performed better than Romania as a country. A report released last week by VoteWatch clearly stated that on various aspects of business, the Romanian delegation was always in the top third of the league, in sixth or seventh position. This is a very good example of the fact that “we can”, and it is definitely time the government followed our example.

What was your biggest achievement in the European Parliament?

I believe that my biggest achievement is my undeniable influence I had, both in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), where I was for four years the ALDE politics coordinator, and as the spokeswoman of ALDE group on issues related to fundamental freedoms and where I was asked to accept to continue working as a political coordinator in the LIBE Committee. I want to also mention my influence in relation to the European Commission, in particular with the commissioners who managed my areas of activity, such as Viviane Reding (Vice-President and Commissioner on fundamental freedoms and justice) , Cecilia Malmström (Home Affairs commissioner), Neelie Kroes (the Digital agenda commissioner), Catherine Ashton (the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union) that gave me three great missions of the EU electoral observation in Bolivia, Burundi and Paraguay.

What do you think about the European elections campaign in Romania?

Which campaign for the European elections? You probably mean the one that was supposed to be! The National Liberal Party was the only one who elaborated a Manifest exactly for these elections and to indicate our priorities as a party and the future MEPs. This document envisages the economic priorities in industry, energy, transport, agriculture, foreign policy priorities, priorities and rights as Romanian and European citizens. Other parties did nothing. If we would want to debate programs with other competitors, probably we would wake up speaking for ourselves. In fact, there are no debates possibility, the ideas on how should we position ourselves as a country in Europe, as representatives of our voters in Parliament, these kind of ideas are almost never on TV, neither the radio stations. Regarding myself, the campaign about what we actually achieved in the previous term and what I intend to do next is only made in direct meetings with the voters. Otherwise, it is just a campaign to position potential candidates to the Presidency of Romania.

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